Excellent leadership transcends different industries and business sectors. A set of common principles and ideas works no matter if you are leading a football team or an office filled with software engineers and testers.
What follows is a list of eleven concepts all great leaders understand. Hopefully, they provide some inspiration for your own daily managerial duties.
Connecting Short-Term Tasks With Long-Term Goals
The best leaders are able to translate the long-term goals of their organization into the granular tasks to ultimately meet them. Never myopic, they always keep an eye on the big picture.
Great Leaders Want Respect; Not Necessarily Friendship
Achieving meaningful accomplishments requires managers to get people to go beyond their comfort zone. This is why they want to be respected instead of liked.
Real Leaders Aren’t Threatened by the Success of Their Direct Reports
Great leaders take pride in the success of individuals on their team, while other managers tend to feel insecure and threatened by similar tidings.
The Best Leaders Don’t Blame Their Team for Failure
Leadership requires taking responsibility for a project failure. Lesser managers blame their team instead of themselves.
The Bottom Line Matters More Than the Process
Results hold more importance over the process. The best leaders understand this, while others tend to get hung up in policies and procedures.
Listening Plays a Large Role in Great Leadership
Strong leadership requires being able to listen to the ideas and concerns of your team, clients and other business stakeholders. The best leaders remain open to insights and advice no matter the source.
People Transcend the Process
In addition to results being more important than the process, people hold a similar status. Leaders are ultimately judged for results as well as how they develop their team members.
Planning Is Vital for Achieving Goals
Great managers don’t work by the seat of their pants. They understand detailed planning is required for a project to have any chance of success.
Your Education Never Ends
A true professional never stops learning new things. Top leaders ensure they, as well as their direct reports approach every new task as a learning opportunity.
Encourage Discussion From the Entire Team
Any manager’s direct reports need to feel comfortable speaking up when necessary. The best leaders encourage this and welcome insights from everyone — no matter their experience level.
Everyone Understands What Is Required
A good leader ensures all their team members fully understand what is expected from them over the short term and long term. Communicating these expectations clearly and decisively is a must.
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