The Guru Nation Blog

10 Characteristics of Good Leadership

We are halfway through a generational change in senior leadership explains Guru John Beeson, President Beeson Consulting. This shift and subsequent war for talent, however, is largely masked at the moment by the economic downturn. However, the search for leadership will become more readily apparent as we ascend out of the economic doldrums. So, you query, if I want to be a contender, what must I do? Are there 10 characteristics of good leadership, for example, that everyone in the queue should follow? What develops senior leaders? What serves as the foundation for moving forward successfully?

Here’s the roadmap on the 10 characteristics of good leadership:
The general headline is this: senior leaders are born from rich careers in which they have a variety of assignments and consequently a broad perspective; which is contrary to what happens organically in most companies not skilled in developing leaders internally. The road more frequently traveled  is one in which people tend to come up through one functional area of the company. This marks a philosophical misunderstanding of leadership development. John Beeson explains that the troubling trend inside of companies is for promotions to seem arbitrary and political. Moreover, HR is frequently discouraged by a lack of C- suite talent. One of the predominant causes of this trend is an aversion to delivering constructive criticism, as John titles it, “feedback that counts.” So the first of the 10 characteristics of good leadership is the ability and drive to solicit this feedback that counts. As in to find out candidly from the decision makers, “If I want to get to the next level, what do I need to do?”

The second is a track record of performance. Lets face it, to become a leader you need to merit the responsibility and to stand out as a top performer. The third in the 10 characteristics of good leadership is this:  ethics, integrity and character. Do not let your personal agenda get ahead of that of the business. Seek to align the two. The fourth and fifth require you to be aware of derailers; factors that could result in your being “de-selected.” These factors include insensitivity to others which results in loose loyalties and is evidence of weak interpersonal skills; and secondly, a narrow, parochial, perspective on business.

A capacity for innovation and change is essential to leadership and is therefore number six in the dissection of the 10 characteristics of good leadership. Seventh is the capacity for strategic thinking; the ability to connect the dots. Eighth is the talent for selecting a good team which leads directly to number nine: implementation. This is the ability to “get the wash out the door.” Can you delegate and work well with your team to produce results? The ninth characteristic is lateral management; the skill to get things done within your organization; to manage bureaucracy and coordinate well with other departments. The tenth seems obvious but may also prove the most challenging. It is the capacity to grow and develop as a leader; to adapt and to change.

Some argue it’s politics that launch leaders forward but in fact, there is a “method to the madness” for identification and promotion deeply rooted in these 10 characteristics of good leadership. John Beeson’s Guru Nation interview called Decoding the Unwritten Rules of Corporate Advancement (see archives from April 2009) decodes in more depth and discusses these 10 characteristics of good leadership from his vantage point as a specialist in succession planning.