Leadership

Most agree that there are many traits of an effective leader, including competent, professional, visionary, trustworthy, confident, a communicator and, of course, courageous.

But great leaders are set apart further by three other qualities.

1. Servant-leadership. In the 21st-century marketplace, the prime devotion of great leaders is to their people because they know it’s through engaged, high-functioning teams that their own goals are achieved.

2. Honest curiosity. This quality has two parts that are as inextricable as the sides of a coin: 1) A great leader is devoted to asking questions, and 2) they listen.

3. Mentor mentality. The most successful and beloved leaders I’ve known had a trait that’s often overlooked: They mentored their people to become leaders. Great NFL coaches like Vince Lombardi, Bill Walsh, Tom Landry, and Bill Parcels became legendary through the subsequent performance of the coaches they mentored. It’s called the Coaching Tree.

In that spirit, allow me to introduce the concept of a Leadership Tree.

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Imagine that your best employee just resigned. How much will it cost – directly and indirectly – to find, hire, train and get a replacement to the productivity level of your exiting employee? You already know the answer: maybe years. Not a scenario you want to contemplate, right?

There are many reasons why someone leaves a job, but decades of exit interview records show that compensation is almost never the main reason. Consequently, it’s an article of faith that employees don’t leave companies they leave people – usually a manager. That means that such a disruptive circumstance is likely not only preventable, but the solution is essentially one of those intangibles that cost you little to nothing. Often, just some of your time and attention.

Motivation is one of those intangibles, and smart business owners know about its power. They’ve experienced the direct link between motivating employees to be successful in their assignments and the success of their business.

You can become one of those smart managers before a key employee turns in their keys because he or she merely couldn’t come up with a reason to be motivated to stay. Consider these six motivational best practices.

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