Three Leadership Principles To Live By: Clarity, Empowerment And Accountability

The secret to consistent growth within any organization is the strength of its leaders. Strong leaders show genuine interest in their employees’ long-term development and inspire them to perform at their highest capacities. This is accomplished through adroitness and sensitivity in dealing with difficult challenges, whether that be the cultivation of a soft skill or an interpersonal issue. Ultimately, it’s important to amplify and embrace individual motivations in order to maximize organizational standards.

Over the years, I have learned from some of the industry’s best leaders in both success and in failure. When I distill it down to the core elements that have always led to successful outcomes, there are the three leadership principles that executives should live by and reinforce if they want to successfully lead their team.

1. Clarity: Define who you are and what you do.

When executives provide clarity about the business, its mission and its goals, they empower their teams with the strength of alignment. Employees often have high confidence that they’re performing and delivering at a maximum capacity, but they can better understand why their work matters if they’re offered full transparency upfront, and it is repeatedly reinforced. On a day-to-day basis, executives should be clear about why certain tasks are assigned and what the end goal is for each team member. This allows teams to better organize their schedules, prioritize action items and manage their workload.

Clarity also increases a team’s ability to execute tasks, shift directions confidently and exceed expectations. When clear expectations are defined upfront, teams are more likely to stay on the same page no matter what challenges or hurdles arise.

2. Empowerment: Elevate your team.

When a leader is open and inviting to new ideas and opinions from team members, employees often feel more empowered to do their jobs and perform better. Team members have excellent ideas, and taking the time to listen respectfully helps send the message that people are valued and respected. This is best achieved when their teams have clarity on what’s expected…and, perhaps more importantly, what is not.

When a company’s team feels empowered, they are more likely to fully unite in their vision, as the entire organization can identify something to rally around. Whether that vision is to achieve a sales goal, expand operations to a new region or implement a new employee wellness initiative, shared goals bring teams together. The final vision can then be supported by empowered leaders at all levels making decisions. This creates an aligned vision and team and helps amplify transparency—especially when it comes to reacting to local signals that can vary by region or function.

3. Accountability: Ensure that autonomy comes with responsibility.

Individuals and teams gain confidence when every member of that team is held accountable for delivering what they are expected to do. Assuming you’ve been clear upfront about what those tasks are, your team should have a complete understanding of their marching orders. It is then your role to ensure they are executed.

That said: Do not micromanage. Trust that your team will get their project or goal accomplished by the assigned deadline, and don’t check in constantly to evaluate their work when it’s not complete. In doing so, you create a culture of distrust amongst your employees, which leads to disjointed teams and stunted growth.

When holding teams accountable, executives are ultimately creating camaraderie and promoting trust. Individuals must learn to rely on one another, whether it’s to meet deadlines, fulfill responsibilities or feel safe approaching a teammate for assistance. Organizational trust is built by high levels of responsibility, particularly among leaders. When they know leaders will accept responsibility for their own decisions and actions, team members will, in turn, have a high level of trust in their leaders.

Your role as a leader depends upon the strategies you choose.

A leadership team that instills these core principles in their employees will help an organization continuously grow and excel in performance —particularly in times like these when teams are largely federated and remote. By connecting and aligning teams to a clear vision that promotes more effective localized innovation, executives create a competitive differentiator for the business as a whole. When employees feel well-equipped and prepared to take on responsibilities, the performance of the entire organization is then magnified. And best of all, you’ll get to watch your individual employees thrive and grow.