We all have been in trainings, lectures, and discussions where we were taught the difference between a manager and a leader. We are taught that a leader makes an organization flourish, keeps the employees together, and helps make the difference between a good and a great organization. I believe with certainty that leaders are more effective, persuasive, and efficient people who help organizations achieve better results. However, I also believe the term “leader” is overrated and misunderstood.
We call senior professionals, senior managers, and authority-seeking people leaders, but there’s much more to being a leader than experience or position within an organization. Before I get into the traits that make a leader stand out, let me share a few examples of people who I consider are true leaders:
- The janitor at your office who ensures that his area of responsibility is so clean that when you pass through that area you softly appreciate the janitor in your mind. I have done this so many times at the airports, malls, my society building, and many a time in my office building too.
- The junior professional on the team who steps up to raise a concern faced by most of his teammates who themselves were not confident to raise the issue because of the fear of rejection.
- The “untitled” professional or peer who motivates, steers, mentors, coaches his/her peers without the official standing to do so, and without the added responsibility to do so. He/she does it out of sheer self-will, self-motivation, and the willingness to make their organization succeed.
I worked with a peer, senior to me professionally, but with a limited authority in the management. She would coach me through turbulent times, show me the bigger picture when I was down, and would brainstorm solutions to make our organization flourish. She is a true leader: one who cares for her people and for the business.
Now, please pause for a moment. Reflect on your team, family, neighborhood, and workplace. Can you think of a leader among any of these three areas of your life? I’ll let you take a mental note of them while I outline the three traits that I feel makes a leader stand out:
They have values: This is the single most important factor which differentiates true leaders from the rest. Their decisions are guided by a set of values that they truly believe in and are determined to implement across their personal, professional, and social life. However, it is worth noting that although the core values might be the same in all three areas of your life, some values may be very domain specific.
They have superior standards: Amazon founder and the world’s wealthiest man, Jeff Bezos recently wrote a letter to shareholders and he had this message for the employees of Amazon and its shareholders: “It all comes down to maintaining high standards. The four elements of high standards as we see it: they are teachable, they are domain specific, you must recognize them, and you must explicitly coach realistic scope.” You can find more about this letter and a brief summary in this article. The essence here lies in the fact that standards low or high are contagious. And no organization has ever succeeded with low standards be it services or products industry. True leaders always have superior standards for themselves and their team. They set the tone, follow it religiously, and empower others to follow the same.
- They look at the bigger picture: In his iconic autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela shares the story of grit, determination, and hardships that he went through while being in prison for 27 years, all for "a dream." A dream far from present when he was first imprisoned, a dream only a few could see then and a dream which finally brought the change and gave South Africa the freedom. He was a leader who changed the history of a country forever. And such are also the leaders in business. When things go south, the leaders don’t thump their chests and declare mayhem, but rather see the light beyond darkness, raise hope beyond silence, and envision the day when night doesn’t seem to end. The attitude of such leaders are infectious because they give people one fundamental right of living: hope. As Bob Iger rightly mentions in his book Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons in Creative Leadership, one of all-time business classics also recommended by Bill Gates, “If you walk up and down the halls constantly telling people “the sky is falling,” a sense of doom and gloom will, over time, permeate the company. You can’t communicate pessimism to the people around you. It’s ruinous to morale. No one wants to follow a pessimist.”
There are many other points which may differentiate an effective leader from others, but these three traits are true differentiators in my opinion.
What other qualities do you think differentiate a true leader from the rest?
