13 Mar 2018 The Qualities Of High-Performing Leaders (Part 2)
The more I coach my professional and executive clients, the more I learn about what has worked for them in their lives and careers and what has inhibited their progress. Not only am I learning about my clients, but I am also learning also about myself. Often I discuss with a client a behavioral challenge he or she are facing, and after the coaching session, I reflect on my own career and think: “OMG. This is exactly the same challenge I faced at the time and now I understand the reason for my failure or success in that situation.”
In the previous post I discussed the top 5 leadership capabilities and behaviors that are most essential for effective leadership. In this post, I discuss the remaining 5 most important leadership qualities.
Master these 10 qualities and you are guaranteed to have an exceptional career.
To read the previous post click here: www.thewilltochange.com/execu-post/Leadership-Qualities-1
The next post will be on Career Derailers. I invite you to stay tuned. and efficiently, you will not be a successful leader. A leader who is not on top of his or her to-do list, who cannot follow up on the actions of his or her team, or who always procrastinates, will not earn the respect of his or her superiors, peers, and followers.
Efficient execution is a quality we have a lot of time to develop in life, starting long before we get into any leadership position. We can work on this from our first day at school all the way through our days as individual contributors at work.
To some, executing efficiently comes easy, while others have to work much harder on developing their work habits. As always it all starts with building awareness of our work habits. Science has shown us that the deliberate and persistent practice of desirable work routines ultimately turns them into hard-wired habits. Working with an accountability partner, such as a spouse or significant other, who will motivate us to continue our effort to improve our work habits, can improve the outcome immeasurably.
7. Think Strategically and Drive Innovation and Change.
“But what if my role does not call for strategic thinking? What if it is not in my power to drive innovation and change in my company?” Asked one of my coaching clients.
“Well,” I said, “I believe that there is always room from driving innovation and change, even if it is limited to our individual sphere of influence. We can always think of more innovative ways of doing our own work. And if we are in charge of a team, our strategic and innovative thinking can and should apply to them as well.”
Companies put an ever-increasing premium on innovation and change these days. There are two key reasons for this. The first is the accelerating pace of technological change that is putting disruptive pressure on many companies. The second is that CEOs and Boards of Directors are witnessing, again and again, the painful sights of companies fail or even go under because they could not re-invent themselves. Think of Polaroid, Blackberry, Digital Computers, and Yahoo.
So my advice: It is never too early to start cultivating your strategic and innovative thinking qualities – within your direct sphere of influence and outside of it.
8. Demonstrate Integrity, Honesty, and Respect.
One of the most common issues my coaching clients ask me to help them with is to treat their team members with more respect, to give them a safe space to express themselves, and to listen to what they have to say. Over the years I have observed that the more stressful the situation for the leader, the less he or she listens to his team and the less he or she treats them with dignity and respect.
Similarly, I have noticed that it is much more difficult for leaders (and people in general) to act with integrity and honesty when they are under pressure and when difficult choices stand before them.
And yet the perceived wins that come from treating people with disrespect or acting with dishonesty are always short-lived. In the end, reality catches up with us and we end up holding the short end of the stick.
My recommendation is that no matter how stressful the situation may be, how difficult the decisions you face, or how tempting the choices, you always should go back to the core values of integrity, honesty, and respect.
Developing an acute awareness of the challenges the world presents to you, and how you respond to them, might be the best place to start if you want to improve your conduct in these leadership qualities.
9. Hire, Develop, and Inspire The Best Team Possible.
Bill Gates once said: I do not think Microsoft would be where it is today if it were not for a small group of highly talented, creative, and dedicated individuals in our company.
Hiring Managers are sometimes tempted to compromise on hiring an employee without doing a thorough reference check on his or her past performance, or without thoroughly assessing whether their personality fits the culture of the company. It is much easier to hire an unsuitable employee than it is to let him or her go if they prove to be a hiring mistake.
Then there is the challenge of developing your team and helping build their capabilities, skills, and experience.
I have also seen many senior leaders who believe they can get more out of their team by “beating them up” than by positively motivating and inspiring them.
Deciding how much time on our to-do list we should allocate to specific activities associated with hiring, developing, and inspiring our team is not easy. It is often very tempting to load our to-do list with tactical low-priority items that others expect us to do, rather than to allocate our time to do a solid job on creating and developing our team.
My suggestion is that no matter how much time you’re spending now on these activities, double this time for a couple of months, and observe the outcome of your efforts. You may be surprised.
10. Reach Out, Collaborate, and Build Alliances.
It is often our tendency to put our head down and focus on our own work. It seems that this will bring more immediate results which we and our bosses can measure and feel good about. So we neglect the important, but often the more risky effort of reaching out to other stakeholders, learning what’s going on in their world, offering our help, collaborating, and building alliances.
I recall my days at a large corporation where hundreds of people had lunch in the same cafeteria every day. Everyone, including senior leaders, always used to sit down for lunch with the same people. What a missed opportunity to network and develop relationships with other people in the company. Even the external consultants, who could really benefit from getting to know the company and possibly identifying new sales opportunities, we’re always sitting at the same table with their consulting colleague.
The more you network, build alliances, and collaborate with other stakeholders in the company and outside of it, the greater your contribution to the company and to your own career. So get out of your comfort zone and reach out.
I hope that some of these ideas resonate with you. And I invite you to share your comments on our blog, whether you agree with these ideas or you want to challenge them. If you wish to have a one-on-one discussion with me on any of this, please do not hesitate to contact me at Uri@thewilltocahnge.com.
*************
In the next post, I will talk about Career Derailers – skills and capabilities that may have helped you get to where you are but may derail your efforts to move up your career ladder.
Learn More:
To subscribe to our Willpower Posts email us at Info@thewilltochange.com
To read our other posts go to https://www.thewilltochange.com/blog-and-tools/execu-blog/
