Leaders come in many different forms. Jim Collins describes the leader in "Good to Great" as a humble introverted type. Most authors describe leaders as extrovert, driven, and strong people. We hear about encouragement, love, vision, innovation, speaking skills and many other attributes that leaders will possess.
Well, I believe these are symptoms of a leader but not the core. A leader expresses themselves in these ways but it is not why people follow them.
Lets start by defining a leader. We will use the simple definition of "one who is followed". Sorry, I am too simple to go any further than that.
So, why would someone follow?
Trust is the best answer I know. Stephen Covey expressed this in his book "The Speed of Trust" recently. He identified four areas of trust (in my words - Sorry Stephen):
1. Intentions
2. Behaviors
3. Skills
4. Results
If a leader shows great intentions to the people he or she is leading. They will have confidence they can trust them enough to follow. If a leader has behaviors that support the good intentions and they take the time to show how much they care about those who are following, the followers will want to follow.
Skills are a big one. Many people have great intentions and behaviors but they are not worth following. Why? They have nothing worth following. A follower wants to know a leader has intellectual capital, strong skills to get results, can offer to do something better than they can do themselves, or finds ways to bring new hope on a continual basis. They have to see a skill that makes them believe they are following something that will make things better.
The last item is even more critical. RESULTS. No results, no followers. Can you imagine being put into a battle troop where the commander has the highest loss of soldier rate? I would want to go out with a leader that has NEVER lost a soldier. I would want to work for a leader that has proven he or she will take you to great results.
The bottom line is a leader has to be trusted. To accomplish this trust they have to be others focused, listen, and enjoy others results more than their own. Then they can start filling these four trust buckets up with deposits to make people want to follow.
Thanks Mr Covey for the insights. I think it is the magical formula for leadership. Great speaking, introversion, extroversion, encouragement, innovation, and other media will be how we express this trust.
