Qualities that make a great leader?

[rousseau]

Leadership is something that I've been interested in for a while, albeit never formally. Lately, though, I've started thinking about it more formally, and which ideas might be helpful to be more effective at the practise. I get that it's a broad topic (leading what? leading who?) but we'll see what comes of this thread.

The one major breakthrough I've come up with in this area is that effective leadership is contingent on experience in a domain. In other words, the idea that one can learn only 'leadership' then suddenly lead doesn't make sense. The ability to lead in a domain depends on one's understanding of the domain. Once the understanding is there, leadership just happens.

Beyond that I'd think that many of the qualities which make someone great at leading are equivalent to those that make someone a good and likable person. Do you have the personality traits to coordinate and organize other people to more effective ends? Whatever those personality traits are, are what makes someone good at leading.

Beyond that, though, I wonder if there are more intricate and less seen aspects of being a good leader that others have in mind.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Wear a baseball cap and steal slogans off of dead Presidents. It works in America.

 

[Valjean]

We Americans don't have leaders, we have representatives.
Those who need leadership are incompetent.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Approach the position as being that of a team leader, not the boss.
Do not isolate yourself from your people. Your office should be close to those your are immediately supervising.
Solicit ideas from your team. Don't mention yours first.
Do not be critical of others work. No one's going to do the job the way you would.
If the work is deficient in some way, address the deficiency but always end the conversation with words of encouragement.
Do not get emotional. Anger is weakness. The level of anger sets the bar for how bad the boss wants it done.
You lead people, not a domain. Your skills within your discipline are going to degrade the longer you are in a leadership position.
Know your people. Take an interest in their lives. Like it or not, their problems at home affect their job performance. You'd be surprised how financially irresponsible young people can be and this baggage comes with them.

When your people are comfortable shooting the shit with you, you're a good leader.

 

[bigfield]

Approach the position as being that of a team leader, not the boss.
Do not isolate yourself from your people. Your office should be close to those your are immediately supervising.
Solicit ideas from your team. Don't mention yours first.
Do not be critical of others work. No one's going to do the job the way you would.
If the work is deficient in some way, address the deficiency but always end the conversation with words of encouragement.
Do not get emotional. Anger is weakness. The level of anger sets the bar for how bad the boss wants it done.
You lead people, not a domain. Your skills within your discipline are going to degrade the longer you are in a leadership position.
Know your people. Take an interest in their lives. Like it or not, their problems at home affect their job performance. You'd be surprised how financially irresponsible young people can be and this baggage comes with them.

When your people are comfortable shooting the shit with you, you're a good leader.

I think you've described a good manager, which is what many people really mean when they mention leaders in a workplace.

To add to the list above: in order to create an effective team, a manager must also ensure that their team members get the resources they need to do their jobs. Managers prove their value when they work hard to provide for their team.

 

[braces_for_impact]

Do not get emotional. Anger is weakness. The level of anger sets the bar for how bad the boss wants it done.

I am amazed at how this simple piece of advice is so often overlooked.

Also, they're your people. Go to bat for them.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Approach the position as being that of a team leader, not the boss.
Do not isolate yourself from your people. Your office should be close to those your are immediately supervising.
Solicit ideas from your team. Don't mention yours first.
Do not be critical of others work. No one's going to do the job the way you would.
If the work is deficient in some way, address the deficiency but always end the conversation with words of encouragement.
Do not get emotional. Anger is weakness. The level of anger sets the bar for how bad the boss wants it done.
You lead people, not a domain. Your skills within your discipline are going to degrade the longer you are in a leadership position.
Know your people. Take an interest in their lives. Like it or not, their problems at home affect their job performance. You'd be surprised how financially irresponsible young people can be and this baggage comes with them.

When your people are comfortable shooting the shit with you, you're a good leader.

I think you've described a good manager, which is what many people really mean when they mention leaders in a workplace.

To add to the list above: in order to create an effective team, a manager must also ensure that their team members get the resources they need to do their jobs. Managers prove their value when they work hard to provide for their team.

Managers concern themselves with the job. Leaders concern themselves with their people. For example, where I work, the maintenance manager has a morning meeting with the folks in his charge. He pours over the software that shows the maintenance due and when, what's yellow (due soon), what's red. The percentage of completed maintenance that goes to his boss seems to be the end all, be all for him. Other than that, he pretty much stays in his office on the opposite end of the building. What I'd do is get out and about. Visit the sites where the maintenance is being performed. Go with the technician if it is something unfamiliar. You're not only checking to see if the maintenance was done properly, you're checking the general condition of the room where the tech works. You're sending the message you are a person who likes to poke around. It not only keeps people on their toes, it lets you know if you have someone who doesn't care, and most importantly, it give you the opportunity to praise. No one likes to bust their butt on a particular task when their only reward is the next task. You'll find that maintenance software tracking program will start to take care of itself and you can use that time at the morning meeting to thank your people for their hard work before they move on to the next task.

Good leaders empower and trust their people. As your area of concern grows, you have to. If you don't, you'll fail or you'll burnout. Look like you're 75 years old when you're 50. I first learned this lesson standing OOD on the quarterdeck while in the shipyards. There is so much coming at you first thing in the morning, you have no choice but to empower and trust those that work for you and that they are going to get the job done. I recognized this and carried it with me. And you better thank them and tell them you couldn't do it without them because you couldn't and they know it.

I think it's working when you become the go to guy. When people can't figure something out and come to you. For example, when Instructor Jones (who should have gone to his supervisor) comes to you because Student Smith wants to take leave to get a boob job before graduation and going home to see her boyfriend, you have become a good leader, but only if you handle it right. And if you talk to Student Smith, eye contact is critical.

 

[Sajara]

If you want to be an effective leader, a must read book in my opinion is the Toyota Kata. One of the best pieces of advice from that book is, it is not the manager's job to solve problems. The manager's job is to provide resources to make it possible for their employees to solve problems. As humans, we learn and grow when we make mistakes and overcome them, therefore, it is perfectly acceptable to make a mistake as long as we work on solving the issue.

 

[iolo]

The important question, I think, is what has emasculated people to the extent that they go round looking for fuhrers.

 

[Bronzeage]

We Americans don't have leaders, we have representatives.
Those who need leadership are incompetent.

This sort of attitude is definitely part of the problem.

In any situation requiring cooperation, someone has to be the director. In the old days, a work crew might all be equally qualified, but they knew someone had to be the foreman, or the work goes slow, and everybody makes less money. To solve this problem, everybody drew straws and the short straw was today's "strawboss."

The strawboss assigned duties and coordinated everyone. This kept lumberjacks from dropping trees on one another.

The idea that a crew of woodmen can work in close proximity without supervision, is asking to get someone injured or killed.

True leadership is bringing people together in cooperation. This means everything from understanding the job at hand, the goals, what is needed to do the work, and seeing that all is brought together, in the right order, at the right time.

 

[rousseau]

I didn't intend the thread to be specific to the workplace, but I guess it makes sense that it'd go down that path. The need for leadership is often synonymous with work to be done.

That said, in many business contexts the person 'on top' isn't a leader, they're just a manager who happens to be a step up vertically due to pay-scale. Leadership can come from anywhere in the group and is not specific to job title, or even a work situation. In the most general terms, leadership is what happens when someone guides another, or a group, from state A to a better state B.