The Makings of a Good Leader

Here at ICL, we often have discussions around the thorny subject of leadership, and a healthy debate on the essential qualities of great leaders. Opinions vary, but the one thing that we always agree on is that good leaders should be able to inspire their people.

A recent article by Isabel Jackson for People Management Magazine caught our eye for this very reason. Entitled, “What really makes a good leader?”, Isabel’s article featured several salient points about accepted traits of good leaders, for example, an iron conviction, honesty, perfectionism and the ability to remain calm.

However, she asks whether people who have those traits really are the best fit for an organisation. Sometimes, they go hand in hand with some not-so-suitable features, such as stubbornness, intolerance and dominance.

Our CEO Stephen recently wrote about the power of emotional intelligence (EI) in the workplace (find the article here); this is something that we believe is overlooked in recruitment of managers in the pursuit of more ‘traditional’ capabilities, as per those mentioned above.

Of course, it’s ideal to recruit someone to a leadership position in your company who has experience of the relevant field or profession, as noted in Isabel’s article. However, that sort of knowledge can mostly be learned along the way, unless it’s a sector that requires a high degree of specialist knowledge.

Whether it’s learned or inherent, qualities such as (EI) are non-negotiable, in our opinion. We did a quick straw poll among the team and we came to the conclusion that in our experience, the best leaders we had encountered had the following qualities:

• High levels of self-awareness
• Empathetic towards others
• The ability to remain fair, yet firm
• An unwavering conviction to handle bad behaviour in a calm way
• Comfortable to deal with any situation that arises
• Happy to acknowledge contributions from staff at all levels of the organisation
• Great (and active) listeners
• The ability to create a positive culture, where employees feel ‘seen’ and treated well
• Able to work on their own development to continuously improve their skills, including resilience and EI

Isabel Jackson quotes a recent Robert Half survey where 75% of executives surveyed indicated they expected resilience to be an important quality for the leaders of the future, whilst only 56% viewed change management as a critical skill.

Leaders with high EI seem to manage the challenge of change with ease; they achieve high levels of buy-in to bring most of their teams along for the ride, whilst gently dealing with those who are resistant. Whereas those who are more stubborn and adopt a ‘my way or the highway’ approach unsurprisingly fare less well.

It’s clear that business is changing; with the rise in AI meaning that some jobs are more likely to be culled, and the political and employment landscape evolving at lightning pace, we need more visionary leaders for the future. We need people who can consistently achieve great results, whilst making ‘friends’ and influencing people along the way.