Hats Off to a Highly-Effective Leader

by John Keyser

I’m excited. I met with a great leader today, and I am now sitting on a train reflecting about her principles. I just decided to write about our conversation. I think many of my readers will admire how she views her responsibility as a leader.

For context, she heads an important division of a large, well-known global firm. She and I had not met before today. A friend simply thought we would enjoy knowing one another and made the connection.

She really didn’t know much about me at all. We asked about each other’s background, and she specifically asked about what I do to support to my clients in achieving their goals. Of course I was also eager to learn about her team, goals and challenges.

We discussed leadership in business today, including where it’s weak, why that is, and why too many senior people seem to be too insecure and hesitant to truly engage with their people in conversation, that is, except to speak with their other senior managers.

We also discussed how busy everyone is, too busy, attending countless meetings and conference calls and reading endless emails.

She, in fact, receives a very significant number of phone calls a day, and it is very demanding for her to prioritize, to get things done, and to get back to people.

She talked with pride about her team.  They are very professional, very capable, ready to go the extra mile when needed, and loyal, very little turnover.  She is an upfront and open communicator, trusts her people, and tries to be anything but bureaucratic.

So here’s a leader who has a highly productive and loyal team, and she is doing great as their leader.

What brought me a whole lot of admiration for her was that she leaned forward and said, “Let’s do a 360 assessment on me so I can learn if I have any blind spots. I’m sure that when I learn the perceptions of the people I work with there will be some things I should work to improve.”

Here is a leader with humility, which is the foundation of growth!

And here is a leader who has coupled that humility with the inner-confidence to be vulnerable by asking for feedback, ideas and advice.

She is setting the stage for openly striving for continuous improvement.

I am certain that while the 360 assessment is anonymous in that she will only see themes, she will herself share with her team members and other colleagues what she learned from the 360, what she is working on, i.e., her personal development plan, and will ask for ongoing feedback.

As she has the confidence to ask for their help, she is setting the stage for the team, all 76 of them, to strive for continuous improvement as a team.  She is setting an excellent example. This is true leadership!

With morale in business being so low today, my hat is off to a leader who is all about her team. She has no personal agenda other than wanting to be her best and wanting to help her team members be their best selves and succeed.