This is part of a series called 12 Key Traits to Look for When Building Your Dream Team.

There is a costly, common mistake that many (perhaps most) organizations make.

Small non-profits to government agencies to multi-billion dollar businesses. It doesn’t matter.

They build weak senior leadership teams.

Of course, this isn’t intentional. But good intentions don’t determine great results.

The same organizations that are crystal clear about how to hire front-line staff will botch their selection or development of top level leaders.

Why?

Poor leadership selection can happen for a multitude of reasons. Often it is just due to not taking the time to create clarity about what is needed in that role. It could also be due to feeling like someone has earned the position due to loyalty or longevity (both are poor reasons to select a leader).

Whatever the reasons may be – the costs of a poor decision are high.

Costs of Poor Leadership Selection

And by high, I mean dramatically so. The wrong leadership decision can be expected to result in:

• Increases in employee turnover.
• Decreases in employee morale.
• Customer attrition and dissatisfaction.
• Decreases in employee productivity.
• Turf battles and silos.

It is so predictable, you can plan on it.

All of this translates into measurable costs financially and limitations in furthering strategic goals or your mission. At a minimum, time, energy, resources, knowledge, and relationships are all directed away from the purposes of the organization towards the issues generated by poor leadership.

As a result, you might take longer to get where you need to go. Or you might be hamstrung and not be able to get there at all.

So, let’s avoid that. You can do this by screening for twelve specific leadership traits.

The Twelve Traits for Your Dream Team

These twelve traits are universally applicable across industry, size or age of organization. Look for these traits in the past experience, reputation and success of the people you are considering. Past experience is the best indicator of future performance.

1. Active Leaders/Initiators: Good leaders actually lead. They bring about direction, clarity, and focus. They ensure that issues are addressed, projects are started, progress is tracked. They end things.

2. Manage to Outcomes: They are focused on what is supposed to be accomplished. They don’t confuse activity for results. They differentiate 80-hour workweeks from 8 productive hours.

3. Integrity & Credibility: The best leaders know that credibility is a leader’s currency. If a leader’s instincts, intent, capacity, and judgment are trusted – there is little they can’t get their team to do. If any of the above are doubted – the leader is his or her own worst enemy. A good leader actively builds and generates credibility. Never select a deceptive person or someone who doesn’t follow through.

4. Technically Interested and Literate: The best leaders know how to talk to their teams in language the teams use. They don’t need to be experts in the technical details. But in terms of communication and understanding context – the leaders should learn to talk to and understand their team.

5. Easily Manage Priorities: Time management is priority management. A leader who manages time well will also be clear about their priorities and can make their priorities clear. A leader who doesn’t manage time well won’t be clear about their priorities or the priorities of anyone else.

6. Effectively Addresses Conflict & Weirdness: Good leaders deal with issues in a way that both preserves the dignity of others but is also decisive. They don’t sweep things under the rug, they don’t hope it’ll go away or fix itself. If there is an elephant in the room – it gets dealt with.

7. Creates Clarity: Good leaders always ask clarifying questions. Their expectations are clear. Their vision feels both lofty and tangible. You know what they are talking about. They are willing to explain themselves until others understand. They have a low tolerance for ambiguity. They know that in the absence of clarity there is confusion or conflict. If clarity doesn’t exist, they create it.

8. Ambitious Humility: The researcher and author Jim Collins discovered that the most effective leaders were those who combined a high level of ambition for their teams or organizations with personal humility. These leaders were driven, motivated, willing to make hard decisions – but they also cared about others, were teachable and able to be corrected. They didn’t see their position as being “over” others but instead saw themselves as facilitating the success of others.

9. Forges Unity: The best leaders will always find a way to accomplish mutual benefits. They resist factionalizing. They don’t engage in turf politics. They understand (or insist on identifying) the core mission, the purpose of the organization’s strategy and align their efforts towards that. They work to bring others into alignment as well.

10. See Growth & Opportunity: This has to do with perspective and mindset. Growth: Most people think in terms of maintaining a status quo. You need people who think of growth and improvement. Opportunity: You need senior leaders who can find the opportunity in tough situations and don’t miss the right opportunity in good situations. Not many people can see opportunities.
11. Resilience: Resilient leaders aren’t dumbstruck or shattered or shut down with challenges, adversity or failure. They know how to summon resources, reflect on what was learned, recover their footing and move on ahead – stronger for the experience.

12. Teachable: The very best leaders are always learning and are open to correction. As a result, they’ve probably developed a high level of competence and confidence in a number of areas. However, they remain open to learning more. They know how to manage and consider critical feedback. They don’t let pride prevent them from listening to others.

Your senior leadership selection is a “key hire” process. It’s worth taking the time to make sure you’ve chosen the best.

Benefit

When your new senior leader gets his or her shoulder under the organizational burden – everyone should feel the benefit of their effort. They should meaningfully contribute to “lifting the organization up.”

The right new leader brings ideas, energy, solutions and connections. They make things happen. They make your job easier. They help others succeed.

I’ll begin 2017 with a series of articles unpacking each of these traits. My goals will be to help you be able to recognize these traits more easily, to know how to coach up-and-comers to grow in these traits and to continue your own growth in these areas.

How to Start 2017 With a Strong Leadership Team

Would you like to build a unified Dream Team that will start 2017 strong? Would you like your Dream Team to start 2017 with excitement, clarity, and focus?

If your answer is YES, then I have something special for you. This week I’m opening a few slots on my calendar to speak with you 1-on-1 about the best practices to build a strong leadership team.

On the call, I’ll share with you 3 specific strategies you can use to improve team effectiveness that will help you attract, retain and get the most out of your people, and strengthen company culture and operational results.

Due to my busy schedule, I only have a few slots open for this complimentary call on a first-come-first-served basis. Email me at Christian@vantageconsulting.org, call me at 907 522-7200, or simply reply to this email now.