Most important leadership characteristic

Your Most Important Leadership Characteristic

If you believe the popular press, you will think that your ability to build relationships with people is the most essential leadership trait you must have to be a leader. Maybe you have in mind a variation on this theme: the ability to inspire or a knack for treating people well. This is a myth.

Before I explain what is wrong with the popular concept of leadership, let my say straight out that the only two essential factors are these: having something worthwhile to say and the courage to say it. If you can see a better way of doing things and have the courage to stand up and promote it, you can show leadership. It doesn’t have to be a grand vision of a radically different way of living with the potential to revolutionize life on the whole planet. It might be a very small, local change that you feel a need to promote, let’s say in the way certain files are organized in your office. How you convince people depends only on what it takes to convince them. You can’t say in a vacuum that it will take a great vision of a utopian filing system or an inspirational speaking voice. It might only take a short argument that states the benefits clearly and calmly for reorganizing some files.

OK, so you can see the need for lots of changes where you work. What’s stopping you from promoting them? This boils it down to courage. This is really the only characteristic that stands between you and showing leadership.

How can this be the case, you ask, when everyone is talking about the importance of people skills and emotional intelligence if you want to be a leader?

The critical issue is this: What is the phenomenon we’re trying to explain? There is a world of difference between the conventional concept of leadership that talks of what it takes to rise to significant positions of authority over others and a very different view that focuses on simply showing leadership regardless of position.

To show leadership as a front-line employee with no one reporting to you, the key characteristic is courage. But the saying ‘’content is king’’ also applies. If you really have a good idea to sell, it will almost sell itself, especially if you can demonstrate its value beyond question. It also depends on the receptivity of your prospective followers. If they are currently doing the exact opposite of what you are suggesting and are highly committed to it, then yes you will need some powerful influencing skills as well as a good idea and a strong dose of courage. On the other hand, if your prospective followers are complete opportunists and your idea really hits their hot buttons, then you don’t need to be a stellar influencer at all.

To become a leader in the conventional sense, that is to get appointed to, and maintain, a managerial position, you will need some stronger traits than a good idea and courage. Good content is still essential; you have to have credibility, to know what you are talking about. But now you also need to be good at managing people.

The simplest way to see what it takes to manage people is to notice the difference between promoting your own solutions and drawing them out of others. People want to feel that you value them and the best way to do this is to ask them for their opinions, ideas, and suggestions on how they think work related problems might be solved. If, instead, you constantly rely on your own expertise to tell others what to do they will listen if they think you are a really strong character, know what you’re talking about and aren’t comfortable questioning you too closely. But they won’t really be committed to you. All you will get is compliance, which could turn into resentment or outright revolt if you slip up. To really win their commitment, you need to involve them in making as many important decisions as possible, not to the point where they don’t think you can make your own decisions. The bottom line is that it’s about getting the balance right between telling and asking.