As a business owner or general manager, one of your most important tasks is delegation. On its face, delegation sounds like the opposite, like you’re trying to avoid a chore because you don’t enjoy doing it and would rather someone else deal with it instead. However, great leaders understand their strengths lie in balancing out the entire operation, not getting stuck in the minutiae. A leader who insists on doing everything him or herself isn’t leading at all.
But in order for you to be a great leader, you need managers and supervisors under you who are also good leaders. Identifying the right candidates can be challenging, however, so you have to really evaluate each employee’s personality carefully. To that end, you might find Jim Rohn’s article, 7 Personality Traits of a Great Leader, to be helpful in your quest. Let’s consider these ideas and condense these into three points:
1. Bold Strength Tempered with Kindness and Courtesy
As Rohn explains, “Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It’s not even a good substitute.” Good leaders are tactful and courteous, but they’re not meek. They understand that “Kindness isn’t weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength,” and that leaders “must be kind enough to tell someone the truth.”
But when the time comes to decide, he or she will not hesitate for fear of being wrong. “It takes boldness to win the day,” Rohn continues. This means everything from taking the initiative to having the confidence to meet any challenge head-on.
2. Humility over Timidity, Pride over Arrogance
“Some people mistake timidity for humility. But humility is a virtue: timidity is a disease,” says Rohn. In other words, leaders are not above listening to others’ ideas and changing their minds when appropriate, but they’re immune to analysis paralysis.
As Rohn explains, in order to actualize your ambitions, “It takes pride in a cause, in accomplishment.” In other words, great leaders take pride in the hard work they and their subordinates put into the final product. However, leaders must also avoid arrogance, the kind that overlooks problems or can’t accept that they need help to succeed. Remember, the leader who tries to do everything him or herself is being arrogant and ultimately hurting the group effort.
3. Humor and Reality
Life is full of challenges. The economy can swing one way or another, employees may be affected by their own private lives, and a global pandemic might strike. (That last one has hit home for all of us, hasn’t it?) Sometimes you have to greet life’s absurdities with a little wry humor, but as Rohn warns, “it’s OK to be witty but not silly; fun but not foolish.” At the end of the day, subordinates will take their cues from leadership, so a loose environment is fine. A messy one, on the other hand, is dangerous.
Being realistic, especially in light of the external challenges that we all face, can be tough. Great leaders remain positive but accept that things can and will go wrong. How each of us reacts in the face of a bad turn of events is what separates the great leaders from the rest.
Keeping It in Balance
Balancing personal qualities against skill, education, or tenure are important considerations as you evaluate your leadership candidates. Even after you’ve hired a manager or promoted from within, you may still worry about your decision. That’s normal: you care about your business and want the best for it to succeed. The best way to monitor and maximize your investment is with mystery shopping, employee feedback surveys, and staff-development classes.
The Brandt Group offers world-class services in all three. With mystery shopping, you’ll get first-hand reports from the perspective of your customers who will see how your business runs in-practice. Employee feedback surveys will reveal how your staff feels about their management and usually contain suggestions for what they think could be better. And finally, no matter how great an employee’s potential, he or she still needs the mental tools to maximize his or her leadership ability—which means training.
You can’t—and shouldn’t—do it all yourself. It’s time to delegate so you can keep an eye on the big picture: call us today or reach out via our contact page and we’ll help your business grow and boldly face whatever challenge lies next.
