If you are reading this, we guess that leadership is something that interests you? At some point, you will most likely also have pondered what defines good leadership? What is required of a good leader? Let us present the answers…
First a word of warning: If you google ”great leadership” or “good leadership”, you will get nearly 500 million hits. We can draw the conclusion that it is a topic that many people have opinions about, whether they have done research in the area or are more or less self-proclaimed experts. The only conclusion we can actually draw from this is that “good leadership” will be made up of many different skills and qualities depending on who you ask. A good leader can appear in all shapes and sizes and this is why it is nearly impossible to point to any certain qualities as the determining factors.
However, it is still interesting to hear the results of the research conducted by Dina Krasikova, Associate Professor at the University of Texas together with researchers at the Auburn University and Georgia Institute of Technology. According to the online paper Science Daily, these researchers recently looked at modern, successful companies, for example Google, to find what characterises their leadership culture. Science Daily highlight a number of qualities shared by more or less all of the leaders in the survey:
To find creativity among these qualities is perhaps not very surprising, but according to the research, creative leaders are not just great at coming up with novel ideas, they are also very good at bringing out the creativity in their employees.
Being confident is another factor. A leader exuding confidence and who is passionate about his or her ideas, will much more easily get the rest of the team onboard. There also seems to be a “contagious effect” here – having confident leaders also lead to employees daring to step forward and present their ideas.
However, creativity and confidence alone are not enough. In order for a leader to inspire his or her employees and create the best work climate possible, another quality is necessary: social skills.
The ability to build good interpersonal relationships – mutual respect, trust and loyalty – is key to fostering a flourishing creativity and confidence in your employees. Or in the words of Dina Krasikova:
”Creativity flourishes in supportive environments where leaders and subordinates have good interpersonal relationships. They can depend on each other, because they trust each other”
Ps. OK, the headline for this post might have been slightly exaggerated. However, with a little creativity and confidence combined with a good relationship with you readers, we hope we might have been able to inspire you a little. After all, you have now read this post all the way to the end…
