Coach Mike Krzyzewski said leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated. Coach K leadership needed simple things. Krzyzewski certainly understood the leadership qualities of the best leadership, didn’t he?
Spot on. I have been in the military and business world for forty years, and I often get asked what leader qualities contribute to the best leadership.
Developing these qualities is a lifelong learning process. You are never done learning. Every great leader always looks for ways to improve on all of these qualities.
Leadership can be especially challenging for entrepreneurs. Balancing the need to run a business (i.e., products, investors, customers, etc.) and the need to lead company personnel is quite a task.
Effective leader qualities as an entrepreneur mean that you can “make things happen,” instead of just “letting things happen.”
The quality of leader influence involvement is required in many activities. It is involved in a variety of situations and problems, from the very simple to the very complex.
Leaders must influence others to achieve goals, and they must gain the respect of followers to influence them. This is no easy task, but if you want to have the respect of your followers, you have many trusted leader qualities.
Here are 13 leader qualities Coach K uses with his team to improve their ability to develop to be the best leaders they can be:
Coach K leadership … foster teamwork
Drucker made an interesting point when he said that leaders don’t train themselves not to say “I.” He’s implying that leaders innately work with others and let the team get the credit. They don’t force themselves to say “we.” “We” is natural for them, and it’s the way they’ve always thought.
We believe that employing an “employee of the month” or a “who gets credit for what” attitude is not a good process. You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.
Coach K leadership … encourage growth in others
Some companies follow the motto: “hire for character, train for skill.” You hire people that are eager to learn and are very “raw.” They don’t have a ton of skills; but as a leader, you teach them, and they become better. They grow with your company and contribute to its success.
You see this with football coaches. In football coaching, it’s almost unheard of for someone with no experience to be hired as the head coach of a team. Most people start in a low-level position (i.e., video coordinator, quality control assistant, scout, etc.) and gradually move up if they become successful in their roles.
Sometimes it takes more than thirty years before they finally get a chance to be the head coach.
The same can occur in business. George Bodenheimer is the former president of ESPN. He started out working in the mailroom of ESPN. It would have been very difficult for him to rise to the presidency if he hadn’t had a boss who wanted to help him grow and succeed in the company.
Coach K leadership … show courage
Always demonstrate your courage in making tough decisions, knowing that bad decisions will be penalized. Remember that doing nothing is always an option.
Coach K leadership … boost player confidence
Employee attitude is so critical that it can’t be overemphasized. It trickles down from employers. Your business isn’t optimized if you don’t optimize for employee happiness.
Leaders should make employees feel good about themselves. Constantly criticizing and pointing out the flaws in an employee is a sure fire way to decrease morale and performance.
Listens firsts and acts second
Someone who jumps to conclusions without first seeking to understand has made a fatal error—for themselves and their team. To lead people effectively, you have to take the time to listen and see things from their perspective. You have to put yourself in their shoes and fully understand the situation.
Coach K leadership … always empowers people
Many of my leadership philosophies were learned as an athlete. My most successful teams didn’t always have the most talent but did have teammates with the right combination of skills, strengths and a common trust in each other.
To build an ‘overachieving’ team, you need to delegate responsibility and authority. Giving away responsibilities isn’t always easy.
It can be harder to do than completing the task yourself, but with the right project selection and support, delegating can pay off in dividends. It is how you truly find people’s capabilities and get the most out of them.
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Get people to follow you
You earn leadership by what Anne Mulcahy calls “followership.”
“I think sometimes we forget that we’re not anointed leaders, we have to earn it, and we have to have people that trust us and are willing to follow. I think that is the differentiator between great leadership and average leadership.”
-Anne Mulcahy, Former Chairman, and CEO of Xerox Corporation
Even if a leader is anointed, it doesn’t mean that they’ll have followers. The leader needs to gain the trust of the followers. It has to be earned because not many people will mindlessly follow a leader.
Coach K leadership … inspire people
Inspire and motivate to get the most from each team member and succeed based on your ability to work with others.
A quality of great leaders can articulate ideas and get people excited and inspired by them. It’s not selling people on an idea; it’s inspiring them.
Wear your passion and enthusiasm
Always wear your passion and enthusiasm for what you are doing. To do that, you must find those things that you love. Follow the passion; it is what gives you the strength to overcome the obstacles to everyday tasks. Passion is power. It is what keeps you going when everyone else gets tired and gives up.
Coach K leadership … be a continuous learner
Observing and learning from those around you makes you stronger, better. Never fail to see its value. Your peers, as well as competitors, can usually teach you more than your friends. Let them. Learn from them.
To be a great leader, you need to have a strong will and an even stronger stomach. You need to remind yourself that your job isn’t to make everyone happy, but rather to improve the organization as a whole.
Good leaders are constantly trying to improve, surround themselves with the ablest people they can find. They look squarely at their own mistakes and deficiencies, and they ask frankly what skills they and the company will need in the future.
And because of this, they can move forward with confidence that’s grounded in the facts, not built on fantasies about their talent.
Always work hard at being a little better than you were the day before. Continuous learning is one of the most important attributes in the work and personal environment.
Coach K leadership … show persistence
Persistence is key. Always keep up the effort as you will never know how close to success you may be.
Think about your energy. It’s not just about what you like best, but about what feeds you and what depletes you. And who.
Do what you can to increase the good stuff and decrease the bad. You just need to realize you have the power to accomplish it. Much more than you may have imagined.
Limit your fear of failure
No matter how confident someone may seem, everyone is afraid of failing. All of us are afraid of screwing up or afraid of looking stupid.
But great leaders know that everyone they interact with is also afraid.
These people are successful because they act in the face of fear. They go after what they believe, seek change and, ultimately, make a difference.
They also believe they can take a risk because even if they fail, they’ll be able to learn from it and overcome it. Their fear doesn’t hold them back. Instead, it springs them into action, because they know not stretching themselves is worse than failing.
Coach K leadership … stay optimistic and positive
To achieve greatness, you must create a culture of optimism. There will be many ups and downs, but the prevalence of positivity will keep the company going. But be warned: This requires fearlessness. You have to believe in making the impossible possible.
The bottom line
A simple reminder is that business leadership skills, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it. It takes lots of consistent practice. You need to dive into the pool as soon as possible.
Great leaders know that every step they take, every decision they make, matters in the end. They know they must strategize carefully, and then act decisively. They know they must think ahead — not just to their next step — but to the many steps after it.
Practice these leadership behaviors often and think ahead for your greatest leadership advantages.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.
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Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
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Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
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More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Build an Effective Team by Being a Talent Hound
Success Enablers of Highly Creative Leaders
Secrets to Becoming a Remarkably Mindful Leader
Leadership Characteristics That Improve Influence |