How companies select leaders for their teams and projects makes a huge difference to their chances of success. Leaders aren’t just the managers and supervisors responsible for guiding the other members of your team. The right leaders motivate and engage staff, influence, and shape company culture, and make sure the business can achieve its strategic goals.
When you select leaders for your business, it’s easy to make the mistake of focusing on the wrong things, like how much experience a person has with your business, or how many certifications and qualifications they might have.
However, there’s more to being a great leader than just having the right background and knowledge. Here’s what you need to know about choosing a leader successfully.
What Makes a Great Leader? The Characteristics of a Leader
Leaders come in many shapes and sizes in the business environment. While we often define leaders as people with authority, such as C-suite executives, supervisors, and managers, anyone with the power to guide and influence others can act as a leader. The best leaders tend to have a deep knowledge of the company they serve, and the employees they work with. They’re skilled in their role, and experienced enough to assist with various tasks, from strategic planning to solving problems.
However, when choosing a leader, companies should think about more than just the level of experience or background knowledge an individual might have. The best leaders have a number of attributes which make them perfectly suited to the role of guiding others.
Some of the core characteristics of an effective leader include:
- Self-awareness: A good leader should be aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and how their behavior influences others. People in any business environment turn to leaders for guidance on how to behave, so leaders need to understand how their actions will look to employees, colleagues, and even other executives and managers.
- Credibility: Great leaders are trustworthy, authentic, and reliable. They gain the trust of team members by holding themselves accountable for their actions and words, and doing exactly what they say they’re going to do.
- Ethics: Ethical principles are essential for a leader. The best leaders hold themselves to high moral standards, and practice integrity, loyalty, and honesty. They treat others with respect, and have a high degree of emotional intelligence, which allows them to connect with teams.
- Excellent relationship building: The strength of a leader often revolves around their ability to build connections with the people they guide and support. Great leaders know how to communicate with others, and motivate people to share the same goals. They exhibit humility, and never consider themselves as more important than any other employee.
- Empowerment: Great leaders know how to empower others. They don’t just focus on cultivating their own success, but ensure they can guide others towards their goals too. They need to be motivational, supportive, and even capable of coaching and mentoring others.
- Authenticity: The best leaders act authentically. They hold themselves to the same values they champion for their team members, and they act consistently. Great leaders don’t change their attitude when connecting with different employees. They portray the same authentic version of themselves to everyone.
- Competence: Great leaders are knowledgeable, and skilled in their industry. They have a good understanding of the tactical, operational, and strategic elements of running the business, and are willing to share their knowledge and insights to others.
How Leaders are Chosen
As mentioned above, there are different methodologies companies might use when they select leaders. Some are more effective than others. For instance, selecting someone to lead a team simply because they have more experience in your business might seem like a good idea at first. After all, someone with a lot of experience will likely have a good understanding of your company and its values.
However, if a person with a high degree of knowledge and competence doesn’t have what it takes to motivate, engage, and empower employees, they won’t thrive as a leader. A good leader needs to be more than just a knowledgeable professional or coach, they need to become a role model to the people they support and serve. As such, the best way to choose a leader, is to start by examining the person’s character. It’s much easier to train a willing novice on the basics of how your business operates than it is to teach a veteran employee how to demonstrate integrity and emotional intelligence.
Leaders need to have the core ability to influence others, and drive your team in the right direction. When selecting a leader, make sure they can:
- Meet the needs of your organization: A good leader should understand the vision, values, and goals of the business, and know how to drive employees towards crucial targets.
- Adhere to the needs of employees: Aside from understanding the needs of the business, a good leader should know how to recognize the needs of individual employees and teams when it comes to things like motivation, coaching, or engagement.
- Influence others: A leader doesn’t have to be in a place of authority to influence others, but they should be able to motivate and encourage action. A good leader will push others in the right direction through knowledge, credibility, and motivation.
- Manage the responsibilities of leadership: Acting as a leader can be a complex and challenging task. The right employees should be able to manage the stress associated with leadership, and have strong control over their emotions.
- Remain accountable: A good leader won’t blame the success or failure of their leadership tactics on others. They will be accountable for their own behavior, decisions, and actions. They’ll also hold themselves accountable for the success of others.
Once they’re implemented into a leadership position, a good leader will work consistently to create an environment where team members can thrive, and business goals can be met.
Are You Selecting the Right Leaders for Your Business?
Learning how to select leaders for your business can be a complex process. There’s more to choosing a great leader than simply promoting the people in your team that have been around for the longest period of time. If you want your business to succeed, you should focus on selecting leaders who can embody the values of the company, motivate, and empower others, and demonstrate the qualities that make them more credible and trustworthy to your staff.
