What’s the recipe for a “real leader?”

Many companies today are cursed with bosses who aren’t leaders.

While organizations should always strive to put true leaders into authority positions, sometimes you end up with the opposite. Fortunately you can also have leaders who don’t hold an “official” leadership role. These “informal leaders” are some of the most valuable people in your organization.

In an article last week, The Muse outlined 10 Signs that show “you’re a real leader.” (I’m sure you’ll note that this is also a pretty great list of Approachable Leadership behaviors).

  1. You have an Open Mind and Seek Out Other People’s Opinions

  2. You Offer Advice and Counsel

  3. People Count on You

  4. You’re a Good Listener and People Confide in You

  5. Others Follow Your Example

  6. You Insist on Excellence

  7. You Have a Positive Attitude

  8. You Treat People With Respect

  9. You Genuinely Care About Others

  10. You Are Confident and Passionate

Often we make the critical mistake of promoting someone who is a high performer (the best sales person or the best producer) or the person we know best or are most comfortable with. This is a terrible hiring strategy. People can be GREAT at their jobs but not be leadership material. Recognizing this simple fact can save you a lot of headache and heartache.

When you promote someone – even someone everyone agrees is a high performer – who lacks leadership and people skills, you not only set that person up for failure as a leader, you also drastically damage the culture of your work place.

You can help not-so-great leaders develop some of the key leadership skills mentioned above; but if you care about YOUR reputation as a leader, the best advice I can give you is to promote good leaders from the get go.

This sounds easy, but it can be very difficult to do. Your decision may be unpopular at first. The best leader might be an average performer. Your decision may upset a high performer (and his or her friends) who thinks they deserve the promotion. This is why you have to have strong convictions about your decision and be able to clearly explain why you made the choice you did.

There are plenty of ways to develop, support, and show appreciation for those employees who are great at their jobs, but missing some of the qualities of real leaders.

Even if you’re not looking to promote anyone right now, start looking for the 10 traits listed above in your team members. When you spot someone doing one let them know. People love feedback, and noticing these traits will be especially gratifying. Also make a mental note – these are good prospects for future leadership roles.

Are there any skills you would add or subtract from the list? Have you ever promoted the best performer and regretted it? What do you do to identify your best leadership talent before you make a promotion? Join the discussion below!

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