I recently spoke at a conference on leadership. A portion of the presentation was centered on some simple concepts to prompt attendees to reflect upon their personal approach to leading.

This was one of the “aha’s” I shared:  “Be the leader you would like to have.”  It sounds rudimentary, but it resonated with many and led to several subsequent conversations.

When I think back over my career and time spent with clients, I was able to work with both good leaders and some that I would categorize as “not so good.” I worked with a client that was one of the best technical experts in their field and were known and respected for their technical expertise. This leader’s approach proved to be ineffective, and their company struggled to survive. Their default style was one of judgment, volatility and explosive anger, resulting in a culture that was reactive at best. No matter how much they yelled, screamed, and fired people, performance did not improve. Turnover at this company was extremely high and team members lived in fear of who was the next person to feel the boss’ wrath.

Another leader with whom I worked was very nice and was open to conversation when someone sought them out. They also softly avoided conflict at all costs. Team members loved the owner but remained frustrated and feeling that issues they brought forward would not be acted upon. They observed team members who were disrespectful and destructive to the company and culture with no repercussions. In one instance, a senior leader and I were told by an operator he was knowingly going to run bad product because “they brought me bad ink, so that’s what I’m going to run.”  It resulted in a stress-laden culture and a very divided leadership team that could not seem to consistently follow thru and produce results.

In assessing the effectiveness of leadership examples above, we uncovered similar outcomes and perception of ineffective leadership with the company struggling to execute plans and produce results.  Other typical symptoms range from team members giving up, poor quality and unpredictable processes. People are looking to their leader to provide vision, direction and to set the tone for the culture. 

When I lead teams through a Strategic Planning or Leadership Development process, I often ask participants to take a few minutes and summarize traits or characteristics of a great leader.  Traits like these often are brought forward:

• Visionary
• Good listening skills
• Intentional
• Empathic
• Tough but fair
• Steadfast and consistent focus
• Team oriented

I leave you with this thought: Challenge yourself to consider the kind of leader you are and if you are the leader you would like to have. Maybe seek input from your team on their perception of your leadership style. It could be the first step in becoming a stronger leader and the becoming the leader your team is looking for.