Have you ever worked for a manager who felt it necessary to micromanage your every task? Did you consider that manager to be a Great Leader? Probably not.

Mediocre managers and mediocre leaders have little or no confidence in the team members that they have been given the privilege of leading. They have the belief that, without their personal supervision, their attention to every little detail, no one can do the job properly.

Great Leaders, on the other hand, provide team members with the ingredients needed to get the job done … get it done right … and, get it done on time.

• Great Leaders provide the parameters with clear and understandable directions. Team members know what is expected and what the desired outcome is. Team members also have confidence that if there is something that they do not understand or know how to do, they can ask for clarification or help knowing that they will receive what is needed … not derision and accusations of incompetence.
• Great Leaders provide the tools required to accomplish the task and attain the desired outcome. If the tools are not readily available, they help the team obtain what is needed.
• Great Leaders give team members room to get the job done. Great Leaders don’t hover over the team members and constantly interfere, critique, and kibitz. While they may be close at hand and available, they afford each team member, and the team, the opportunity to find the answers and solutions for themselves.

Great Leaders take pride in the ability of team members to work efficiently and effectively with a minimum of supervision. While always available to assist where it is needed, Great Leaders do not see their own presence and micromanagement as a necessary ingredient of success.

Share your story of working with a Great Leader by clicking “Comment”.

Tom Hoisington is a speaker, trainer, and author whose goal is to provide leaders and potential leaders with tools that empower them to build teams that are creative and cost effective along with a clearer understanding of how personality types interact within those teams. He can be contacted at tom.hoisington@eagleoneresources.com

One of the hallmarks of a Great Leader is a caring attitude. Great Leaders genuinely care about the people that they have the privilege of leading. Not long ago, I had the pleasure of meeting and working with a Great Leader that I’ll call Katie.

Katie is the Human Resources Manager at a company. Like many companies today, Katie’s company offers a number of benefit options that allows each employee to select benefits from a “menu” empowering each employee to “tailor” a benefits package that best fits the employee’s needs and the needs of his/her family.  Part of Katie’s job is to make certain that all of the employees complete their benefits sign up.

Like many HR Managers, Katie conducted an employee meeting to distribute the most current benefits book. Like most HR Managers, Katie told the employees the first day and the last day on which they could submit their choices. At this point, Katie had completed the responsibilities delineated in her job description. This is also the point at which she began going “above and beyond” her assigned tasks.

First, she took the time to make sure that she fully understood each of the benefit options and what differentiated one from another. She took the time to answer employee questions. She asked questions to better understand the employee’s family situation. She offered suggestions without ever telling the employee what he/she should do. She followed up with employees to make certain that they had made and submitted their choices.

I was fortunate enough to witness these things and had an opportunity to talk with Katie. As we talked about her obvious care for the people she worked with, she made a comment that demonstrated how much she cared.

“The benefits the company provides are a big part of each employee’s compensation. If I don’t do everything I can to make sure that each person gets the best benefits for their family needs, it’s the same as me not giving them every paycheck they’ve earned.”

In these two sentences, Katie summed up the caring attitude of every Great Leader. Great Leaders genuinely care about the people that they have been given the privilege of leading; want the people to receive all of the compensation, all of the recognition, all of the honor that they have earned. Thank you, Katie, for providing this example of great leadership in action!

Have you had the privilege of working with a Great Leader who similarly demonstrated how Great Leaders care about the team members that they lead? Click “Comment” and share your story.

Tom Hoisington is a speaker, trainer, and author whose goal is to provide leaders and potential leaders with tools that empower them to build teams that are creative and cost effective along with a clearer understanding of how personality types interact within those teams. He can be contacted at tom.hoisington@eagleoneresources.com

First Century BC writer Pubilius Syrus, often referred to as Publius, wrote that anyone could steer the ship when the sea was calm. What he left unsaid, but which could not be said more clearly, is that it takes someone special to steer the ship when the storms thunder and the ocean roars. It takes a Great Leader.

Great Leaders face troubled times and the storms that assail us with a calm demeanor and a steady hand. They possess the ability to assess the situation, consider their options, choose the most appropriate course of action; and then, they calmly take action with confidence that the right path has been chosen.

When others might panic, might run away, might freeze or become incapable of making the most basic decisions, the Great Leader steps to the forefront and with quiet confidence takes charge, directing others to take actions that will successfully steer the team through the crisis and to a successful outcome.

The confidence demonstrated by Great Leaders inspires those who follow them and makes it easy for team members to undertake their part of the plan, their responsibilities, with confidence that they will succeed in whatever they have been asked to do.

When things look bad and others turn to you and ask, “What should we do?”, understand that they see in you the leadership that they seek. Now, it’s up to you. Will you throw up your hands in a gesture of surrender crying out, “why ask me?”; or, will you become the Great Leader that they want and need and respond with confidence, “Follow me and we’ll get through this together. Everything will be alright.”

Tom Hoisington is a speaker, trainer, and author whose goal is to provide leaders and potential leaders with tools that empower them to build teams that are creative and cost effective along with a clearer understanding of how personality types interact within those teams. He can be contacted at tom.hoisington@eagleoneresources.com

My friend Marvin Rosen recently posted “Advice From an Old Farmer” on his Facebook page. It’s funny how some things just leap off the page when you see them. This was one of those things. The “old farmer” wrote:

“The best sermons are lived, not preached.”

Great Leaders know that what they do, the behaviors that they exhibit, have far more influence over the actions of their followers than the words they speak. They don’t just mouth the words. They “walk the talk”. They live in such a way that there can be no doubt about what is expected.

Great Leaders hold themselves to the highest standards. They understand that any lapses that they may have will be all the more noticeable because they have set the bar high; and, they know that others are always watching … just hoping to “catch them” falling short.

Great Leaders know that they must reach for the moon and the stars if they are to attain heights of achievement that others believe are unattainable. They dare not burden themselves with the limitations of low expectations and self doubt.

Great Leaders live with honor and integrity. At any point in their lives, they can look back and like what they see. They may have regrets, but they need not apologize for their actions. They did what they knew was right … even if it didn’t work out like they expected.

The best sermons are lived on a daily basis in a way that anyone and everyone can see what is expected of them. Have you known a Great Leader who “practiced what he or she preached”? Click comment and share the experience.

Tom Hoisington is a speaker, trainer, and author whose goal is to provide leaders and potential leaders with tools that empower them to build teams that are creative and cost effective along with a clearer understanding of how personality types interact within those teams. He can be contacted at tom.hoisington@eagleoneresources.com

A young man, 17 years old, sat before an Eagle Scout Board of Review and was asked to explain the difference between being a boss and being a leader.  The young man thought for a few minutes and then responded,

“A boss is someone who can make you do something whether you want to do it or not.  But, a leader is someone who inspires you to accomplish things you never thought you were capable of doing.”

This two sentence answer provides one of the key ingredients of great leadership; inspiration.  Great leaders have the ability to inspire their followers to strive for the difficult … the unattainable.  Great leaders empower their followers to not only strive to meet a challenge that others see as impossible to overcome, they do so in a manner that causes the followers to see themselves as being capable of reaching and even exceeding the goal.  Here’s an example of leadership in action.

Several years ago, a Scoutmaster (we’ll call him Doug) approached the adult leaders in his troop with a problem.  Doug had been appointed as the leader of a large group that would be traveling to a quadrennial jamboree where scouts from all over the nation would come together.  His contingent was made up of over 250 boys and their adult leaders.

He explained that he was setting up a weekend campout that would be entirely devoted to team building exercises so that the boys could learn to work together and function effectively and efficiently in troops of 36 scouts and 4 adults.  The entire event was scheduled, the campground reserved.  Everything was ready EXCEPT that he had just learned that the dining hall would not be available and he had no way to feed the contingent.  He wondered if his troop’s leadership team would be willing to set up a field kitchen and undertake responsibility for feeding the contingent.

Two members of the troop’s leadership team stepped forward and said, “We can do this!”  They became the team leaders.  They began to create a “To Do List” of things that had to be done and equipment/supplies that had to be obtained.  Other individuals joined the team and began to offer suggestions, not saying why it could not be done, but rather citing difficulties that would be encountered and offering suggestions as to HOW those impediments could be overcome.  In the end, this team, led by two individuals who believed that by working together the team could accomplish anything it set its mind to, rose to the challenge and fed 325 individuals for an entire weekend.

While bosses order others around taking sole credit for success and placing responsibility for failure at the feet of their followers alone, great leaders inspire their followers to accomplish what lesser men and women see as impossible tasks; unattainable goals.  They provide that inspiration by showing that they believe in their followers; that they are willing to work as hard as (or harder than) their team members; by giving credit for the successes to their followers and taking sole responsibility for any shortcomings or failures to reach a goal.