Despite an overwhelming number of books, videos, courses, and conferences on leadership, it can sometimes feel like incredible leaders are as difficult to spot as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster! We’ve all heard the stories of great leaders, we’ve seen the grainy footage, we had a friend of a friend’s cousin that saw one once...but when pressed to define what makes a good leader it can seem impossible.
What is important to realize is that leadership is not just about one thing. It’s not a single, specific trait or quality that makes great leaders stand out, it’s a combination of factors. Since I led my first leadership development program almost 12 years ago, I’ve seen 4 key ingredients that every leader does well:
A clear and communicated adventurous purpose
Why they do what they do and where they are going is not only clear in
their own minds, but everyone around them knows it as clearly as they do. A
vision is laid out that is ambitious and inspires passionate people to
gravitate towards it.Consistent metrics for decision making.
A huge part of leading is making decisions, and great leaders are willing to step
up and be decisive. They don’t simply guess - effective leaders keep an
eye on the milestones and scoreboards that let them make decisions that will
continue to move them towards their goal.Ensure their teams know what to do.
Sometimes a leader has to be able to tell exactly how something needs to be done and sometimes they need to simply put the right person in a role that already knows how it should be done. A true leader can tell the difference.
Place a high value on support.
The culture of a team is often what is focused on by current experts. The way people trust and cooperate with each other is definitely important, but the deep root of this is that people know that they can’t do it alone. Leaders know this and surround themselves with partners and mentors, as well as understand the importance of relational behavior.
As a speaker, executive coach, and leadership and teamwork facilitator in the corporate world, I have the privilege of helping individuals and organizations get crystal clear on what they need to do to be more effective in working together. With groups and organizations it’s sometimes small, intensive workshops for executive teams that do deep dives into what it means to be a team and how to be more effective. Sometimes it’s a keynote speech for the entire company on how to cultivate intentional collaboration
or how to sharpen leadership skills in the middle of a crisis. As an individual coach I work primarily with high-potential leaders, or those that have taken over new roles and teams to improve behavioral skills in observable ways.
The leadership training also comes through in the Suited for Life Podcast that I co-host. It is geared towards equipping men with the skills they need to conquer life’s many challenges. With masculine ideals being under attack at the moment in our country and the confusion surrounding topics like "toxic masculinity" and "what it means to be a man", what is often failed to mention is how little contact and support men have with other strong and noble men to help hold them accountable and provide support.
In my talk for TEDxWilsonPark 2019, we will be discussing how men can step up as more effective and productive leaders of themselves, their families, and their communities by untying the “knots” in
their lives that are failing to hold everything together. With a wife and 2 sons, I have seen the detrimental effects of trying to do it all alone and have also seen the power of being intentional about the people I surround myself with.
Head to my website at www.justinkierspeaks.com for more info on speaking & coaching or check out the podcast on iTunes!