7 Behaviours Of Incredible Leaders

Morning Leaders,

Growing up I didn’t behave like a leader. People didn’t gravitate around me or follow me or were even that bothered about what I had to say. I was not at the bottom but I was definitely on the lower end on the ‘cool kids’ ladder. I didn’t hold myself to a high standard or set an example, at times I was disconnected and had no real purpose or vision of what I wanted to do. I also lacked confidence in decision making and making myself stand out. The only thing I can think of is that I had a strong work ethic and I was also kind, I was human about things.

I certainly never envisioned a career in leadership, I almost fell into it while working at an IT Company as a Lead Engineer. Known for going above and beyond, known for setting high standards and providing feedback to the team, known for a tense hunger to improve our offering. Looking back I had evolved significantly and begun to behave more and more like a leader. The Managing Director recognised me as the gold standard and wanted the rest of the team to follow. I hadn’t gone out to behave like that, it was almost common sense, it was the right way to behave.

Fast forward 10 years and I now work as a Senior Manager for a SaaS (software-as-a-service) company providing software to staffing and recruitment firms around the globe.

I am still on a journey to learn more, improve and help my team grow. I still firmly believe leaders never become experts, the landscape is always changing and there is always new projects, challenges and unexpected events which stretch our thinking and competencies. Is there a playbook to lead through the Covid-19 outbreak?

Of course, my opinion may change over the next few years, but I wanted to share the 7 core behaviours which every leader should portray to be successful in any sector. So let’s get into it.

1. They give a sh**

People in leadership roles need to care deeply, and I mean deeply. They need to care:

  • About the business

  • About the service or product

  • About the customer and most importantly….

  • About their people.

If you have a leader who doesn’t care about any one of these things you don’t have yourself a great leader. There is going to be a distinct lack of accountability or ownership, and worst of all, the leader may not see glaring opportunities which could make or break the team or the business. You will not see great results from a leader who does not care about each of these things, for them to excel in each of the areas they need to care and be passionate about them.

This will generally start with why they do what they do. They need to love it, they need to get out of bed in the morning and be fired up. They need to be hungry to help the business move forward, deliver an incredible experience to the customer and help their team get promoted and further their own careers. If you see the pattern here, it’s not about them.

2. Lead by Example

How does it make you feel when your boss tells you to enjoy your break and preaches about holiday, rest and recuperation, but he or she replies to emails while they are on holiday, over the weekend or late at night?

Whether it’s a holiday or your day to day behaviours, or the small things like putting the bins out in the office or emptying the dishwasher. You need to lead the way, you are under the spotlight constantly. Set the tone for the environment, don’t expect people to do things you are not willing to do yourself. If someone sees you doing something, they will think it’s perfectly acceptable too. There needs to be a constant congruence between what you say and then how you behave. If there isn’t you will be found out and people will question your integrity.

Picture your organisarion and people you interact with as flat, you should speak to the man on security the same way you speak to your CEO. Show everyone respect.

3. Relationships

Exceptional leaders recognise relationships with their people, with their team and with the rest of their colleagues is paramount. How can you expect people to want to do their greatest work or be on board with a change or new idea without relationships?

Engagement sores when everyone is working together in harmony. Without a relationship you cannot have trust, without trust, you don’t have respect, without respect, you don’t have a tribe.

How do you build relationships

  1. Genuinely care about the employee as if he or she was your own child. Understand what motivates them, what their hobbies are and even what their pet dog is called. What do they want to do and where do they want to go?

  2. Do less talking. Let them talk and show a genuine interest in their life and their work. Ask quality and open questions.

  3. Have their back. Always be transparent in what you are doing and put them first. Let them know you appreciate them.

  4. Be vulnerable. You won’t always have all the answers or you will make mistakes, let them know, own it. You will find if you are vulnerable to them first, they will open up to you.

  5. Small things add up. Every time you help them or support them, or just check-in for no reason, you are adding a coin to the relationship and trust bank. It’s all these little monotonous things over a period of time which add up and build healthy lasting relationships.

Action Item: Put building healthy and meaningful relationships in your role at the top of your to-do list.

4. Communicate Effectively

With all the channels of communication, such as Phone, WhatsApp, Slack, Email, Text, etc etc. It can be easy to leverage a channel such as Slack which is an easy path to disrupting your relationships which you did a great job of establishing. But why would you give important feedback to someone via Slack message?

Because…. Slack lacks tone, Slack lacks love, Slack lacks care, it’s just words. Don’t let an important message or piece of feedback be misconstrued by the recipient. Make it personable, schedule a meeting or jump on a video Zoom call and speak to the person. They will see from your delivery in person, it’s from the heart, you are doing it because you care and want to help them improve.

Photo by Jehyun Sung on Unsplash

5. Evaluate

Leaders are constantly up to something, they are constantly scanning the playing field, what’s working and what’s not working. They are asking questions of themselves and of their people. What are the opportunities to experience higher levels of success? They have a relentless appetite to improve themselves, their team and the business. When mistakes occur, and they will, they are there carrying out a full root cause analysis to ensure it doesn’t happen again. They understand failure is a gift, and an opportunity to improve, learn and grow.

Why did this happen? Cause and Effect. What can we learn? What can we improve? What steps do we need to take to prevent this happening again?

Do we need to provide a follow up to the customer to own the mistake, and let them know the steps we are taking to ensure this doesn’t happen moving forward? Accountability.

6. Emotional Intelligence

Often overlooked and significantly important competency. More and more people struggle with mental health in the workplace due to work stresses or stresses in their personal life. Leaders need to be comfortable navigating this with care and grace.

Also known as EQ (Emotional Quotient) it’s defined as:

“The ability to perceive emotion, integrate emotion to facilitate thought, understand emotions and to regulate emotions to promote personal growth.”

There are 5 key areas to EQ.

i) Self Awareness

ii) Self Regulation

iii) Empathy

vi) Social Skills

v) Internal Motivation

7. Mindset

If there is one thing on this list that you should focus on upgrading, focus on this. Whatever walk of life you are in, your thoughts, emotions and beliefs drive your behaviours which equal your outcome and successes. What you believe is how you live. If you can see failure as a learning opportunity and persevere, you will reach your goal. It takes time. If you see set back as “I am not good enough” — and stop, you will not reach your goal.

Incredible leaders believe in their own ability and take massive action. They are not immune to failure or negative self-talk but they are hungry and continue you on. They ask themselves better questions and adjust their approach when things are not working and go again.

Just because you are in the position today doesn’t mean you cannot be in a different position tomorrow. You need to start believing. You can learn new things, acquire new skills, gain new perspective but you need to have a growth mindset and believe you can do it.

Growth minded leaders envision how they can improve things in their field and see a better tomorrow. They are optimistic and always see the opportunity. Even when there is turbulence they lighten up the atmosphere and rally round the troops.

All the best

David

Resources Of The Week

  • Book - Dr Carol Dweck - Mindset - changing the way you think to fulfill your potential. See what is possible when you change your thinking.

  • App - uDemy - this is an online training platform where you can take courses in almost any subject. I have taken around 3 courses and found the quality and instructors to be great. You can usually find good Leadership courses in the promo reduced to ÂŁ10-ÂŁ20. Excellent value for a course to sharpen your skills.

  • Book - Daniel H. Pink - Drive - Daniel’s book deep dives into why intrinsic motivation beats extrinsic motivation over the long term. Also covering the surprising truths about what motivates us.

Quote of the Week

“Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find ways to do it. Believing in a solution paves the way to a solution.” - David J. Schwartz

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