Top Leadership Traits, Uncovered

Are you a great leader? Here’s a test for you.

Ten years ago, you were the manager of a successful employee. The company you both worked for was acquired by a larger organization and you were let go because of a duplication of your position. Today, you work for a successful company and you have an opening for a position on your team that you think this former employee would be ideal for. As you both still live in the same town, you decide to call her and find out if she’s interested in making a difference in your organization and, more importantly, working with you once again.

The reason why this is a great test for leaders is when a current employee works for you, they may or may not have a choice. If they’re living paycheck to paycheck and do not have another job offer, most likely they are going to stay out of necessity. In this example, when the manager makes the call, whether the employee follows the manager to the new organization or stays put, is all choice. Leaders may or may not have a title, but leaders always have people who are motivated to follow them.

Most likely, all of us have known managers who, if given the choice, we would never work with again. On the other hand, few of us have worked for a leader that was so good, that, if prompted by a 3 am phone call, you would jump out of bed to go support them. So, what traits do these powerful leaders have that make people want to follow them?

According to 25 years of coaching and 100,000 employees whose opinions were collected from over 300 of our Employee Opinion Surveys, the following are traits that great leaders have:

1. Personal motivation: Great leaders communicate a positive, compelling vision of the future and the goals that will need to be achieved to accomplish the vision. Because these leaders are excited about the vision and have a sense of urgency to turn the vision into a reality, they excel at getting others to collaborate and create a shared vision.
2. Belief in team members: These leaders challenge team members with even higher responsibilities. They care about their team members’ success and are willing to share their wisdom to help them grow both personally and professionally.
3. Delegation skills: Great leaders trust their direct reports so much that they are willing to give them significant work and responsibilities. Most often, team members tell us that the work aligns to their natural strengths. And, because of this high level of trust, they stay out of the way which frees up the leader’s time to work on important strategic projects.
4. Strong listening skills: Team members tell us that great leaders have a high emotional intelligence. They listen well, ask the right questions and value people’s opinions. One team member told us that it’s clear that his leader listens to others because she regularly acts on their ideas and opinions.
5. Decision-making ability: Great leaders have the guts to make the tough decisions. These leaders are comfortable making tough and ethically sound decisions or recommendations in situations where other team members or clients are hesitant.
6. An appreciation for team member contributions: 89% of employees in the “Best of the Best Benchmark” responded favorably in response to the statement, “My supervisor values my contributions.” Great leaders recognize team member’s success, are grateful for their contributions and are willing to reward team members with an appropriate salary.
7. Driven to continuous improvement and innovation: We have learned that most employees are more motivated when working for a leader who is creating a better and more exciting tomorrow. Change, any change, is not comfortable. These great leaders are really comfortable leading change for a better tomorrow and are well aware that “good enough” is the biggest enemy of great.
8. Ability to hold people accountable: According to data from the “Best of the Best” organizations in our employee opinion survey benchmark, 92.4% of employees responded favorably to the statement “My supervisor holds department staff accountable for maintaining high performance standards.” Failing to hold people accountable for superior performance is a superhighway to demotivating the highest performers. Great leaders are not afraid to lean into conflict and are comfortable dealing with performance related issues.
9. Capacity to give credit to others: Without the team and the contributions of each team member, it’s almost impossible to win. Great leaders know the power of “we.” When things go well, they give the credit to others and, when things go wrong, they feel comfortable and confident saying, “I take full responsibility to see that this outcome doesn’t happen again.”
10. Servant approach to leadership: A leader’s true role is to serve and support team members so the individuals and the team are both successful.
11. Knowledge that theirs is a winning team: Great leaders don’t work alone. Together, with a great team, they achieve great results, are proud of their team, and let them know it. Over time, their team wins so much that the company is able to reward them with better salaries and a significant retirement plan.

After reviewing this list, have you ever worked for this boss? Hopefully you still work for a boss with these leadership characteristics. If you don’t, and a great boss you worked for in the past was to offer you a job, would you take it? I think you would but, if you didn’t, most likely it would not be an easy decision to stay put working for a manager who lacked these qualities.