Kouzes & Posner in their research found the top 4 selected characteristics of admired leaders to be: Honest, Forward-looking, Inspriring and Competent.
These characteristics stood the test of time, coming out on top over a 20 year period and also are common across different cultures.
As a leader, how do you think you would be rated by your followers on these characteristics?
Competent: we all want to know that the leader knows what s/he is doing and we can therefore have some trust in their decisions. Are you new in role? Would you describe yourself as competent yet? If not what are you doing to compensate for your learning curve? You could work with a coach or mentor to support you in this learning, you could ensure that relevant information is tabled and decisions are made by the top team. Given the first characteristic, it's important that you are honest about this learning curve and how you are dealing with it.
Inspiring: do you inspire by your actions or by your words? Brilliant presentation skills are definitely desirable for leaders and can make a significant difference to how the leader is perceived. However it is the whole picture that counts and your actions are just as important, if not more important. If you get stuck in and demonstrate leadership you will find people want to follow you.
Forward-looking: Many see leaders as those who can envision the future and articulate it for their followers. They look to the leader to be aware of market and economic trends and anticipate suitable courses of action for the firm. Leaders need to look forward and prepare their people for what the future brings, not look back and work on the past.
Honest: This is the most challenging characteristic to uphold. For 'good' reasons we are tempted not to disclose the full facts of situations, especially when the circumstances are not good. We think that the hard facts could cause damage and affect the confidence of our people, so we try to protect them. However, people can see what is going on and know when the leaders are massaging the facts and it is this that destroys confidence. Once proven to be dishonest, or at least 'economical with the truth', it is very difficult to build up others' confidence in us.
Whereas being open and honest about the situation takes courage and this is recognised by your people and they admire you for it - so much so that this characteristic is consistently top of the list.
Jonathan, thanks for your comment, but it has disappeared into the ether. Perhaps you could post again?
ReplyDeleteFor too many people, too much of the time honesty is not sufficiently complemented with openness. few go to work to be actively dishonest, but we remain silent when we should speak out. We justify our silence by calling it tact or diplomacy or 'waiting for the right time', but I wonder sometimes if we are being honest with ourselves?
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