They hire the best and brightest:

Great leaders overcome their fear of possibly losing their job to someone more talented and hire the best employee for the job and take their time doing so. Nothing is worse than hiring someone in an emergency situation speedily and finding out that the human has inadequate skills for the job or has a flawed personality and can’t work well with others.

They have an excellent knowledge of the goals of the organization and the goals of the group and can motivate the employees towards those goals:

Employees have a difficult time staying motivated if the purpose or goals of the group are not known or are ever changing and confusing. One way to insure unity of purpose and action is to have well defined goals to work towards and organizational rules which are advertised and followed. A good leader should be able to provide this focused direction for all employees. An organization without goals is a ship without a rudder which won’t get you to where you want to be or should be.

 

They interact with team members and know what information and skills are necessary for their goal achievement:

Great leaders don’t micro manage an employee but know in general what information and what skills are necessary for their employees to reach their goals. They don’t tell their employees how to achieve their goals but know how to give support so that they have all the necessary tools to do the job and can monitor the progress of the employees as they are reaching their goals.

 

They keep the plans or goals visible:

Great leaders don’t hide the goals in case they may have to change them towards other goals along the way. They remind employees of the goals and if changes are necessary then they make sure that all team members know of the necessary changes when and if they are necessary. They don’t keep team members working in the dark.

 

They keep team members accountable for their share of the work:

If a team member does not succeed in reaching his or her goals then they are held accountable and are graded on a number scale of one to 10. If they have three or more serious failures in a row then they should be demoted, denied privileges, or even fired or replaced by someone else. Leaders should monitor progress or or its absence and reward or punish accordingly with praise or criticism and corresponding actions.

 

They recognize progress or doing something right and make it immediately known to the employee to further selfmotivate them to do well in the future:

Punishing an employee immediately after one failure can be demoralizing and threaten the feeling of selfworth which the employee should maintain on the job. On the other hand any success should be immediately recognized and rewarded with praise and further encouragement.

 

They try to remove barriers which impede work flow:

If there is information or skills which an employee may need to proceed successfully with the work to achieve the goals then the leader will try to provide the source for the information or get someone with the necessary skills to permit the work to proceed smoothly. Sometimes setting aside time for retraining for a new necessary skill is the preferred choice of action. Removing barriers and not creating barriers to work progress is the proper role of a good leader.

 

They address minor performance issues and don’t let them grow into larger potentially more difficult problems to solve:

Proactive coaching or identifying and addressing small problems and trying to prevent larger problems should be done by the leader as he monitors the progress of the employee. Paying attention to and solving smaller problems may prevent them from growing into difficult ones to solve.

 

They listen more than they talk:

Efficient or short and to the point communications convey a feeling of confidence and preciseness which can easily get lost in a barrage of words. All the points addressed by the employee should be noted and then responded to clearly and concisely which means that a leader will do much more listening than talking. The good leader should be an efficient communicating man or woman of action and not one who leads with confusing verbosity.

 

They use team values or rules to make big or small decisions and address problems:

A good leader does not use vague business practices to address problems but follows the rules of the organization to make big or small decisions which helps employees focus on important vital organization values.

 

They get to know the employee personally to some extent so that a better understanding exists on how to motivate the employee to do better:

Extrovert or introvert personality types require somewhat different motivating approaches and extrovert types could be assigned more contact with customers. Getting to know an employee better will reveal what subtle motivational differences may be needed to get maximum performance out of them. Employees should not be viewed as dehumanized interchangeable parts in a business machine.

 

They care about their employees and not just about their performance on the job:

Good leaders nurture and protect their employees by getting to know their families to some extent and getting to know their goals in life so that they can be helped in their voyage through life and especially the business world. An employee who feels that a leader cares about his long range goals in life and tries to support that effort will be much more committed to the relationship and job.

 

They know how to keep a balance between organization goals and profits:

The bottom line or profits should not be the only things stressed in motivational talks but also the goals of the organization which may simply be happy and supportive customers.

 

They maintain communications even when there is no good news:

Communication should not end when there is a slowdown in work load or if some bad news surfaces and should be addressed and not ignored.

 

If you liked this evergreen blog then read more of them and one or more of my evergreen books, especially COMMON SENSE.

Enjoy!!!!!!