Leadership starts with developing you, but unless your goal is developing others, then it is just a selfhelp program – – – not leadership.
In more that 40 years of leadership roles, in both public and private organizations, I am now getting a better idea of what I wish I knew from the beginning regarding leading teams. What follows is a short outline of some of what I have discovered. The core of this article will introduce you to a summary of 7 leadership characteristics that were identified as being the most important from research involving over 300 senior executives during leadership programs that I have facilitated. (Endnote 1)
For the purposes of this article, there are three main overarching elements to being a leader: you need a purpose, you need to have the ability to influence, and you need to have a team who are willing expend their efforts, knowledge and skills to achieve the purpose. The purpose may be a singular goal or a series of benchmarks to support an overarching compelling cause. It is important that you and your team are clear about what the goals are that you need to deliver and having a plan as to where you need to expend your efforts to meet the objectives towards achieving your purpose? Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
If your team does not have a clearly defined purpose. Then you have to find one or the team will not sustain. You need purpose and ownership.
A team is a number of people with a diversity of roles and complementary skills who are committed to a common cause, performance goals, and an approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable and where there is a culture of mutual respect. (Endnote 2)
There has to be a shared understanding of what the ultimate goal is, the steps to get there, and the role of each person on the team.
The role of the leader is to motivate and influence others towards obtaining the identified purpose. The failing of many positional leaders that is they work very hard, are highly motivated, personally successful, and so impressive and good at what they do that they drift into micro-management and their co-workers and team members wait for their lead, rather than feeling empowered to take the initiative.
These leaders should make it a priority to be a force multiplier by developing and empowering their team.
They may be talented, but they are limited in what they can do themselves, if they harness the talents, influence, knowledge, skills, and networks of others, and then; if they can develop the team members to adopt the leadership characteristics recommended here, amazing things happen!
The question is what can a leader do to enhance the ability of their team?
The below is not only what a leader has to do, but also what they need to encourage in every member of their team.
1. CARING
The foundational characteristic of a great leader is that they care. They care about the work they do; they care about themselves and set a standard for others to aspire to; they care about the people they work with; and they care about the clients. They have reconciled the Manager/Leader challenge by coming to terms with first doing the right thing, and then working to do it right.
2. COMPETENCE
If you care, what naturally flows is that you want to be as knowledgeable and understanding about what has to be done and find the best and innovative ways to do the tasks involved. There is nothing worse than a leader that cares but is incompetent. The leader does not have to be the expert in everything but they should have an overall awareness of the issues and methods. They must know the expertise of their team, the strengths, weaknesses, and potential. Ongoing personal and team improvement is essential!
3. CREDIBILITY
Exhibiting caring and knowing your stuff results in an aura of credibility. Credibility goes beyond this and is foundation of the trust and character that others rely on to work with you. Leaders have to hold dear, and defend that their credibility and that of their team. Caring, competency, honesty, integrity, truthfulness, transparency, reliability, humility, and giving are just some of the things that add to your credibility. If a leader moves towards a destination and no-one follows—then they’re only taking a walk. If you want to be a leader that people follow, you must have credibility!
4. COMMUNICATION
People will want to listen to you if they believe you care, know what you are talking about, and they feel you are credible. This gives you the opportunity to have a voice to share. motivate your team, and the get stakeholders to ‘join the team.’ You need to learn, to speak, to write, and to teach. This is the outward demonstration of your abilities and can make or break a relationship with the team and outsiders. Developing the communication abilities of both you, and your team is crucial to gaining support for your cause by overcoming resistance, getting resources, gaining supporters, new business and more!
5. COURAGE
To have a platform where people see that you care, are knowledgeable, they can trust in you, and you can clearly express yourself in many formats gives you the opportunity to demonstrate courage. This begins with allowing your team to give you honest and respectful feedback. But it goes beyond this. You now have the opportunity to speak ‘truth to power’ to change and influence policy. You have the opportunity to redefine objectives and help outcomes.
You can now raise the level of managed risk to innovate, discover, and challenge the status quo. You have the opportunity to make a positive and real difference in achieving the purpose, strengthening your teams, and influencing beyond the team and into the future.
6. COLLABORATIVE
People like to be on the winning team! These leadership characteristics if properly applied and mastered will result in people wanting to work with you on your team and to support you outside of your team. Building your stakeholder network to work with you is essential. Clients, authorizing authorities, supporters, potential objectors, peers, and others that you need the support of will want to be part of a purpose that is driven by a caring, competent, credible, communicative and courageous team.
7. CHAMPION OTHERS
The most successful and happy people I know are those who help others. Being personally successful is an achievement most of us aspire to, but leaving a legacy of good in your wake is transformational. Good leaders work with their team to successfully reach their goal. Great leaders develop their team to be leaders. It starts with you but it is all about them!
Leading high-performance teams takes effort. These seven characteristics need to be applied as a continuum where all are to be valued and are to be revisited and improved on regularly. Following and applying these principles gives you a start in developing as an effective leader.
This is a primer on developing yourself and your teams to be high performing. If you wish to pursue this further to develop yourself or your team, please reach out to me at gellisgroup@gmail.com
Endnotes
[1] Gary Ellis PH.D., and Anthony H. Normore Ph.D., “A Self-Assessment for Law Enforcement Leadership Improvement: The 6 Traits of a Successful Police Leader,” Law Enforcement Today (February 2014).
[2] Gary Ellis PH.D., and Anthony H. Normore Ph.D., “Performance Management Strategies for Effective Leadership: An Accountability Process”. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (February 2015).
Gary Ellis Ph.D is a highly respected and experienced educational leader. Having extensive experience in educational leadership in both the private and public sectors, he brings a sense of clarity to all audiences.
For more information on how you or your company can benefit from Gary Ellis Ph.D, please contact him directly at gellis@rogers.com.