Characteristics of a good leader

The saying goes that employees don’t quit their jobs, they quit their managers. And a
recent Gallup poll suggests that there’s some truth to it.

So it follows that the better the manager, the more willing employees are to stick around and do
great work. But what does a good leader look like? And how can they keep their teams
motivated and enthusiastic?

Let’s take a look at 10 must-have characteristics of a good leader.

1. Trustworthy

First and foremost, a good leader needs to be able to build trust in their people and throughout
the organization—trust in their character as well as in their vision. This is absolutely paramount.
If your people don’t trust or are skeptical about your vision, they’re not going to put in the effort
needed to make it a reality.

So how do you go about doing that? Building trust is all about being honest with your team
members, whether it’s about expectations, outcomes, performance, or otherwise. With trust and
integrity comes respect, which is integral to inspiring action among your team members.

A good leader needs to see themself as the embodiment of these qualities. Why? Because
honesty is contagious. Be an exemplary force for trustworthiness and integrity and your team
will follow your lead.

2. Articulates purpose and goals

Building trust is often about clearly articulating where you stand and your reasons for taking that
stance.

In the workplace, leaders are often communicating goals and objectives to their teams. But if
goals are too abstract or begin to resemble orders rather than meaningful tasks or objectives, your
people won’t feel invested enough to adopt them as their own. Instead, the unexplained goals
seem more like targets that don’t really add up to much.

A good leader needs to break down these objectives by explaining what they mean for the team,
the organization, and the business. Some will of course be more straightforward than others.

But one method of inspiring your team is to get them thinking about the bigger picture: the why.

Why is it even a goal to begin with? Be as clear and open as possible about the why.

This not only inspires confidence and trust in the leader’s vision, but it also helps develop an
atmosphere of transparency throughout the organization. Your teams will be privy to and have a
stake in decisions made in board meetings, which gives them a sense of ownership and makes
them feel like part of a cohesive whole.

3. Exemplifies the culture

As a leader your primary job is to ensure your team is on task and doing their best to achieve
your vision. Leaders need to support their people. But they also need to keep in mind that they’re
in a position that makes them cultural representatives of the whole organization.

What does this mean exactly? Leaders, especially C-suite executives, are looked to for guidance
on how to act, how to behave, and whether or not they’re true to their espoused values, as well as
to the company’s.

In short, they’re the company’s culture champions whether they’re aware of it or not. They’re on
display for all to see, and the manner in which they act has an influence on how employees view
the company… and their own role within it.

A good leader is self-aware enough to recognize and understand this, and acts accordingly. They
live the company’s core values in their professional lives and contribute to a healthy company
culture as best as they can.

4. Recognizes accomplishments
One way of living and promoting organizational culture is to recognize and acknowledge your
people’s accomplishments, both publicly and materially. Reward your employees and then put
that on blast to the rest of the organization.

Promotions, lateral moves, team changes, restructures, employees taking on more

responsibilities, doing exceptional work, etc.—make sure the whole organization knows when
people are achieving goals and progressing in their careers.

This gives the rest of the company a chance to extend their own congratulations, as well as
something to aspire to in their own roles. A good leader understands that good news for one
employee is generally good news for the rest of their people, too.

5. Empathetic

This is among the most important characteristics of a good leader. An empathetic leader is:

 Knowledgeable about common causes of workplace stress

 Accommodating and supportive of physical and mental health issues
 Always available for tough discussions
 Aware that an employee’s performance is contingent on several factors, some public and
others private
 Respectful of privacy and confidentiality
 Exercises a zero tolerance policy that immediately shuts down any gossip, bullying,
racism, sexism, misogyny, ableism coming from their team, colleagues, and senior
managers
 Always ready to defend their team members
 Aware that each team member is different, and evaluates performance subjectively

Being an empathetic leader promotes a culture of empathy and makes your people know that you
value them to such an extent that you want to understand where they’re coming from.

6. Admits when they don’t have all the answers

As a leader, your natural inclination is to, well, lead. You want to inspire your people to follow
you and your vision.

But what’s often misunderstood about the leader-follower relationship is the idea that the leader
possesses some innate knowledge about the best possible course of action at all times, and could
never be wrong. And that the followers, your team, don’t.

Getting into this type of mindset is one of the worst mistakes an otherwise good leader can make.
And reinforcing it only means you’ll eventually find yourself surrounded by yes-men and
sycophants who are too afraid to voice dissent or steer you down the correct path.

A good leader is self-aware about their strengths and weaknesses. And because of that, they
encourage debate, open discussion, feedback, and promote an atmosphere of professional
disagreement. In short, a good leader is eager to be held accountable and readily admits when
they’re wrong or have made a mistake.

7. Knowledgeable

That said, as a leader you should be as up to date as possible on the trends, research, innovations,
technology, and advancements in your field or area of expertise.

If you’re a marketing manager, for example, it benefits you, your team, and your company if
you’re incredibly well-versed in what’s going on in the marketing world. You should be doing
research constantly, listening to podcasts, brushing up on the competition, reading books and
articles, attending and presenting at conferences, you name it.

Being an expert in your field doesn’t give you leeway to always be right, but it definitely makes
you a valuable resource for your team. If they have a question, you’re there.

And if you don’t know the answer off-hand, you’ll find out as soon as possible. A good leader is
always in research mode as a means of supporting their team.

8. Trusts their people’s expertise

A good leader is also self-assured and confident in their abilities. More importantly, though,
they’re confident in the abilities of their team members. Delegating and empowering your team
to succeed relies heavily on your confidence level in their work and expertise.

As a great leader you're willing to defer to a team member’s expertise if you don’t know the
answer to a question, eager to make room for other opinions, and always able to back down from
an argument. A leader should strive for and exercise humility.

Once you build up trust in your team's abilities, you won’t need to spend much time making sure
they're meeting goals. A good leader avoids micromanaging like the plague.

9. Communicates effectively

Exceptional communicators are not super articulate word geniuses. Do they speak and write
well? Yeah, sure. But more importantly, they recognize that their mode of communication
depends on their audience.

A good leader communicates effectively by thinking about who they’re communicating with,
and adapting accordingly. A leader needs to be especially adept at communicating because their
job is so dependent on inspiring people with their words and actions. Using your words
effectively leads directly to better results.

10. Demonstrates commitment

The best leaders are committed and passionate about their vision, and are able to share that
passion with their teams. Sometimes this characteristic comes so naturally that it’s almost
effortless. For others, it requires more effort.

If you’re just as committed to your vision, but it’s just not getting through to your people, then it
may be time to spend some time emphasizing your commitment with your team in mind. After
all, they’re the ones that need to be convinced if you want to inspire action and make progress.
A good leader is constantly reminding their people, through their words and actions, about their
commitment to their vision and the goals in place to help achieve it. This is good for morale and
absolutely crucial to sustaining the health of the organization.

Conclusion

There are so many ways to be an effective, inspiring leader in the modern workplace. But
perhaps the most important mindset you can have is to think of your people not as subordinates
or followers, but as talented members of the same team. You’re there to support them, and
they’re there to support your vision. A great leader recognizes this and a great team admires
them for it.

Leadership styles

Definition: The Leadership Styles are the behavioral patterns that a leader adopt to influence
the behavior of his followers, i.e. the way he gives directions to his subordinates and motivates
them to accomplish the given objectives.

The leadership styles can either be classified on the basis of behavioral approach or
situational approach. These approaches are comprised of several theories and models
which are explained below:
 Based on Behavioral Approach

1. Power Orientation: The power orientation refers to the “degree of authority” that a leader
adopts to influence the behavior of his subordinates. Based on this, the leadership styles can be
further classified as:

 Autocratic Leadership

 Participative Leadership

 Laissez-Faire

2. Leadership as a continuum: This model is given by Tannenbaum and Schmidt, who

believed that there are several leadership styles that range between two extremes of autocratic
 and free-rein, which are shown below:

3. Employee-Production Orientation: Several types of research were conducted to study

the leadership behavior that gets affected by the several characteristics that are related to each
other. It was found that employee orientation and production orientation play an important role
in determining the leadership style.The employee orientation is based on the premise that an
employee is an important part of the group and is in parallel to the democratic leadership style.
Whereas the production Orientation focuses on the production and technical aspects of the job
and the employees are considered as the tools for accomplishing the jobs. Thus, the production
orientation is parallel to the autocratic leadership style.
4. Likert’s Management System: Rensis Likert along with his associates studied the patterns
and behavior of managers to identify the leadership styles and defined four systems of
management. These four systems are: Exploitative Authoritative, Benevolent Authoritative,
consultative system and participative system. For a detailed description of these systems click on
the link below:
Likert’s Four systems of Management
5. Managerial Grid: The managerial grid is the tool designed by Blake and Mouton to
determine the leadership style. According to them, the leadership style gets influenced by both
the task-oriented and relation-oriented behavior in varying degrees.
6. Three Dimensional Grid: The three-dimensional grid is also called as a 3-D leadership
model given by W.J. Reddin. Reddin included the effectiveness dimension along with the task-
oriented and relationship-oriented dimensions to study how a leader behaves in a given situation
and a specific environment.

Based on Situational Approach

1. Fiedler’s Contingency Model: This theory is given by Fred Fiedler, who, along with his
associates identified the situational variables and their relationship to determine the leadership
styles. Thus, this model is comprised of three elements, leadership styles, situational variables
and the interrelationship between these two.

2. Hursey and Blanchard’s Situational Model: According to this model, the leader has to
adopt the leadership style that matches up with the subordinate’s maturity i.e. his willingness to
direct his behavior towards the goal.

3. Path-Goal Model: The Path-Goal Model is given by Robert House, who, along with his
associates tried to predict the effectiveness of leadership styles in varied situations. He believed
that the foremost function of any leader is to define the goals to the subordinates clearly and
assist them in finding the best path to accomplish that goal.

Thus, a manager behavior and the situational demands give rise to several leadership styles as
discussed above.