My 5 Characteristics of a Great Leader

Humility/Self-awareness

Leaders must admit when they make mistakes and what they’ve learned from them.  A great leader believes in the talent they are surrounded by and allows them to flourish.  If you’ve done it right, you are surrounded by people smarter than yourself and have the humility and self-awareness to respect that and use it.

Integrity

Your team knows more about you than you think.  Never do anything that you wouldn’t want every employee in the organization to know about.  For example, a company I worked with was downsizing and laying off employees while still spending on extravagant “extras” for executives.  Employees found out this was going on and lost respect for the executive team, affecting company morale and performance throughout.  Integrity truly is what people do when no one is watching.  Always ask yourself, what would others think if they knew I was doing this?  Would it be perceived as being a good thing or a bad thing?

Respect

It used to be respect was given but now it has to be earned.  Don’t believe otherwise.  In today’s work environment, cynicism is more rampant than ever.  To overcome it, earn the respect of your team by your actions.  Never be afraid to step in and help anywhere it is needed in the organization…mop floors, refill the coffee, swing by and visit frontline workers to personally understand their day better.  Work a day with your employees in the warehouse, answer customer calls or go out on a service appointment. Even small things go noticed.

Curiosity

If you hire the right people, then you have a lot to learn from them.  Listen to their ideas and let them explain their experience.  I like to think of myself as to have learned a lot while also to have learned nothing.  This drives my curiosity to know more about everything I can.

Delegation

Allow your team space to succeed and fail.  You cannot make every decision.  I still haven’t met anyone that likes to be micromanaged or have their decisions second guessed at every turn.  Let the person drive and just give them guard rails for guidance.  Failure is a natural part of success.  Learn from it, integrate what you’ve learned into the future and move forward again.  Both of you will learn more from the whole process and succeed together in the future.