How Do You Know Someone Has Real Leadership Skills? Look for 4 Signs

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Sometimes the best way you'll know a current leader's effectiveness is to compare them to a previous leader that made your work life too good to be true.

As you recall those experiences, let me ask you a question: how did they make you feel -- as an employee, and as a human being? When I ask this question in my workshops or keynotes, I get answers like "I would run through walls for that person."

The research often refers to them as?servant leaders , conscious leaders, authentic leaders, or transformational leaders. Whatever you call them, one thing is for sure: their effectiveness releases discretionary effort across an organization. That's good for business.

Having developed servant leaders ?in the past two decades, I've found that they shine the spotlight on other people. They don't want the attention, and they share their power and status to benefit the people under their care.

The secret comes down to three words:?People over profit. And when that happens, companies will actually produce?more?profit. Imagine that.

4 Signs That Will Reveal Great Leadership

To get practical, let's dive into the most prevalent leadership behaviors of such leaders. While there are countless leadership practices that lead to great outcomes, for this post, I'll narrow it down to four:

1. They spread joy

Let me ask you an honest question: Do you look forward to going to work when you get up on a Monday morning? Do you look forward to interacting with your colleagues? Do you feel appreciated by your boss because he/she takes care of you?

If you're nodding your head yes, you probably experience joy. Congratulations! Joy is an emotion evoked by well-being and success that's experienced by every employee in healthy work cultures under great leaders.

It's the feeling you get in a highly collaborative environment where people respect one another, where there's real teamwork among colleagues who encourage each other, where co-workers share the same values, and there's constant synergy in the air. In such a place, when it's nearing the end of the workday, the place is still buzzing with energy and excitement and people find it hard to pull away and go home. This is joy! And leaders are the ones responsible for creating the environment to foster this type of joy.

2. They link purpose to their employees' work

As documented in the prolific book Give and Take, studies find that when purpose?is linked to a person's work, it will not only?improve that person's happiness, it will boost their work productivity.

One way to tie purpose into people's work is to give employees the chance to connect with and meet the people they are serving.

In one research study, three groups of employees in a university fundraising call center were tasked to call donors to ask for financial contributions. One of the groups in the study was tasked with reading personal stories from scholarship recipients--about how those scholarships had changed their lives. Turns out that this particular group increased their fundraising by 143% versus the other groups who just made calls as part of their normal duties.

Here's the kicker: When these same fundraisers were given the opportunity to meet a scholarship recipient and ask them questions for as little as five minutes, their fundraising went up by more than 400 percent!

Conclusion? Having employees meet the people they are helping is the greatest motivator, even if it's limited to a few minutes.

Employers have a competitive edge when they can give their people access to customers, so they can see firsthand the human impact their work makes.

This is about having work that brings with it meaning and purpose, every day. When employees feel that they are making a difference through their work--whether they're designing apps or laying down asphalt--it increases their motivation to perform.

3. They create pathways for ongoing people development

People development is not a separate retention activity enforced by HR. It's ingrained in the mindset of servant leaders. Obviously, this is a good business strategy, as it will increase team performance.

But beyond that, developing people is a goal of leadership in and of itself. It's a way of being. And this is how great leaders do it:

• They identify their employees' gifts, talents, strengths, and personality types for the best job fit, so they can reach their potential.
• They champion a learning spirit within the organization, sending a clear message that "growing our people is one of our highest priorities."
• They provide ongoing training, coaching, and mentoring opportunities that are aligned with job purpose, performance measures, and fulfilling the organizational mission.

4. They build trust that leads to business outcomes

If you are considering developing your own leadership, or the leadership competencies of your management team, trust is a pillar your company's leadership should stand on. In the most trusted organizations documented in the literature, you'll find employee engagement is high and turnover low. Why? Because these trusted behaviors are ingrained in the work culture:

• Allowing people to express their voice
• Communicating with transparency and candor
• Confronting reality
• Clarifying expectations
• Listening first
• Removing fear from the atmosphere

This is how effective leadership teams and employees interact day-to-day. Imagine the possibilities of leveraging such behaviors to increase trust across the board. Employee performance ratings go up, and as a result, your customers will notice a difference.

A clear example of leadership trust in practice is modeled by The Container Store, which has been ranked several times on?Fortune's annual list of "100 Best Companies to Work For."

One of their core Foundation Principles is "Communication is Leadership." This organizational principle is rooted in the belief that "communication must be consistent, reliable, predictable, effective, thoughtful, compassionate, and yes, even courteous."

The power behind this leadership principle comes from team members feeling like nothing is being held back from them and that everything has been communicated on their behalf. Immense loyalty, trust and commitment are released across the enterprise when the workforce feels that their employer has their backs.

Your turn: What other signs would you add to this list? Leave a comment and let's learn from each other.

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If you’re a fan of?Ken Blanchard ?and?#servantleadership , you’re going to love this episode. Ken returned to the Love in Action podcast to talk about his new book, “Simple Truths of Leadership: 52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust.”

Listen here: Website | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Download

5 Key Take-aways from This Episode

• On Servant Leadership: According to Ken, it consists of two parts. “The vision, direction, values, and goals are the leadership part,” he explains. Such is the responsibility of the hierarchy; people need to know what good behavior looks like, and what they’re held accountable for. The servant part of servant leadership involves “helping them win.” Servant leaders work to help their people accomplish their goals and live according to the vision.
• On False Pride: What prevents people from being servant leaders is either a 'more-than' philosophy, where people believe they shine brighter than others, or a 'less-than' philosophy, where they ruminate on their faults and doubt themselves. “In both of them, they’re focusing on themselves,” he adds. “The cure for false pride is humility… and the way you deal with feelings of inferiority is to realize that God didn’t make any junk.”
• On Leadership Influence: Every one of us is a leader, and no one can avoid that. Leadership is an influence process; by simply having a relationship of any nature with someone, you have the potential to lead them. Therefore, servant leadership is about becoming a better human being. "Great human beings don’t center their lives on themselves, they center it on others," says Ken.

• On Love and Leadership: Ken believes servant leadership is love in action. “Love is patient, kind, does not envy, and all those wonderful characteristics,” he remarks. "It’s not soft at all because it’s very powerful. Love means ‘I care about you, I want you to win…’ Love is about both people and results.”
• On the Simple Truths: “My hope for people who read this book is that they will use it with their people, because simple truths are not to be done?to?people; they are to be done?with?people,” Ken comments. “If you are a leader who wants to serve instead of be served, and build trust with you people, you’re gonna go up the hierarchy like crazy and win.”

Great conversation with a true legend, hope you'll join Ken and me. Listen to the whole episode now. ????

Listen here: Website | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Download

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An invitation for senior leaders looking to develop their management teams

I have created the ‘From Boss to Leader ’ course to teach?new and emerging?leaders/managers?the leadership skills they need to succeed in post-pandemic times. Watch this?2-minute video ?to see if it may be right for your management team. Then I invite you to?book a 15-minute call with me ?so I can personally hear your organizational and leadership challenges and offer some free advice.

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About Marcel Schwantes

Marcel Schwantes ?is a global speaker, leadership expert, executive coach,?podcast host , and?syndicated columnist ?with a worldwide following. He teaches emerging leaders the skills to build great work cultures where people and businesses flourish.