ASI

Tips on Being a Great Leader – Part 1

“Top 10 Leadership Characteristics”

This is a topic that you could write a book on and there are in fact many books on leadership.  The idea of this blog is to create a short but concise blog series on this important topic.  As a manager in my professional career (both military and civilian/corporate America) I have worked with many managers, some good ones and lots of bad ones.  Why are there so many bad managers/leaders out there?  One common issue I see is that the majority of them have never had the opportunity to be trained as a leader and how to manage people.  Having attended a Military College (Norwich University, the oldest private military college in the country) I had the benefit of being a part of an elite organization that was focused on developing the best leaders possible.  That involved taking many leadership courses in order to graduate with a commission in the Army and then the Army continued to provide more leadership training on a regular basis.  Unfortunately most people never get these same training opportunities and at some point in their career they get promoted into management and are just expected to know how to be a great leader and manager.  Sorry, but that doesn’t just come with the title.  Realizing that, I have traditionally run my own “Professional Development” classes to provide my staff with continued training.  For my leaders (team leads and managers) I would run this Leadership Class every two weeks to cover the variety of leadership and management traits and knowledge they need to be successful at their jobs.

So to begin I thought I would start the series with the topic of the “Top 10 Leadership Characteristics” that I feel are core to every great leader:

I don’t believe that being a great leader comes naturally but happens when an individual makes a conscious effort to go out of their way to lead.  Over time this may become more natural and second nature, but even then a great leader will continually analyze their leadership style & approach to identify areas they can improve upon.  The main reason why I believe leadership doesn’t come naturally is because leadership (like most things) requires effort!  There are many different leadership styles and characteristics, and I’ve listed my Top 10 below, but one key ingredient and fundamental quality to a great leader is that “You cannot demand respect – you earn it!”  There is a huge difference between someone doing something because “they have to” versus because “they want to”.  If your employees, team members, subordinates, players, etc. truly respect you then they will go out of their way to work hard and do things for you because they believe in you, want to follow you and truly feel like they are part of a meaningful team.  In the military there is a significant difference in salutes –one is because a subordinate respects you, and the other has no respect and he’s simply “saluting your rank due to protocol”.  A true leader will also know the difference as to whether the individual respects you or is “just saluting your rank” – whether he runs another lap because he knows he screwed up or because you are just  being a jerk trying to show who’s in charge – whether the team is willing to stay late and put in the extra effort to get a project done (and you are right there by their side) or whether they are complaining the whole time because they know how ridiculous the expectation is, due to poor leadership and planning and have no desire to be there.

Here are my main top 10 leadership characteristics that can make you a better leader.  These are high-level overview descriptions but if you want more you can Google any one of these topics and I guarantee you will find plenty of articles on them as they truly are core characteristics to great leadership.

1. Treat others the same way you expect to be treated – think about others; care about others.  This is an extremely simple concept but one that expects you to get off your throne and come down to earth.  It goes both ways – if you expect your boss to communicate to you about things, then you need to do the same to your staff.  If you would like to be cut a break on leaving early one day for a family need and you have put in plenty of late nights (or early mornings), then why wouldn’t you do the same for your own employees who put in extra efforts and stay late or come in early to get projects done.
2. Leadership by Example – this is huge!  This is something I constantly remind myself about.  If you expect others to follow you then you need to show that you are not only competent but are willing to “roll your sleeves up and get dirty”.  Everything you expect your staff to do you need to do the same.  If you expect them to be cranking out the work and not just hanging out talking with everyone, then you shouldn’t be.  If you expect your team to stay late or work over the weekend, then you better be there working with them too. 
3. Do not micro manage – entrust your team with responsibility.  You hired them because you felt they were competent to get the job done – so let them do it!  If you can’t trust them to do the job right, then get rid of them and hire someone who can.  But if you feel the need to do everything then there is a problem.  If you are not willing to replace an employee then the problem is probably you! 
4. Recognize and reward – very important.  In today’s tough economy you might have to get creative here.  There are many resources available for ideas on this and one I have that I’ve gotten some good ideas from is a book called “1001 Ways to Reward Employees” by Bob Nelson, published by “Workman Publishing Company, Inc.”.  Financial rewards can come in many sizes and forms; if your company will allow financial rewards to be issued then these are great when people achieve some significant accomplishment that greatly benefits the company.  When money is tight this might not be possible but it doesn’t mean you still can’t reward people.  Three basic things you can do are:
   1. Verbal recognition in front of the team in a meeting/formal setting.  Individual recognition can go a long way for many people.
   2. Fun rewards that are very inexpensive – like when someone does something “sweet”, I would recognize them in front of the group and reward them with a 1lb chocolate bar as that was the “sweet reward”.  Believe it or not this actually went over well, the individual received individual recognition in front of the group, received something tangible, and the majority of people love chocolate so it was something fun to eat.  Always be concise about food rewards and who you are giving it to.  The whole reward process can be ruined if you give someone a reward they can’t eat for some reason (like if they are allergic to chocolate or are lactose intolerant).  If you did this then you will lose on two fronts – one the reward is no good to the person so it loses it value and impact, and #2 you lose credibility because it shows you are not connected with your staff enough to know them to realize they have this allergy/medical issue or possibly are on a diet and they are really trying to stay away from something like this.  Make sure you know your people!
   3. “Day Off Reward” – using postcard paper from the office store, I print off special “Day Off Reward” cards that I will issue people.  For many people time off can be as valuable as money.  The way it works is that the person is allowed to use this card to take a day off of their choosing (now or in the future) and when they use it they turn it back in with the day off written on it (this way it can’t be reused).  When the employee takes the day off, as a manager you simply record their time in the time tracking system as being present.  It keeps things simply, avoids paperwork and politics, but is also legit because you have the reward card in the person’s file for tracking purposes if there were ever any questions.  I’ve done this for years and never had a problem and was never questioned.
5. Continuously look for areas to improve yourself – great leaders will never feel comfortable with themselves nor believe they are great.  Instead they will continuously evaluate what their weaknesses are and where they could improve.  Being honest with your self-evaluation is the only way to improve in this area.  This can be a significant ability to improve one’s self, if you can handle being brutally honest.
6. Don’t get comfortable – a lot of people do things well and then get comfortable thinking everything is good.  But life and business is very dynamic and constantly changing, therefore you need to constantly develop and adjust to the changes around you.  For instance in software development I’ll define and implement a great methodology in one environment and years later when I move on to another career opportunity I find the environment there is different and I have to modify my methodology.  I find that most of the time my “core” knowledge, methodologies, process & procedures, leadership & management style, expertise will continue to be my core foundation – the essence of my style; but I always have to be willing to adjust to the current environment I’m in.  Then once you refine your process and procedures, don’t get comfortable!  Look for areas of improvement and how you can take your team to the next level.  Just like CMM Levels (Capability Maturity Model), you are always looking for new ways to improve in order to move up to the next level.
7. Continued Professional Development – the best leaders and best workers are ones that continuously look to develop themselves.  This item comes in two forms – developing yourself and developing your staff.
   1. You need to constantly look at areas and ways of improving yourself with knowledge and skills.  Three main areas to constantly work on improving are 1) management skills, 2) your specific industry knowledge (if you are in the medical field learn that area of healthcare; if you are in the banking industry learn something new like lending models or trading or the secondary market and 3) actual hard skills – like if you are in software development learn a new technology or take a skill you know and go from the basics to very advanced.
   2. Your staff – Most people love to learn something new.  By investing in people you build a solid team.  This doesn’t mean you have to pay for them to go to some expensive training class or seminar; you can do a lot of this in-house by using the expertise you already have available to you.  For example, I regularly run a “Professional Development” class for my staff – either 1 hour a week or 1 hour every two weeks (the environment will dictate this).  One of my expertises is test automation, so a regular training series in this class is me teaching my staff how to use QuickTest Pro and various tips, tricks and techniques.  This constantly improves your team’s skills and knowledge.  I also find that my staff really looks forward to the class and gets really disappointed if I have to cancel it for some reason.  Likewise it goes a long way for establishing your competency with the team and also connecting and bounding with the staff. 
8. Don’t be afraid to confront problems and deal with issues – this is huge!  I find a lot of leaders are afraid to deal with confrontation.  No one likes dealing with problems but this is one of your job responsibilities as a leader.  I see a lot of leaders don’t want to deal with issues and they think if they ignore it the issue will go away.  Guess what, most of the time they don’t and it only gets worse!  If you don’t deal with the issues, not only do they stick around but you will lose respect and your effectiveness as a leader.  Most people are not stupid and know more about what is going on than you realize.  The quicker you deal with the problem the quicker you can get back to normal.  If you have an issue with an employee that is just not fitting in, then the only way to ultimately get rid of them is by confronting the problem, conducting personal reviews to address the issue, writing the issue down in a counseling statement with goals on what they need to do in order to improve and conducting 30 day follow-ups.  I find that I will get one of two results: 1) the person improves and the problem goes away or 2) after 3 months you have enough documentation and probation time to out-process someone and it is easier to do because there are no surprises as the person had at least 90 days at this point to improve.  Normally you will have met all legal requirements with the time duration and documentation to let a problem person go.   Bottom line is if you deal with issues right away, you can normally avoid these kinds of long-term problems.
9. Surround yourself with other great people – greatness breeds greatness.  I learned this years ago when I was an officer in the Army; I was an S2 in an Infantry Battalion and LTC Clemens was the Battalion Commander (the best leader I’ve ever worked for in both my military and civilian careers) and we were having a Battalion Staff meeting and so all the Battalion leadership was present and someone was giving him a compliment on being such a great leader, and his response was “…what makes me so successful is surrounding myself with the best leaders”.  He said “…let me give you some advice, as you guys advance in your careers, in order to be a great leader you need to surround yourself with the best staff you can where-ever you go.  Together you’ll be great.”
10. Know your people – most great leaders are known for connecting with their people.  If you don’t have a “real” relationship with your staff then they will not truly follow you, which will ultimately limit your abilities to be successful.  Get off your throne and get into the trenches with your people.  If you don’t know what day to day life is like, then how can you effectively lead them and make operational changes that will improve the process.  If you know your people and connect with your people, then they will follow you.  Likewise if a time comes where you need to stand up for your people – you better!  A true leader stands up and protects their people.  Believe me, your people will know whether you do this or not.  You can either gain a ton of credibility as a leader or lose a ton of credibility. Know your people!  Like with rewards, know what motivates a person, understand what their personal goals are, know the basics of what is going on in their life, and make time for them.  Don’t just say you have an “open door policy” but get out of your office or cube and go over to them and connect.  Know when their birthday is.  Every employee of mine fills out a basic Employee Profile that has contact info and stuff, along with their birthday.  I then put their birthday into my Outlook calendar so it reminds me of their birthday, when it is time I then get a birthday card for that person and leave it on their desk first thing in the morning.  Then we always do a cake in the afternoon.  If you have a large team, then do “monthly birthdays” so you can control expenses.  If they have a baby, make a big deal about it.  If their child accomplishes something big (like winning a game, or getting selected to represent the school’s math team, or getting accepted to college, etc) then take the time to know about it, follow up on it and take the time to talk about it.  Make them feel special.  I also try to stay connected with solid employees from the past – whether they left or you moved on.  Basic email is fine or connecting on LinkedIn.  Keep it professional but you never know when you may be able to hire them again, or they may have some connection you need in the future.  Recently I had two former employees that had their first child.  Each time I sent them a simple email saying congratulations.  That simple email goes a long way as they are usually surprised that you took the time to do this.  Most managers don’t – especially former managers.

Remember it takes work to be good.  Nothing comes easy in life!