16 Jan 2018 The Qualities Of High-Performing Leaders (Part 1)
Over the past few years, I have been searching for the answer to the question: “What makes a great leader? Are leaders born, made, or a combination of the two?” Most leadership gurus agree on the important qualities that make a high-performing leader. But they do not provide a way to quantify these qualities. Recently, I came across a leadership assessment tool that compares the average scores of top corporate leaders to the scores of average professional performers, as they relate to the most important leadership qualities. In this post and in the next one, I want to share with you the top ten leadership qualities agreed upon by most gurus, the scores reported by the high-performing leaders, and what you can do to further develop these qualities to a level consistent with your career aspirations.
Leadership Is A Decision
The most important thing I learned is that leadership is a decision. Namely, one has to decide what she or he wants to be a leader, rather than an individual contributor. Ascending the leadership ladder entails a commitment of time and energy, often compromising your work-life balance and giving up on other priorities in life.
So the question to ask is: “Am I prepared to put my quest to become an exceptional leader ahead of the priorities in my life?” Personally, the only other priority I would place above that quest is family.
Once you’ve made the decision, you should determine the qualities that you consider most important for you to excel in, and ask yourself: “Where am I today, where do I want to be, and how do I get there, with regard to my performance in each of these qualities?”
To help you get started, I synthesized the work of many leadership gurus and came up with the following ten leadership qualities you may want to consider. I will share the first five in this post and the remaining five in the next post.
1. Lead Decisively.
Most high-performing leaders score 7 or 8 (out of 10) in this capability, compared to a score of 5 for the average population of professional who took the leadership assessment. These leaders are able to quickly gather the facts, assess the situation, make a decision, and move to implement it. The worst thing your squad wants is an indecisive leader who takes forever to make a decision. But what makes a decisive leader? What helps her or him make their decisions quickly, rather than be paralyzed by the need to analyze every situation “to death”. Is it a quality embedded in our genes or can it be developed?
I believe that Leading Decisively is a quality that can be developed, just like becoming a master pianist or a professional golfer. But it will take time, self-discipline, and deliberate practice. Begin by monitoring the time it takes you to make your decisions relative to their importance and complexity. Then note how successful the outcome your decisions turned out to be. Once you have established a baseline start driving down the time it takes you to analyze situations and make decisions. Just like you would fill in your golf scorecard, continue to record each decision you make: the impact it may have, the complexity of the considerations involved, the time it took you to make it, and the success of the outcome. Over time you will notice that you become a better and faster decision-maker.
2. Reason Critically.
Here again, the research tells us that most successful leaders scored a rating of 7 to 8 in this capability. The ability to come up with a sound, practical, and defendable solution to the most challenging situations is critically important to high-performing leaders. Reasoning critically entails the ability to analyze complex situations, while integrating a large number of inter-related factors, and coming up with a crystal-clear point of view. The ability to succinctly and persuasively articulate that point of view is also a major component of this quality.
This is clearly a skill that you can develop if you put your mind to it. I recommend that you find a friend or a coach to practice this skill with. Someone who will provide feedback, motivate you, and hold you accountable to your plan. I recommend that you do the “critical thinking” in writing rather than mentally in your head. Start by choosing an analysis framework that you would be comfortable using on a regular basis. This could be the SWOT framework (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) or a simple Pros and Cons method. Then select a complex problem or situation. Gather the facts and structure them, do your SWOT analysis, arrive at your conclusion, prepare your argument, then verbally articulate it to your friend or coach, and seek her or his feedback. Follow this process at least once a week and preferably several times a week. As you repeat this practice, again and again, you will notice that the breadth and depth of your reasoning and the quality of your arguments improve over time. Just as your level of physical fitness will improve with regular training, so will your ability to reason.
3. Demonstrate Courage and Self-Confidence.
Research shows that high-performing leaders have a healthy dose of self-confidence and courage. But it is important to strike a balance between self-confidence and humility. Self-confidence accompanied by arrogance and an inflated ego is rarely appreciated by the followers of any leader. On the other hand, a leader with low self-confidence who lacks the courage to make, defend, and implement difficult decisions, will not earn the respect of his or her team.
Are courage and self-confidence qualities that can be developed, or are they completely a function of our genetic makeup? My belief is that our baseline courage and self-confidence are a function of our genetic disposition, but we can further develop them if we have an acute awareness of the value of these qualities, and we continuously challenge ourselves to demonstrate them.
In her most popular TED Talk professor Amy Cuddy of the Harvard Business School recommends a two-minute scientifically-proven exercise to boost our self-confidence. I highly recommend that you watch her talk and start regularly practicing the exercise she recommends. Over time you will notice that people respond differently to the way you lead them.
4. Communicate, Influence, and Inspire.
Even the most brilliant vision will not go very far if its creator cannot communicate it with clarity and influence. Think of where Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg would be today if they were not able to communicate their visions and influence their early followers to support them.
How would you rate your ability to communicate, influence, and inspire? What would your colleagues say about your abilities in this area?
Of the five qualities covered in this post, this is perhaps the one which can be developed more than all the others. The principles are simple and can be found in any communication course you may choose to pursue. But developing this skill requires a lot of focus and deliberate practice. As a starting point, I recommend that you read my post on communication and that you practice the techniques I recommend with diligence and self-discipline. For details go to www.thewilltochange.com/career-mastery-program
5. Resilience and Perseverance.
By definition, a leader who wishes to achieve great things will face challenges. Great visions may also take a long time to achieve. So the ability to persevere and be resilient, even in the face of major adversity, is a crucial leadership quality. Our analysis of leadership assessment results shows that high-performing leaders score above 7 on the resilience and perseverance scale, compared to a score of 5 for the average population of professional participants.
Professor Angela Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania calls this quality Grit – the ability to pursue your goal like it is a marathon, not a sprint. If you have not done so already, I recommend you view her TED Talk and then read some of her work on Grit.
But can the qualities of resilience and perseverance be developed? In short – Yes. A proven technique I recommend is the use of an Accountability Partner. Someone who you trust and respect and who has your interest at heart, someone who will call you to account, and someone motivate and support you when you feel like giving up. Regular meetings with your Accountability Partner to discuss challenging situations that have come up will help you develop self-awareness and resist the temptation to give up when adversity strikes.
In the next post, I will discuss five additional qualities shared by high-performing leaders. I will also offer approaches to further build these qualities, irrespective of what your starting level might be.
Until then, if you wish to further explore how you may engage in a program to develop any of the qualities above, please do not hesitate to contact me at Uri@thewilltocahnge.com
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