What Makes a Leader?

Drive down Main Street in Anytown, USA and you’ll see gas stations, restaurants, supermarkets, banks, and various office buildings.  For each of these entities, there is a single person who is ultimately responsible – a person who is in charge.  Are these people leaders or are they just people in charge?  Is there a difference?

Scholar and author, Warren Bennis (March 8, 1925 – July 31, 2014), was widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of Leadership studies.  Bennis has written more than 27 books on the subject of leadership; served on the faculties of Harvard, Boston University, and USC; advised four US presidents; and consulted for many Fortune 500 companies.  In 1996, Forbes magazine called him the, “dean of leadership gurus,”, in 2000, The Financial Times referred to him as, “the professor who established leadership as a respectable academic field”, and in August, 2007, Business Week ranked him as one of the top ten thought leaders in business.

Bennis has studied leadership from just about every angle imaginable.  In the course of his studies, Bennis has found very distinct differences between those who are truly leaders and those who are merely in charge.  For purposes of differentiation, he calls the first group Leaders and the second group Managers.

In his 1989 book, Learning to Lead: A Workbook on Becoming a Leader, Bennis drew 12 distinctions between Managers and Leaders:

• • Managers administer — Leaders innovate
  • Managers ask how and when — Leaders ask what and why
  • Managers focus on systems — Leaders focus on people
  • Managers do things right — Leaders do the right things
  • Managers maintain — Leaders develop
  • Managers rely on control — Leaders inspire trust
  • Managers have a short-term perspective — Leaders have a longer-term perspective
  • Managers accept the status-quo — Leaders challenge the status-quo
  • Managers have an eye on the bottom line — Leaders have an eye on the horizon
  • Managers imitate — Leaders originate
  • Managers emulate the classic good soldier — Leaders are their own person
  • Managers are copies  — Leaders are original

Don’t be fooled into thinking Managers are simply poor leaders.  On the contrary, we desperately need good managers.  After all, we need someone to administer, ask the how and when, do things right, keep an eye on the bottom line, and maintain focus on the organization’s operating systems.

But, for organizations to survive long term, we also need good leaders; leaders who share these six key traits:

1. 1. Vision, Motivation, and Inspiration

One of the most important roles of a leader is to create a clear vision of what the organization they lead is all about and what it seeks to achieve. This vision must have the power to motivate and inspire others.  If you look throughout history at great political, social, religious and business leaders, you’ll frequently discover the presence of such a clear vision in them.  Great leaders take the initiative to create positive support and give hope, life, and joy in the face of hopelessness and despair.

1. 2. Integrity

Integrity means doing the right thing in a reliable way – it is the “alignment between what one thinks, says, and does; the alignment between thoughts, words and actions”.  Good leaders say what they truly think and they do what they promise.  Integrity is about openly and effectively expressing oneself, honoring commitments, and encouraging that behavior in others.

1. 3. Self-Confidence – the Courage to Do Things Differently

As any true leader can attest, being in a leadership position involves a lot of responsibility and pressure.  Good leaders work hard, take risks, deal with uncertainty constantly, and face unthinkable challenges.  Dealing with such situations without losing their sanity takes self-confidence.  They have the courage to take the path less traveled and will explore new ways of doing things.  They know doing things the same way will not lead them to discover new ideas and solutions, so they embrace the challenge of exploring new possibilities and taking new paths.

1. 4. Create Win-Win Situations

A good leader doesn’t want to win at the cost of loss to others, but wants to succeed while helping others to succeed as well.  This is a primary difference between good and bad leadership.  Good leaders understand you get back what you give, so they focus on being as positive as possible and giving positive energy to others. They are not complacent about things that may not be working, but move ahead to find and implement solutions for the betterment of themselves and others.

1. 5. Empathy – An Awareness of Others

Empathy manifests itself in the desire of the leader to stay connected to people at all levels of the organization as well as in the ability to understand what these people do and experience. It’s about noticing and acknowledging others, ensuring others feel valued, and adjusting their leadership style to best fit with others.

1. 6. Effective Communication Skills

The work of a leader involves a lot of communication and much of it does not occur in one-on-one situations, but with groups of people. Whether delivering a presentation to a dozen people in an office meeting or speaking to hundreds of people at a conference, a good leader must have good communication skills in general and great public speaking skills in particular.

In summary, great leaders create a culture that attracts people – a place where people enjoy their work, where they can grow, and where they know they’re valued.

It goes without saying that validated assessments can provide organizations with insight as to whether or not their job candidates or incumbents have the core competencies and emotional intelligence to be good leaders.  When used in combination, our PXT Select^TM, Everything DiSC^®, CheckPoint 360°™, or our Genos Emotional Intelligence Leadership assessments, are tools which can be used in the selection and development of your leaders.