The Leadership Alphabet - A

Over the last 2 and a half decades I’ve had the pleasure of engaging, collaborating, working with, working for and learning from some of the best leaders in the world (or at least in my little world).

In the first of a series, each based on a letter of the alphabet, I attempt to bring to the front of our minds some of the leadership qualities that my colleagues and I recognise to be some of the qualities, or characteristics of truly great leaders. Some of the men and women I have had the pleasure of working with, simply and effortlessly know how to inspire others. Inspire others to produce excellent work, excellent results, excellent outcomes that make a difference, that really make you, as an individual, relevant and part of something big.

So what’s A for?

A is for Authenticity, in my opinion one of the most important qualities of a great leader. You need to mean what you say, and say what you mean. According to Dictionary.com Authenticity is defined as “the quality of being authentic; genuineness” and authentic is defined as “not false or copied; genuine; real; having an origin supported by unquestionable evidence; authenticated; verified”. People can tell if you are an authentic person or not, they can see through actions, words, and can clearly identify when people talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk. Hypocrites and liars will never, ever make brilliant leaders.

One should mention that an important aspect of Authenticity is body language and tone of voice and how they affect the meta message. The Mehrabian Model claims that 55% of a message (with attitude) is relayed through body language, 38% tone of voice and only 7% choice of words. This means that if those 3 are incongruent, we appear inauthentic or deceptive. We know when people are inauthentic by listening to them and by witnessing how their actions are congruent with their words (do they really walk the walk).

John C Maxwell defines leadership, “ A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. ”

A is for Accountability. Without accountability, you have chaos. Truly inspiring leaders are not afraid to step up to the challenge … they do it carefully, with much consideration, they understand exactly what they are getting themselves into, but when the decision is taken, that accountability is theirs ! Check out the Lencioni model, one of the components is accountability.

A is for Appreciative – great leaders are always quick to show, using various methods their appreciation of good quality work and contributions, whether it is to their workers, team as a whole, peers, people outside their teams … but when someone does a good job, they always show their appreciation. There must be a carrot, there must be some form of recognition – one of the most important factors affecting job satisfaction. Appreciation contributes to motivation, which is super critical and always remember, different people, are motivated by different things.

A is for Assertive … and there’s a difference between assertive and aggressive (which I’m not going to go into). Once a decision has been made, occasionally, an assertive attitude may be required with certain people in the organisation and there’s really nothing wrong with that, as long as there is a respectable, polite and constructive attitude, being assertive is really needed from time to time. Indeed assertive is how everyone should aspire to be in most circumstances and with most people. Leaders who master this style are more effective because their teams respect them rather than fear them.

A is for Ambition – I doubt that I’ve come across a truly inspiring leader who does not have and shows ambition ... that drive for greatness, that willingness to push boundaries, to challenge the norm, to grow, to over achieve, to really exceed expectations, maybe even to just be a little bit better today than yesterday.

At this stage, I should mentions that A, unfortunately can also be for Arrogance. No one likes an arrogant person, no one. I’ve never come across anyone saying, “Oh … I love that guy, he’s so arrogant” or “That lady is a pleasure to work for, her arrogance is contagious!” – never. Studies show that arrogance is one of the biggest turn offs in relationships in general (be it work or personal life related).

I’m sure, you, the reader, has also had the privilege of working with some fantastic leaders. What other attributes have I missed (that begins with an A)?

Comments, suggestions, recommendations are always welcome.

Watch out for “The Leadership Alphabet – B” coming your way soon.