The Qualities of a Great Leader

Hi there, I'm Ben Morton and welcome to another episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. It's the weekly micro edition of my podcast. Each episode is just six minutes long and is designed to provide you with tips, tools and tactics around specific aspects of leadership and management. It addresses some of the most common, common challenges you will face as a leader or manager. They are all recorded unscripted whilst I'm out walking in the countryside. So you'll probably hear birds tweeting in the background or just ambient noise as the people around me are going about their day to day life. That's all I'm going to say by way of an introduction. So let's dive straight in to this week's episode. If you've ever wondered what it is that people look for in a leader that they truly admire, and whether or not those that you lead are actually getting that from you, then today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag is for you. In this episode I'm going to share, based on research, what the four characteristics are that people consistently want from their leaders. Well, based on approaching 40 years of research conducted by Jim Coues and Barry Posner in their book the Leadership Challenge, we know that those four things haven't changed, regardless of where you are in the world. And if you want to know more about that research, I highly recommend checking out the book and also the two podcast interviews I've now done with Jim Coues, the links to which are in the show notes wherever you happen to be watching or listening to this. So the number one thing that people have always said they want from a leader, and it's never changed, is honesty. Now, in my first career in the military, we would use the word integrity here, but essentially we're talking about the same thing. This is about do people know what you stand for? Do people know what they can expect from you? Do people know that you will walk the walk as well as talking the talk? And do your people know that you won't throw them under a bus? Or in my first career, throw them in front of a bullet in order to save ourselves, make ourselves look good, or protect our own reputation? It's about so much more than simply telling the truth and not telling a lie. That, after all, should be a given. The second thing that people have consistently said they want from an admired leader is someone who is inspiring. This is about being a radiator or a giver of energy as opposed to a drain or the mood hoover that can suck the will out of the room. It's the person who walks into a room and just sucks the oxygen out. So we must be a radiator. We've got to deal in energy and be a giver of energy. I like to think of this as leaving everybody that we meet with more energy than when we met them. And we can do this even if we are talking about a difficult subject or underperformance. It's about giving people energy and hope. The third thing that people have said they consistently want from an admired leader is competence. And this is competence as a leader. And that is much more important than your functional, sorry, competence. Your functional competence should almost be a given. If you are a finance director. Your ability to understand the numbers should be a given. In my case, in my first career in the military, my competence as a soldier in my basic soldiering skills was expected as a bare minimum from those that I led. But they wanted me to be competent as a leader. Did they believe I could and trust in my ability to make sound plans and execute them? Did they believe my competence to write them effective end of year reports that would support their career progression? Did they trust my competence to make sure I was getting them booked onto the right courses to develop their career? This is what we mean by competence. And the fourth thing that people have consistently said they want from an admired leader is someone who is forward facing or forward looking. This is about talking about the future much more than the past. It's about talking about the vision, what we're trying to create or build or where we're trying to get to. It's painting a picture of what the team, department or entire organization will look like in 18 months time and on a very practical basis. This is also about us as the leader, scanning three or four weeks ahead to see what is coming at us and anticipating the opportunities and challenges and being on the front foot whilst our team are busy working on the here and now. So there you have it. The top four things that followers have consistently said they want from their leaders over the past 40 years, as identified in the research by Jim Couzes and Barry Posner in their book the Leadership Challenge. Do check out the two podcast interviews I was fortunate to do with Jim Kouzes. Hope it's been useful. As always folks, look after yourself. Look after those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. And until next time, lead on.