What do we look for in our leaders
Updated: Jul 17, 2022
People generally, including your staff, are looking to be led. They want clear, inspirational leaders. They want to be heard, treated fairly and justice to be served appropriately.
Ask yourself, what do you want from your leaders? I will take a chance and state it is a mixture of these:
Effective communication
To be treated with courtesy and respect
To know where the boundaries are (what you can and cannot do)
To be treated equally, without discrimination for any irrelevant factor
To have a clear expectation of what is expected of you
Recognition when it is due
Guidance and support
To be heard and taken seriously
Integrity
Of course there is more ......
And when you get things wrong I expect that you would want to be heard, treated fairly, the issue dealt with and move on. Done, dusted, and perhaps whilst not forgotten, certainly not brought up at every opportunity.
If this is what you want, isn't it the same for your staff? Take another look at the list. There is nothing surprising on there, nothing untoward, nothing you cannot achieve.
It is not rocket science. We often think of leadership as something we must work hard for, when in fact, when we get out of our own way, it is who we naturally are.
I wanted to put together a series of articles all exploring the topic of Leadership. Inspirational, Confident, Motivational, Responsible, Effective, and more.
In the next article we will be exploring Inspirational Leadership. What does it mean, how do we acquire it, and what do we do with it once we have it.
Martyn Dawes is a Coach, Social Care Consultant, and Author of The Overwhelmed Manager: What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do