What Makes a Good Leader

Throughout my corporate life, I had 16 direct managers or directors. I lived between hell and heaven with them. 

To be honest, only 2 out of those 16 I recall as the best leaders. When I think about them and what they had that made them such great leaders are skills and characteristics that can definitely be learned and practiced.

Check out some of them:

TRUST 

It takes time and results to build trust. Good leaders tell exactly their expectations about someone’s work and give freedom and autonomy when needed to those prepared for that. They know their teams very well and can easily decide who needs more supervision than others. They prepare teams to succession, expose their results, and help them correct mistakes and make it better the next time. 

SELF-CONFIDENCE

Good leaders are not afraid of being replaced. They are eager to find well-prepared professionals who will enable them to achieve targets and get the work done. They nominate successors and work on their development. 

COLLABORATION 

It’s possible to be a leader and don’t feel isolated. Good leaders find the balance between knowing what’s happening across teams and can still give them proper strategic direction. It's being in action whilst giving direction.

EYE CONTACT 

It’s probably the easiest thing to do, but only a few out there realize the power of eye contact. Good leaders are not afraid to look people in the eyes.  

ENVISION THE FUTURE 

Good leaders inspire and influence others to concentrate their actions towards the same target. They breakdown the big strategy into steps and delegate goals that are transparent and achievable.

If you’re struggling with leadership issues, answer these questions, and rate your response from 1 to 10.

Who Are You?

What Do You Do?

How Do You Behave?

Those are straight-to-the-point questions that you can also use to ask feedback about your leadership style.

If you’re looking for a reference about leadership development, read The Leadership Pipeline from Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel. In this book, the authors guide managers into six passages, commonly found in large companies: Manage Self < Manage Others < Manage Managers < Functional Manager < Business Manager < Group Manager < Enterprise Manager. 

In some way, this book talks about the necessary skills to move into the leadership pipeline inside organizations. Just as falcons do...

Adult falcons have thin, tapered wings, which enable them to fly at high speed and change direction rapidly. Fledgling falcons, in their first year of flying, have longer flight feathers, which make their configuration more like that of a general-purpose bird such as a broad-wing. This makes flying easier while learning the exceptional skills required to be effective hunters as adults.* 

*Reference: Wikipedia.