How to Really Succeed as a Leader

Posted January 17, 2016

How do you get someone to follow you? A leader takes people to where they want to go. A great leader takes people to where they ought to be. That’s the essence of superstar leaders’ presence and the characteristics they possess. Successful leaders have found that it isn’t position power that matters most in the employee/supervisory relationship. Personal power is the real key.

Leadership through position power involves these strategies:

Dictatorial approach
Employees are subordinate
“Do as I say!”
Fear strategies
The leader has all the answers

Leadership through personal power includes these strategies:

Engagement approach
Employees are partners
“Do as I do also!”
Influencing strategies
The team has the answers, too

This is an exciting time to be a leader. Never before has there been any statistical evidence linked to leadership effectiveness. True leadership effectiveness has more to do with who you are and less to do with your job title.

What are the characteristics of a Successful Leader?

Research by management gurus Kouzes and Posner, found four crucial leadership characteristics from an exhaustive list of over 225 different values, traits and characteristics. Their methodology included a questionnaire and case studies. The following open- ended question summarized the views of over 20,000 managers from four continents: What values (personal traits or characteristics) do you look for and admire in your superiors?

What they found is that people want to follow leaders who are honest, forward-looking, inspiring and competent. Below is my definition of each of these characteristics.

Being Honest– Tell the truth and do what you say you will do. Considering all of the celebrity type leaders across industries with ethical problems that have “bit the dust”, this is not surprising and even more crucial today. Honesty, integrity, and ethics are in great demand today. More and more companies have created ethical statements as guidelines for behavior in the business. Doing business the right way is becoming more crucial than being the best. After all, if you are dishonest, it affects the trust you have in your relationships with employees and customers, and it erodes the foundation of your inner conscience. It’s been stated, “To thine own self be true.” If you aren’t, how can you be with others or really achieve success as a leader?

In his book, Principled Centered Leadership, Steven Covey defines integrity as: “Honestly matching words and feelings with thoughts and actions, with no desire other than for the good of others, without malice or desire to deceive, take advantage, manipulate, or control’ constantly reviewing your intent as you strive for congruence.” How do you know if you are acting with integrity? Here are some indicators:

You keep you word
You follow-up on your commitments
Your behavior and values match
In spite of your mood you treat people respectfully
You don’t need to drop names, situations, or events in conversations to impress people
You strive to do the right thing not the expedient thing
When under temptation to bend the rules you stay honorable to the company’s values and what’s right
You treat all people with respect and dignity
Poor taste in humor is not part of you vocabulary
Cynicism, racism and sarcasm is are not useful to you
You are a good listener even if others view are different from your own

Being Forward looking-have a vision for the future and clearly communicate it. Yes, focus on the short-term but have a plan for tomorrow. Leaders need to hold both of these simultaneously in their hands.

Being Inspiring-have some passion and enthusiasm for what you do because it can be contagious. If you can’t get genuinely excited about what you are doing it’s almost impossible to get others to be.

Being Competent-be a student of the game and keep learning about your business and how to deal with people.

Success as leader is never assured. However, if you are a “student of the game”, keep learning from the best, and emulate them, you will increase your effectiveness over time.

Want a plan to succeed as a leader? Go here: Superstar Leadership.

Need a coach to advance your career? Click here: WCW Breakthrough Coaching BluePrint-4 Dynamic Options.

Rick Conlow

Rick Conlow is the CEO & Founder of Rick Conlow International, a leadership consulting, training and coaching firm. RCI partners with organizations to dramatically increase employee engagement, customer loyalty and sales through Servant Leadership. He has helped over 200 companies such as Target, Costco, Andersen Windows, Spectrum, Northern Power, Meijer, Carpet King, International Truck, John Deere, Lowes Financial, and Canadian Linen improve customer loyalty, increase sales and add profits. Rick has been a general manager, vice president, training director, program director, and national sales trainer. He has authored 22 books including the best selling Superstar Leadership Model, and The 5 Dynamics of Servant Leadership.