What Is The Secret Sauce Of Being A Great Leader?

Great leadership requires three things

Hank was frustrated. He was intelligent, committed, and had worked hard, but he was not achieving the success he expected. Like most leaders, Hank could give a list of reasons why his team’s goals were not being met, and like most leaders, Hank blamed it on circumstances outside his control. In his head, Hank understood that any leader could give reasons for not achieving acceptable results; he also understood that the best leaders achieve extraordinary results despite inevitable challenges. But, of course, he saw his situation differently.
 

How do some leaders achieve success and make it look so easy? Why do others have difficulty getting the outcomes they desire? What is the secret sauce of being a great leader?

Many people wonder about these questions. Great leadership requires three things. Get these right, and everything else will be easy.

Think Who, Not How

Luckily, early in my career, I realized that I was not great at anything; to be successful, I needed to be on a great team. Fortunately, that has happened over and over through the years; to the degree that if I have had any success, it is because of the people around me. Knowing this, whenever there was a problem to solve, I always thought, “who, not how.”

Many other leaders have the same weaknesses as me but don’t realize it. Over the years, innumerable leaders have come to me with a problem asking for my advice because they were unsure of what to do. When I respond, “think who, not how,” their eyes light up, and they look like a big load has been lifted off them.

Some leaders spend years trying to find the solution to a problem – we all have them - and will keep spending time on the problem trying to figure it out themselves. Finding the right Who, solves issues more quickly and creates a lot of additional time for the leader to focus on areas where they excel. This truly is a transformative concept that can change the trajectory of your company and career.

The first thing a leader needs to do is to make sure they have the right people on the team. If they don’t, they need to do the hard work of changing their team.

Clarity

After reading my leadership book, Education of a CEO, it is not unusual for people to ask, “Is the bear story true?” If you, too, are wondering about the bear story and haven’t asked me yet, yes, it is true.

The short version of the story is that we have bears in our Central Florida neighborhood. The county says there are about 550, but we only see them a couple of times a year. In the book, I share a story about shooing bears off our back porch in the middle of the night thinking that one of the bears would not leave. Afraid the bear was going to break through the glass doors at the back of the house, I was ready to shoot it if necessary. For the record, I have zero interest in shooting a bear and would be sad if I had to, but that night I was ready to shoot anything breaking through that glass door.

The embarrassing part of this story is that I eventually realized it was not a bear stalking the house but a chair on the back porch. In the middle of that night, I lacked clarity.

Employees crave clarity. It is the leader’s job to ensure employees know everything they need to know and, as much as possible, what they want to know.

A leader must provide clarity on an organization’s vision, values, why, strategic plan, and annual budget.

When there is a lack of clarity or miscommunication about what is important in an organization, the leader often blames the team for not listening carefully. However, lack of clarity or miscommunication is ALWAYS the leader’s fault.

The leader must identify what is important and communicate it over and over. There are many opportunities for miscommunication in the distance between the leader’s head into the employee’s ear. That’s why communication often needs to be repeated.

Despite the challenges, creating clarity is not hard if a leader accepts responsibility, is intentional about it, and is willing to invest the time necessary to communicate important topics repeatedly. And when a leader does create clarity about the above items, the results are often exceptional.

Energy

Serving for several years on the University of Central Florida board, attending the school’s athletic events was always exciting. Football games played in the “Bounce House” were full of energy. Energy is powerful; it is up to leaders to provide that power to their teams.

Many leaders don’t like the responsibility of providing energy to their team, but that doesn’t mean it is not important. Either they believe it is the employee's responsibility to provide their own motivation, or they don’t want to make an effort to energize their team. However, it is a big mistake to disregard the benefits of energizing a team; an energized team can get a lot accomplished. It takes effort to provide energy to your team, but the benefits to the organization are exponential.

Whether or not we like the responsibility, leaders either provide energy to a team or de-energize them. The best leaders provide energy. They can do it by creating clarity, showing interest in their team, being optimistic, not wearing their feelings on their sleeve, and affirming their team for behavior in the right direction.

Even if it is not natural for you, it is still your job to provide energy to your team. Being an energizer will drive great results; it has a tremendous return on investment.

The leader’s primary job is to get results. Getting the right people on the team and providing them with clarity and energy will drive any leader’s desired results.

Author Bio

Bill Yeargin is President and CEO of Correct Craft and has authored five books, including Making Life Better – The Correct Craft Story.   Connect Bill Yeargin