I don’t usually respond to these – I probably should – I could add it to my daily word count! But today this one kind of hit a nerve after spending too much time on LinkedIn. I see descriptions of “Good Leaders” all the time. A lot of them sound like their describing a pastor or guru:
- A humble servant
- A good listener
- Abdicating power
- A great Coach
- Empathetic
- Never ambitous
I think all those things can be true depending on the job, but someone can have all of those traits and be a terrible leader – or have none of those traits and still be a great leader. And honestly – leaders have to have ambition! Otherwise, how will they get to being a leader of any kind?
I think a good/great leader can be defined within the context of a crisis. (You know, the woman (or man) in the dystopian movie about the end of civilization who steps up and leads a ragtog group of survivors to an oasis where they all live happily ever after). In a crisis the leader is the person who steps up – makes decisions – and takes responsiblity.
A good leader takes all the heat for a teams mistakes and none of the praise when they do it right. A good leader isn’t afraid to have hard conversations to remove incompetent people from a team – even if they have to endure aqccusations of being a bad boss.
I’ve had three shitty bosses. They were bad because:
Boss #1:
She was incompetent – she got the job because the first choice backed out and the person hiring them didn’t want to be bothered with making sure she would be a good fit. She talked a good talk and never spent money so leadeship liked her. She ended up in the role for almost sixteen years! I was one of the lucky staff because she couldn’t understand my job and I had my office in a different building. But she still caused a lot of damage.
Boss #2:
Very smart man and talked nice – he presented with all of the traits in the list above. But when things got difficult he went quiet. He was wishy washy, avoided conflict, and in the end let others take responsiblity for his mistakes. I needed a leader then more than ever and he couldn’t step up. His lack of character overrode the traits that so many insist makes a good leader.
Boss #3:
Another smart competent person; she came off as excited and flexible. But she had a bad habit of lying to the team. She didn’t like it if someone got out of their lane, and really freaked out if someone had a skill she didn’t have. She lacked courage and she was one of the most selfish people I’ve ever known!
I’ve also had amazing bosses – someone who isn’t afraid of the responsibility – who works right alongside the team – never asks the team for work or results they wouldn’t ask of themselves. I want my boss to be the boss. To be unafraid of responsbility and to treat the team as an equal. I don’t need or want my boss to be sentimental or warm and fuzzy. I need my boss to be brave. I think the number one quality/characteristic of a great leader is Courage. Everything else is just personality.
Tuesday Kuykendall 