Leadership’s Leading Indicators

OK, so maybe you’re not a born leader. Does that mean you are fated to a lifetime as a follower? Not necessarily.

While some people might be naturally charismatic (which isn’t necessarily an indicator of a strong leader), we can all work to develop leadership skills in our personal lives and in our work.

Despite some being more experienced or successful leaders than others, none of us is starting from scratch. We’ve all had experience with leadership, either as the leader or follower. So, it is important to look at what’s already there.

First, a good leader knows, senses and understands, says Toni Bernay, a clinical psychologist at the Leadership Equation Institute in Beverly Hills and coauthor of “Women in Power: The Secrets of Leadership” (Houghton Mifflin, 1992). She says knowing yourself provides a starting point. Doing a personality inventory is a way to take stock of strengths and weaknesses, motivations and values.

According to Normand L. Frigon and Harry K. Jackson in “The Leader: Developing the Skills & Personal Qualities You Need to Lead Effectively” (HarperBusiness, 1997), a few areas to consider include decision-making (do you consider all the factors or do you make decisions on a whim?); self-confidence; interpersonal skills (spoken and written communication, facilitation and conflict management, listening); adaptability; integrity, commitment and empathy.

Something to note, Bernay says, is general gender differences in valued strengths. According to two studies of performance evaluations of 1,000 men and women, she says, women rated lowest in self-management skills such as handling pressure, frustration, delegation, conflict management.

Men, however, had more trouble with empathy, which she says is important to practice and become adept in. “It’s a data-gathering instrument,” not simply “touchy-feely.” A leader becomes more effective when he or she understands what the followers need, think and feel.

In assessing strengths and weaknesses, you should see yourself as you are now, not as you hope to be or once were. You have to be honest about the raw material you have to work with.

Essential to developing as a leader is observation. “Watch who the leaders are,” says Diane McFerrin Peters, a former communications officer for Rosenbluth International, a global travel services firm in Philadelphia. “The true leaders are individuals [whom] people just naturally gravitate toward.”

It is helpful to observe what it is that attracts others, what works and what doesn’t for these people, how they communicate, listen and delegate. By watching these people and those who empower them, you can see what people in your organization respond to.

Along the same lines, Peters suggests finding a mentor. “It could be someone who possesses knowledge or an aspect of leadership that you admire,” she says, adding that the person doesn’t have to be a supervisor or even in your department.

“It’s a great role model if you have a great mentor,” says Hal F. Rosenbluth, who co-wrote “Good Company: Caring as Fiercely as You Compete” (Addison-Wesley, 1998) with Peters.

However, not all mentoring relationships offer positive experiences. Rosenbluth says all of his were duds, which inspired him to be a better mentor than he encountered.

One childhood experience that left a permanent emotional bruise was a baseball coach tearing into him after he missed a catch, which caused his team to lose a game. As though he didn’t already feel low, he recalled, the coach berated him all the way to the dugout.

A good leader, like his son’s coach, would have capitalized on the loss as an opportunity to teach, he says.

Because of the team effort often required, athletics can provide a useful metaphor for the leader-follower relationship. The coach and the players share a vision. Every practice is spent reinforcing it. The players trust the coach to empower and encourage them to overcome the obstacles they might encounter. And the coach trusts the players to do the work. Although every game might not be a winner, lessons can be drawn from the experience.

Learning to lead, though, is more than watching from the bench. You’ve got to get in the game. “Leadership is best learned firsthand by experience,” Peters says. She suggests that blossoming leaders “jump in and grab ahold of projects and really kind of get your hands dirty.”

No matter how small the project, every opportunity lays a foundation of experience. And if you’re still in school, grab up all the opportunities you can. That way, you get a jump on flexing those developing leadership muscles within the closed, safe environment of academia.

“The success of many of your leadership activities depends on appropriate responsibility, accountability and authority--both given and accepted,” Frigon and Jackson write. When taking on responsibility, leaders must have the authority to act and are held accountable for their actions.

As for the act of leading, most successful leaders communicate effectively, empower followers, have a clear vision (that is, a plan for the future and foresight, hindsight and insight into the bigger picture and potential blind spots), positive self-regard and confidence.

But Morgan W. McCall, a USC professor of management and author of “High Flyers: Developing the Next Generation of Leaders” (Harvard Business School Press, 1998), warns that there’s a thin line between self-confidence and arrogance. “That’s why we admire humility so much.”

In “Off the Track: Why and How Successful Executives Get Derailed” (Center for Creative Leadership, 1983) which McCall coauthored, he writes that when success goes to leaders’ heads, they are misled into believing they are infallible and need no one else.

One way to keep an ego in check is to recognize that leaders wouldn’t have a role without people to lead. Therefore, a crucial duty is to empower followers by imbuing a sense of significance, competence and community.

“Great leaders often inspire their followers to high levels of achievement by showing them how their work contributes to worthwhile ends,” according to “Leader: Strategies for Taking Charge” (Harper & Row, 1985) by Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus.

This approach appeals to the basic human need to feel like useful contributors, they write. Maintaining open lines of honest communication is a way to create an inclusive environment, Rosenbluth adds. “Too many leaders at times are too guarded.” They should share their emotions, he says, but remain even-tempered.

The tone leaders set is often transferred to followers. If leaders are erratic and emotionally explosive, the followers are likely to be so too. While it might not be necessary, or appealing, to constantly have the enthusiasm of a cheerleader on game day, a leader’s attitude is infectious--positivity breeds positivity.

Again, it could take a bit of trial and error to discover how to effectively generate a positive aura in a way that agrees with your personality, skills and patterns.

Crafting leadership skills isn’t really a paint-by-numbers venture; the process won’t produce identical copies.

“There are many different ways to be successful” as a leader, McCall says. All leaders have a unique blend of characteristics that guide them to success and carry them through failure.