I finished reading Lisa Orrell’s Millennials Into Leadership: The Ultimate Guide for Gen Y’s Aspiring to Be Effective, Respected, Young Leaders at Work this week. Wow! What a great resource for tomorrow’s leaders.
Traits That Make You a Great Leader
In Millennials Into Leadership, Orrell discusses “defining your brand by documenting the traits that you believe define your leadership style.” As I read, I thought about how each applied to me as the founder and president of Come Recommended.
1. Your Philosophical Style
Leaders are visionary. They believe in change. They don’t ask “Why?” nearly as often as “Why not?”
Probably to the chagrin of my team, I’m frequently making changes at Come Recommended. I believe we have to be agile in order to move with the market and continue building ourselves as leaders in the social recruitment industry.
2. Your Social Style
Leaders are listeners. They prefer monologues to dialogues.
We have Come Recommended team meetings every Monday evening. Although the first part of the meeting is definitely me presenting updates and my group asking questions, we almost always have a brainstorming session about a pre-designated topic—and I just sit back and watch the magic happen. And of course, my door is always open. I am blessed to work with such intelligent, creative young professionals!
3. Your Intellectual Style
Leaders need to have enough knowledge to be able to delegate tasks and explore new ways of getting things done.
Delegating used to be a huge issue for me when I first entered the workforce. (I blame horrible group assignments in high school and college!) But when I became an entrepreneur, I quickly realized (1) I didn’t have every skill I’d need to run my business and (2) there’s only one of me and so much time during the day. Enter: delegation. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve built a team I trust, which has made the transition much easier!
4. Your Communication Style
A leader communicates more than facts and figures. He/she can communicate passion, excitement, enthusiasm, and/or fun, too.
If you asked members of my team, I’m fairly confident they’d agree passion, excitement, enthusiasm and fun are my middle names! When you possess these qualities about your venture, they are so much easier to instill upon others.
5. Your Emotional Style
Leaders care about other people as well as themselves. They see employees as something more than cogs in the corporate wheel.
While I don’t have any employees (Come Recommended’s team consists of independent contractors and interns), I definitely care about them as if they were family. If something’s going on in one of their lives, it may as well be happening to me—and not just because it might impact my business.
6. Your Ethical Style
Leaders, through actions and words, create a “safe haven” for growth and development. Their respect for others, and their own personal values, promotes confidence in themselves and in others around them…and the most essential component for leadership success? Trust.
Although they’ve never used the words “trust,” I hope my team trusts me and the decisions I make along the way. I’m careful not to promise everything we try will work—because I know that’s not true. But we’re in this together, and I know all of us are growing professionally each and every day.
