What Makes A Good Leader?

We have all felt and witnessed the symptoms of poor leadership at some point in our lives, silos and interdepartmental conflicts, the phrase “but we’ve always done it this way” or high staff turnover, to name a few.

We can all recognise poor leadership, but what skills make us better leaders? I asked members of the business school, students and businesses what good leadership meant to them. Here’s what I found.

A good leader motivates their team

Danielle Nabi, Finance Clerk, Lincoln International Business School
A good leader is someone who motivates their team to be productive and develop their own skills to be the best they can be. They lead by example, ensuring their actions are replicated through the team.

Katherine Sinclair, Clerical Assistant, Lincoln International Business School
A good leader is someone who inspires and motivates their team through leading by example and goes above and beyond to do their best and to include the team.

Neil Everatt, Chief Executive Officer, Selenity
I believe a great leader starts with a vision, a place where that vision is shared and communicated, and is easily understood.  Next up is the people, the most important part of making sure that the vision is realised. Care for your colleagues and they will care for your customers.  Finally, never fear being different and trying new things and have fun along the way.”

A good leader accepts responsibility

Richard Voase, Senior Lecturer, Lincoln International Business School
A leader is a person with a character trait that enables them to take responsibility for themselves and for others. A ‘good’ leader is someone who has learned, or been taught, how to make this character trait work for the benefit of others and themselves.

Martin Hingley, Professor of Strategic Marketing, Lincoln International Business School
In my view, a good leader listens and consults, but then makes decisions and stands by them. If it turns out the decisions are wrong, the good leader accepts it, draws a line under and starts again. 

A good leader communicates effectively

Kate Strawson, Director, Shooting Star PR
The key to good leadership is Communication. The ability to share your vision clearly and concisely with the rest of your team so that everyone knows what you want to achieve and why. Being able to inspire and motivate others and manage different personalities will help you to get the best out of people. This requires good listening skills and emotional intelligence. What matters to one person may not be important to someone else but if you can make people feel like they are valued and their opinions count, you will win their respect and they will be more likely to follow you.

Olivia Whitworth, Founder of the Women in Work Society, University of Lincoln
A good leader promotes both collaboration and communication across their team. But most importantly a good leader is authentic, they don’t feel the need to fit into a leadership mould and they’re not scared to challenge the norm.

A good leader is respectful and professional

Charlie Lupton, E-learning Developer, Lincoln International Business School
I think a good leader respects their subordinates. Respect works both ways and must be led by example. A good leader can see their own faults as well as pointing out others’ faults. A good leader is professional and fair. Someone who welcomes changes to adapt to the rapidly changing world we live in. A good leader listens to others’ opinions and takes them on board. A good leader treats everyone equally. Above all, a good leader is relatable and approachable to their subordinates. 

Hanya Pielichaty, Principal Lecturer, Lincoln International Business School
I think a good leader is someone who can maintain professionalism even in the most unprofessional of circumstances.

Craig Marsh, Director of Lincoln International Business School
For me it’s important to realise that anyone can show effective leadership, regardless of their formal position in the hierarchy. After all, there aren’t many of us who don’t follow someone else, so we know it’s common to be both a leader and a follower at the same time. Often the best type of leadership is shared or distributed; that is, everyone in the organisation, with their own contribution, encourages ‘followership’ from those around them through personal example, through integrity, and by following the golden rule: ‘do unto others as you would have others do unto you’.

A good leader is visible and adaptable

Sally Cowling, Senior Lecturer in Accounting, Lincoln International Business School
In my experiencevisibility is key. By visibility I don’t mean holding formal meetings and presentations. I mean seeing the staff in their day today job, understanding the issues with each area in the detail of the everyday delivery, being there to see how things are going at important or critical moments.

Ruchi Aggarwal, Director of Business Development, Lincoln International Business School
Leadership does not find itself in any position, title or corner office. And seldom does it find itself in a static environment. Today, we live in a VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) and a good leader is one who can thrive and make the team win in a dynamic, ever changing landscape of challenges and opportunity. Stay focused, be positive and collaborate. The mantra for leadership success.

Leadership is an essential skill, one that requires thought and practice, but it is often a skill we are not formally given training in. The common phrase ‘accidental manager’ is evidence of this. Many of us are thrust into leadership after showing success in our field but have little experience in leading and managing a team of people.

Leadership is not an innate quality, neither is there a one size fits all solution to become a good leader, but this skill can be developed, and we can always stand to learn from others to expand our leadership techniques. (After all, one sign of a good leader is to listen to new perspectives.)

At Lincoln International Business School, we work with employers and learners at all levels from a wide range of backgrounds and industries to develop effective leadership skills, offering academic, work based qualification and training, peer mentoring programmes, bespoke consultancy and networking events. For more information, please visit www.lincoln.ac.uk/libs-exec or get in touch: libs_exec@lincoln.ac.uk