Shared qualities of effective leaders

Effective leaders come in all shapes and sizes. They can be teachers, swimming coaches, corporate CEOs, research scientists and activists. While each leader is unquestionably unique, there are also some noticeable commonalities that at a conceptual level can be summarised as THINK – FEEL – DO.

Think

Effective leaders understand the power of reflective practice.

Effective leaders are thoughtful people. In emotional intelligence terms, they have impulses just like everybody else, but they exercise discipline and employ reality testing before acting on those triggers. They proactively consider the consequences of their actions across multiple dimensions.

Feel

Effective leaders build trust and drive engagement by enhancing workplace dignity and wellbeing.

Effective leaders help the people around them feel comfortable. Comfortable to be themselves. Comfortable to ask for help when they need it. Comfortable to share information when they have it and, probably more important than anything else, comfortable with delivering bad news. By their nature, organisations create separation. There are different levels, different titles, and different pay grades. Separation creates fear. Fear negatively affects engagement, and engagement affects productivity and employee retention.

Do

Effective leaders expand their range and enhance their ability to adapt.

Effective leaders respond in a manner that reflects the emerging circumstances they are attempting to impact in the moment. They recognize the importance of organisational resiliency in a world that is becoming increasingly defined by ongoing, unending, disruptive change (and the daunting tasks and exponentially increasing complexity that comes with successfully completing those tasks). They also recognize that resiliency at an organisational level is a function of individual leader-managers in the organisation to adapt to the situations and surroundings that come their way. And they realize there is no “best” leadership style.

Each style (empowerment, collaboration, and direction) works, and each style doesn’t. And, because your success as a leader is in large part a function of circumstances you can in no way control, effective leaders are dedicated to expanding their proficiency with each approach.