Leadership Can Make or Break an Organization

Checklist for Effective Leadership

Leadership can make or break a team or even an organization. An effective leader will bring out the best in their team, and inspire them to do more than they even thought possible. Effective leaders allow employees to reach their full potential, and keeps them highly motivated, committed to the team and the organization as a whole, and productive. This all leads to high morale, and an environment where people enjoy their jobs and want to come to work. That essentially leads to peak performance in an organization.

On the other hand, ineffective leaders can make a team feel like they don’t care about them. That feeling of not being important or valued shuts down creativity, innovation, productivity, and slowly demotivates a team. Ineffective leaders can lead to low employee morale, lesser engagement, overall employee dissatisfaction, and ultimately unpredictable business performance as the effect of low morale slowly seeps further and further into the organization.

Are you an effective leader? You do not have to exhibit all of the traits listed below, but you should be aware of where your weaknesses lie and always have a plan to improve. Your team will respect your willingness to take responsibility for your own behavior.

Here’s a checklist to get started. Celebrate those traits that come naturally to you, and develop a plan for the ones that do not. You, your team, and the organization will be better off as a result.

1. Integrity — this means being honest, meeting your commitments, and ultimately following that golden rule of treating others the way you want to be treated. To achieve this, you must share information openly, and make sure your team knows where you stand at all times. Don’t keep them guessing. Instead, make sure they are comforted in knowing that “what they see is what they get.”
2. Self-Aware — always know your strengths and weaknesses and be open about them with your team. Tell them what you are doing to capitalize on your strengths, and to lessen the impact of your weaknesses or to eliminate them entirely. Go through the same exercise with your team. They’ll have a better appreciation for your struggles, as they self-reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses.
3. Communicator — communication should be continual, clear, and concise. Information should be shared freely from the top down, allowing your team to stay informed, and eliminating the impact of your team getting invalid or miscommunicated information elsewhere.
4. Confident –confidence means not giving in too easily when challenged, because you have done your homework and know your opinions, ideas, and strategies are well informed and a result of hard work. Confidence also means admitting when you’re wrong, and taking responsibility to act quickly to improve the situation. Confidence is contagious. If you believe in yourself, you’ll find your team believing in themselves as well.
5. Transparent– always be 100% authentic, open, and candid in your communication. When your team does not know what is happening around them, they’ll tend to misunderstand situations or worse yet, come up with their own ideas while thinking the worse. Rumors then take over and negativity spreads quickly. Quell that with transparency so that the facts get out there and can be managed appropriately.
6. Focused — always plan ahead and stay organized. Make sure your team knows their mission, along with the strategy to get there. Communicate those plans on a regular basis, and focus your team on staying the course, making adjustments where necessary but communicating them clearly.
7. Inspirational — inspire people to be more than they thought they could be. Challenge your team by setting high, yet attainable goals; and then giving them the support, tools, and training to achieve those goals.
8. Passionate — love what you do and don’t be afraid to show it. Always try for bigger, better, and greater. Don’t just do the work to get it done, do it because it makes sense and will make a difference.
9. Innovative — always look for new ways to solve challenges and to improve the way your team works. Recognize ideas from others and develop a path to turn those ideas into reality.
10. Decisive — have the ability to make decisions quickly, without procrastination. Say “yes” to the right things, and “no” to the wrong things. Be comfortable knowing when to make decisions with the available information, versus taking more time to gather additional information.
11. Empowering — delegate responsibility and authority to your team. Know your team’s capabilities, provide them developmental opportunities, and give them the chance to achieve great things.
12. Empathetic — it’s important to not only care about the organization, but to also care about your team, and to show it through words AND actions. Do not expect more from your team than you are willing to give yourself, and ensure your team has the right amount of work/life balance.
13. Accountable — take responsibility for your team and yourself. Follow up on issues, monitor the effectiveness of policies and procedures, and ensure the work is getting done. When things are going well, praise your team. When things are not going so well, find solutions and get them back on track.
14. Collaborative — solicit feedback from the team and make sure people are a part of the process. Don’t hide behind closed doors. Make sure everyone feels like they are a part of the process. People will feel valued and you’ll have more buy-in, which leads to success.
15. Fun — making work fun can lessen stress levels, and also can help strengthen relationships, build trust, and ultimately create better teams. Make it a priority to ensure everyone knows it’s okay to have fun at work.