What Makes A Good, Great or Excellent Leader?
What makes a good, great or even an excellent leader?
It is crazy to think that there is a simple answer to this question, although, it is natural to wonder?
How can you judge when there are so many factors and scenarios involving leadership? Do we judge by:
- focusing on the size of the outcome,
- the challenges of achieving the outcome,
- how it was achieved,
- the value realised by stakeholders - including any intangible benefits; or
- longevity in that role?
Who determines how it is judged?
Leadership Research Is Focused On Big Business, Government and The Military
Leadership research predominantly focuses on CEOs and executives of large, listed or multinational businesses.
While these businesses are economically important and are large employers, the number of such roles are proportionally small when compared to the entirety of all businesses.
Is a benchmark for good, great or excellent leadership only to be found in researching large businesses, or government or the military?
The answer is no, but, in the absence of broader alternatives there are valuable insights which can applied to all business.
Leadership Encompasses Many Attributes
Leadership encompasses many attributes. Each situation will determine which attributes are important and which combination of attributes are most effective.
There are a number of attributes that are universally recognised as important to being an effective business leader, which are set out below:
- Ownership of purpose - including direction and driving change
- Mastering relationships including trust, integrity, communication and objectivity
- A genuine human understanding and connection – having self and reflective awareness, being authentic, humble and uplifting of others
- Care for oneself and for others – caring for and sustainably serving all stakeholders including our ecology
- Getting results – through personal competency, responsibility, decisiveness, creativity, adaptability and agility
- Being a great team player and teammate.
While each of these attributes appear to be unique and specific, they are highly intertwined. An effective leader understands when to focus on one attribute versus another.
Develop More & Better Leaders
The goal of the Business Leaders Roundtable is to develop more and better leaders for the times and challenges ahead. It pays to prepare ahead of time!
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