7 Signs You're an
Effective, Influential Leader
Successful bosses share these traits
that command respect and inspire employee productivity.
Your reports aren't always likely to tell you
how you're undermining their performance -- or even what you're doing well that
they'd like to see more of.
The best solution to this problem is probably
to ask for direct feedback. But where to start?
We've rounded up seven signs, based on research
and expert opinion, that you're doing a great job of rallying and motivating
your team. Ask yourself how much each trait or behavior describes you, and
consider asking your employees the same.
You're generally positive
Research
from 2015 suggests that happy people make more
effective leaders.
That's largely because they're more likely to
display transformational leadership, which means they're especially good at
inspiring and motivating their team and stimulating them intellectually.
Interestingly, according to the research,
positivity was an even better predictor of leadership effectiveness than
extroversion -- a personality trait we typically associate with successful
bosses.
This isn't to say that you should force
yourself to smile and laugh at every team meeting. Instead, it might be more
helpful for those in the position of selecting future leaders to be mindful of
those candidates' overall affect.
You're not afraid of change
Young managers
are perceived as more
effective than their older counterparts,
according to a study of more than 65,000 leaders conducted by leadership
development consultancy Zenger/Folkman.
One key reason why? They welcome novelty.
Zenger/Folkman
says it's possible that younger managers'
relative lack of experience means they're more optimistic about the changes
they propose and more willing to be the "champions of change."
You're pretty boring
The technical
term is "emotional
maturity," which means being emotionally stable,
agreeable, and conscientious.
As business
psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic writes in The
Harvard Business Review, "[T]he best managers in the
world tend to be stable rather than excitable, consistent rather than erratic,
as well as polite and considerate."
That might be
part of the reason why Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, is
so successful. Rather than being emotionally volatile,
like Steve Jobs for example, Pichai is reported
to be predictable and to stay out of the spotlight.
In other words, Jobs is more the exception
than the rule -- better to emulate Pichai if you're hoping to lead your team to
greatness.
You demonstrate integrity
Chamorro-Premuzic also
suggests that integrity is a key component of
leadership effectiveness. Acting in unethical or counterproductive ways will
ultimately undermine you and your organization.
In fact, one
analysis found that CEOs rated as high-integrity by their employees had a
multi-year return of 9.4%, while CEOs rated as low-integrity saw a return of
only 1.9%.
Psychologist Travis
Bradberry highlights several traps that leaders fall into,
which can undermine their integrity.
One such trap is making everything about them
-- instead, you'll want to actively solicit questioning and criticism. Another
is micromanaging -- remember that productivity looks different for leaders and
individual employees. Give people a chance to do their jobs well on their own.
You work hard
Years of
research suggest that conscientiousness -- or your tendency to be organized and
hardworking -- is the only major personality trait that consistently
predicts success.
A 2002
review of studies also found that, after extroversion,
conscientiousness was the best
predictor of leadership emergence. That means
conscientious folks are a lot more likely than others to become managers, and
possibly more likely to be good at their job once they get there.
You display vision
Another Zenger/Folkman
study found that the most important quality
of innovative leaders was that they "could vividly describe their vision
of the future."
But developing and executing on a vision is
easier said than done.
Executive
coach and author Suzanne
Bates said that when leaders come to her for
guidance, they're often lacking in vision, or the ability to create a picture
of what could be, recognize trends, and get everyone on the same page.
One strategy
Bates uses to help leaders get better at communicating their vision is called
the "Big Idea." You boil down complex concepts to one compelling
statement of 25 words or less that conveys your vision. The statement
should have three parts: a proposal, an outcome, and a benefit.
You respect your coworkers
A
study of nearly 20,000 employees across the
globe found that the most important leadership behavior for employee engagement
is respect.
As study
co-author Christine Porath writes in The
Harvard Business Review, workers who feel respected by
their leaders are 55% more engaged and 1.1 times more likely to stay with their
organizations than those who don't feel respected.
But Porath
notes that a whopping 54% of employees say they don't regularly
feel respected by their bosses. She recommends leaders create a culture of
respect by specfically screening for a history of incivility during the hiring
process and directly evaluating it during performance reviews.
This story first appeared on Business Insider.
BY SHANA LEBOWITZ
http://www.inc.com/business-insider/7-signs-youre-an-influential-effective-leader.html?cid=em01014week34a
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