Great leaders can alter the culture of an organization, make changes happen quickly and help an organization transform itself. A great leader can help modify the culture of any organization, make changes happen fast and help an organization reboot itself.
A wide body of research makes it obvious that leadership can have direct influence on numerous critically important performance variables that affect an organization’s trajectory, success and even survival. We know that effectual leadership can have a dramatic impact on an organization’s innovation and creativity, change and transformation, productivity and efficiency, employee turnover, job satisfaction and motivation, teamwork and cooperation, ethical culture and communications climate, just to name a few. Strong and effective leadership can have a powerful effect on the performance of individuals, workgroups and even a whole operation.
An organization conducted a focus group research with a sample of more than 500 highly successful business leaders from a wide variety of North American service and manufacturing organisations to explore the attributes and practices of great leaders from the perspective of followers.
They stated that the best leaders were the ones who helped them get things done and see the bigger picture, and help one become the best, teach one about integrity, care for others and as such.
Here are some attributes a good leader exhibits which is notable.
1. Driven by missions and results
The best leaders are driven by missions and results. Participants made it clear that high-performance business leaders realize that the most important job of any leader is to create focus and a clear sense of purpose for their people, regardless of their level in the enterprise or the function being serve
2. Make people their priority.
To motivate people, you must understand them. To understand them, you must care about them enough to think about things from their point of view. Therefore, caring leaders are more effective than dominating leaders. The participants in the focus group research made it known that their best leaders had emotional intelligence and great people skills. These great leaders had the ability to balance concern for tasks and getting things done with great concern for their people. This balanced combination allowed these leaders to develop a special connection with their followers
3. Always know what they are doing.
The best leaders have the competency, capability, know-how, aptitude and skill to perform their important work with great acumen. Such leaders were described as lifelong learners who constantly developed themselves, pushed themselves to be the best and constantly worked on their leadership game. These characteristics make a strong statement about their willingness to continuously improve their skill set and stay ahead of the learning curve. The best leaders take their personal and professional development seriously.
4. Take time to have plan
There is a need to prepare for success. They should take time, energy and resources to ensure that their people are equipped with tools, technology and training that they need for success. This practice sends a message to people that a leader understands the requirement for success and can take the necessary steps to lead the team towards achieving that.
5. Trustworthy and transparent
For leaders to be truly effective in the 21st century, their people need to have confidence in their character and integrity. Character and honesty are key components in a working relationship. When the trust is missing, a leader’s ability to impact their people in a favourable way decreases significantly.
6. Driven by results
Great leaders will let their followers know exactly what is expected of them and grant them the authority to take action. In the rapidly changing workplace of the 21st century, it is easy for leaders and employees to be overwhelmed with the sheer volume of things to do, metrics to manage and goals to hit. Thus, it is incumbent upon leaders to take the time, effort and energy to keep each employee properly focused on the roles, responsibilities and goals that are most important to add value to the organization.
7. Makes it easy to get work done
Successful leaders make it a point to take steps to make it easier for their people to get things done. This requires that leaders develop effective problem-solving, process improvement and decision-making skills. And it then requires that leaders take the time, effort and energy to use these skills on an ongoing basis.
8. Building team and fostering cooperation
It is important to note that these leaders use their emotional intelligence and people skills to connect with their people individually and collectively. In doing so, they experienced a wellspring of positive benefits, according to our participants. Increased teamwork and cooperation in any workgroup has been found to be a key factor to accelerate change, solve problems better, enhance innovation, improve brainstorming, increase performance accountability and improve workplace communications. Participants made it clear that the best managers possess the ability to create synergy with their people, which is directly linked to any number of the key findings from this research.
9. Celebrating success
The best leaders have a penchant for investing time, energy and effort in helping the people that work for them reach their full potential. The best leaders provide ongoing, balanced and timely feedback to the people that report to them. We also know that great leaders are quick to offer praise, reward strong performance and celebrate success. They seek out development opportunities for people that includes mentoring, and training and development programmes.
