Three keys to great leadership

There are more books on leadership than you could read in a lifetime.

Yet few people understand leadership, and I suspect more people break the rules of leadership success than actually follow them.

In my career I have worked with leaders who imposed rules and demanded respect for the hierarchy that supported them, yet failed miserably to describe their goals or inspire anyone to give a care. They could acknowledge great performance when they saw it, but they never really defined what they expected – let alone earned the trust which would enable their teams to perform beyond targets.

All of which is to say… Leadership is hard. It's called a “soft skill,” but leadership is as hard as diamond, and tougher to crack.

Leadership is especially challenging for entrepreneurs, who often lack formal business training (or skipped their management classes to focus on their startups). Most entrepreneurs learn to be “bosses” on-the-job, which is of course a major reason why 90% of startups fail.

My three shortcuts to great leadership:

·  *    Leadership is all about preparation. You have to X-ray your organization or business plan to make sure you understand it completely – and what has to be done to carry it out. You need to have the right people on the bus in the right seats (as they say in Good to Great). Few leaders can get the results they need with the wrong people or the wrong plan. It’s your job to know where you're going, your job to hire the people to get you there, and your job to set the goals that help your team understand what success looks like. There’s a lot of improvisation in leadership – but the less there is, the better.

“Leadership is action, not position.” That's one of my favourite quotes, from former broadcasting CEO Donald McGannon. Whenever you find yourself thinking too much, this quote will remind you to get out of your office and go talk to your team. They want to know what you are thinking, how you would do things, what opportunities you are seeing now. A business is nothing without optimism and inspiration. That’s your real job now.

·       Leadership is Feedback. “How’m I doing, coach?” is the question on the mind of every athlete – and your best employees want feedback, too. So many companies offer employees feedback just once or twice a year, usually at tension-filled reviews where all employees really want to know is if they’re going to get that raise.

Every day is an opportunity to give people feedback! Use active questions to find out what they need. Ask employees how they're doing, ask what they think they could have done differently, ask if they need anything else to do a better job. Then tell them stories about how you might solve a problem similar to the one they're facing now. Pat them on the back, invite them to try something new, and let them know you're always available to talk more.

Leadership is also about consistency (but not conformity). Make sure all the other leaders in your organization follow your example. Sometimes it’s the lieutenants that screw everything up for the whole army – because they haven't had much leadership training either, but they also don't see the big picture you do – so they may not understand how important their leadership is.

Business is always changing; everyone is learning every day. Follow these rules and your whole organization will move forward, together, faster.