I’ve found five core things that determine if a leader will be successful long-term. I hope I demonstrate all five, the fact that I’m always working on it and never self-assured I’ve arrived is probably a good thing.
The failure response
Something I look for in the leaders I choose is how they process failure and learn from it. Are they transparent about the miss or are they going through unbelievable orchestrations to make others own it? Are they finding purpose in the mistake, making it something they will learn from and grow through? Are they willing to face themselves and accept the challenge to grow or do they deny the issue exists?
It tells you a lot about someone.
When I have someone leading me and they are willing to admit a mistake and talk about what they learned, it means a lot more than when they reframe reality or create a really good narrative that makes them excellent.
The intentional culture
The environment you create for your team matters and it matters a lot. Creating an environment where everyone is welcome, gets the tools they need for the job, has an opportunity to have a voice, and feels assured they can learn from non-repeatable mistakes is essential.
You need conflict to be creative. Your disrupters are terribly important people who create diversity of thought through challenge, but they cannot control the tone and temperature of the environment, or you’ll lose the team environment to the loudest voices.
The biggest message to remember is that the quiet people are impressive too. Make an environment that grows them and listens to them well. You have to allow all personality types, or you’ll just listen to the enigmatic people in the room and although they’re sure of themselves, they’re not always right.
The value of knowing what people need
I can set my iPad down inside of chaos and get the job done, what matters to me is having the tool I need. It won’t even occur to me that I’m surrounded by folded laundry, Pokémon cards, loud children, dinosaur toys, comic books, and the dreaded floor Legos scattered like land mines. I zone in and go.
My wife prefers a clean space, organized, with a place for everything and everything in its place. The technology she needs just needs to work, what it is or how it works is of little consequence.
My wife recruits and onboards for multiple hospitals at once. I lead IT for a health system that spans about 40 counties of Indiana. We know what we need to be successful.
You should provide that to your staff as well (within reason). You can’t let them make the workspace chaos, it’ll say the wrong thing about the team, but you can ensure they can dim a light, bring in a few things to make it their own, and offer flexibility in certain areas so they can be themselves rather than your version of who they should be.
The power of strategic agility
You have a vision and a plan, isn’t that cute?
Here’s a tip, so do the people around you. So does your direct report. So does the person who you want to execute your plan.
Oh, and by the way, the world has it’s own plans too (COVID-19 for example).
What’s important isn’t whether you have a plan; the best have a plan that’s highly adaptable and can pivot and change as the ground moves beneath their feet. I’ve seen some really exceptional people fall because they can’t let go of their personal vision.
That doesn’t mean you shift and change for every little thing that comes around, but it does mean you pay attention and adjust as you go.
Someone might have a better idea or maybe a lesser idea is implemented, and you know your path would have been better—sing a Disney tune and let it go. Be agile in your implementation of strategy.
You have a goal and the grit and determination to get to it or something close to it without being locked in on how.
The effort behind influence
A mentor of mine taught me the value of using influence to get something done rather than authority. Essentially, I existed without a title for over a year while someone else with my job title did my old job. I led them. It was bizarre, it was uncomfortable, and it made me uneasy to have the responsibility to lead on a higher level without the authority to do it.
He set me up to have to convince people to do things rather than give them assignments. It was the best gift he could have ever given me even though it stressed me out like only one or two other experiences in my career have.
As a result, I rarely use authority to get something done. It doesn’t appeal to people and although it is useful in certain emergency operation moments, overall, I feel it’s ineffective and steer clear.
The summary
The traits I mentioned here are the things I look for in the leaders I follow. The ones who use accountability or more accountability—a stick or a bigger stick—I see them as a dying breed. It’s something that worked once but in each generation becomes a wider and wider gap to make it work.
Learning from failure positively, creating a culture where people can thrive, knowing what people need to succeed, being agile in goal delivery, and using influence over authority—these are the traits of the most effective leaders I’ve encountered.