How to spot a great leader
In these post-crisis times, great leaders seem to be hard to find. There are lots of people who love to lecture others or are more interested in who is right than what is right. However leaders are the people the world lacks. So here are a few ways to spot a leader:
1. True leaders don't limit themselves to “lets choose one option” mentality, when being asked to select either A or B. Such mentality unnecessarily limits opportunities by killing creativity and innovation. Leaders go for an “and” approach, as their job is to create and preserve options, not limit them.
2. You rarely come across a leader with no sense of empathy. Good leaders are tuned into the emotional needs of those, whom they work with. They engage, listen and acknowledge, and most importantly, they treat you like a colleague, not a subordinate. Anyone can add value to your world if you're willing to listen. How many times have you ignored someone because of his or her important job title when what you should have done was listen? Great ideas don't just come from peers and superiors – they come from anywhere at any time, but only if you're willing to listen.
3. Great leaders are not afraid to give credit, nor are they afraid to take the blame. Nobody is flawless or perfect, so why pretend to look like you are? Leadership is about taking responsibility for your actions, being ready to get hit and survive it.
4. Being able to compromise is essential. True leaders know how to compromise without losing their core values. Such people don't choose sides; they listen to both of opinions and then try to bridge the gap between the sides with a compromising solution.
5. Leadership begins at the end of your comfort zone. You can hardly imagine a leader who doesn't try to challenge the conventional practices and inspire others to do the same. They don't manage risk, they manage opportunity. They don't fear change, but embrace it. And most importantly, they don't rest on their past accomplishments, they create new ones. If in doubt – look at the scoreboard, it's all there.
6. The best leaders inspire one company, one specific mindset. They don't create internal competitors, but rather they focus on creating internal collaboration. The best leaders are those who unite values, vision, mission and strategy. No purpose equals no passion equals no leadership.
I hope that helped you to get the basic idea of who good leaders are. So now look around you, let's try to find those leaders together!
Vocabulary:
- spot – notice someone or something – заметить
- mentality – a particular way of thinking – склад ума, менталитет
- preserve – keep something from changing or being lost – сохранять
- come across – meet someone or find something by chance – встретить
- empathy – the ability to understand how someone feels because you can imagine what it is like to be them – сопереживание
- are tuned into – understand something such as a situation or someone else's feelings – настроены на
- acknowledge – recognize that something is important – отдавать отчет в
- a subordinate – someone who has less power or a lower post at work than someone else – подчиненный
- peers – people who belong to the same social or professional group – ровня
- superior – have a higher status – старший по рангу
- give credit – believe or say that someone is good at something – признавать заслуги
- essential – completely necessary – необходимый
- core values – main values – базовые ценности
- bridge the gap between – reduce the differences that separate two things or groups – преодолеть разрыв или разницу между
- conventional practices – traditional practices
- embrace – completely accept something such as a new belief, idea – принимать
- scoreboard – a board that shows how well the employees perform – доска, демонстрирующая результаты работников компании
- mindset – a way of thinking about things – мышление
