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There are different types of leaders out there. I have had my fair share of autocratic managers and ineffective leaders. My observations suggest that underpinning the behaviours of many of these leaders is that they tend to be task driven and transactional in exchanges with their teams.

They are almost always driven by personal incentives, being monetary or status. For many it is the ‘legacy’ they leave behind. I always muse at this statement. I was recently asked ‘what do you want as your legacy?’. My response was broadly, “What legacy? I will be forgotten 5 minutes after I walk out the door!” The hard facts are that no one really cares about your legacy. Unless you invented a new cure for cancer, revolutionised global commerce or some other world changing solution, any value in your ‘legacy’ effectively dissipates the day you are no longer of value to those people.  Forgive my rant but it reflects the way that you lead.

If you are driven by money or status (Legacy falls under status) then your focus will be primarily on your own achievements, not those in support of what you are trying to achieve. Quality leadership focuses on the ‘we’, not the ‘me’. I will dive into this in more detail in a later story.

Your values as a leader are often reflected in the people you lead, largely because you tend to attract and employ people in your own image. This is useful to remember when you are hiring because the leadership qualities in your hires will employ people in their image. Get that wrong and you start getting divergent subcultures in your organisation.

My values are basic. I run a high trust environment, but you need to earn my trust. I run a transparent environment so I will tell you that you need to earn my trust. I firmly believe that there must be a balance, and equilibrium between work/life balance and delivery, but there must also be an ebb and flow in prioritisation between these two based on the current situation.

The last point came into play for me in the early stages of covid. As with many other countries we went into lock down. People were unsure, nervous and scared about this unknown virus and all reacted to this in very different ways. The constant of their concerns was their family. At that point, the single most important issue for them was the welfare of their loved ones. As a human, I understood and shared those concerns. As a leader, I had a business to keep afloat. My message on the day of the announcement to my team was crystal clear.

“Today you must take the time to get your house in order, protect and calm your loved ones, do what you need to do at this time, and I will support you unconditionally in whatever you decide to do.  Tomorrow, we have a business to run. We will work it out together”

The most powerful words in that statement were the last six “we will work it out together”. What I told them was that they were not alone, that they were part of a community, and that we cared. It was a defining moment with the team.

This talks to one of my principles being “no person is left behind”. This value presented itself across my team during the first few days of lockdown. The constant stream of communication between team members seeking to support others built to a crescendo a few days in. It is also presented in daily business activities where somebody would actively seek to pick up actions or outcomes, should someone fall by the way. Interestingly, this was never overtly mentioned. It just happened.

Another of my principles is to be truly open and accessible to my team. I have had managers that have you book a 30-minute meeting every two weeks and feel that is sufficient for them to understand your challenges and concerns, and to respond to them adequately. It is not!

When leading teams, I talk to each of my reports multiple times a day. The discussions are typically open, honest and conversational. I actively listen, value, and acknowledge their contributions.

Another principle I practise and encourage is to be interested in my people. To understand what is important to them at a personal level. Not so deep that it becomes invasive but sufficient to know what is important and influential in their lives. And also, to acknowledge and celebrate their achievements outside work.

I also ensure my engagements with the team are authentic. In turn they often mirror my behaviour. This affords each other a solid understanding of what motivates each of us and allows us to collaborate more freely. I will get to why this is important in a later story. 

I am not suggesting that my set of values and principles is a blueprint for success, I just know that they work for me. You need to decide what values and principles you need to bring to the table. What you will discover in a relatively short amount of time is that those principles are infectious (not in a bad Covid way) and will unify your teams.