Being a great leader can be difficult, but it is an exceptional skill in today’s business world. In fact, being a good leader can also benefit you and your relationships in life.

In this article, we will dive into some different leadership styles, the top leadership characteristics, and what steps you can take to become a great leader.

What Makes a Great Leader?

What does being a “good leader” even mean? They might seem synonymous, but there are distinct differences between being a manager and being a leader.

Before diving into what makes a great leader, it’s important to understand the differences between management and leadership.

Management versus Leadership: What is the Difference?

The biggest difference between a leader and a manager is that leadership is the ability to influence others enthusiastically to meet defined goals and objectives. Leadership unites teams and motivates them to reach goals.

Management involves planning, organizing, and delegating, specifically telling how and when. Managers focus mainly on administrating rather than directing and innovating.

Here is a break down of what leaders and managers focus on:

Different Leadership Styles

What is “Servant” Leadership?

Now that you understand the differences between a leader and a manager, let’s look at some different leadership styles.

We could spend an entire blog on the various leadership types, models, and theories; however, we will look at one effective leadership style: servant leadership.

What do we mean by servant leadership? Does that mean that leaderships respond to every team member’s beck and call? No. According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide, Sixth Edition, servant leadership is the “practice of leading through service to the team by focusing on understanding and addressing the needs and development of team members in order to enable the highest possible team performance and project outcomes.”

Servant leadership involves the following:

• Focusing on vision, objectives, and delivering results
• Molding a group of individuals and resources into developing and working together as a team
• Encouraging and developing team capabilities and opportunities
• Providing team members with resources, helping them problem solve, and removing any blockers to deliver business value faster
• Protecting the project team from external demands or conflicting priorities or interests, allowing the team to remain focused on core goals and objectives
• Coaching customers and team members
• Orchestrating the team’s rhythm

Servant Leadership Characteristics

What are the core characteristics of a servant leader?

• Effective communicator and active listener
• Empathetic and understanding
• Encouraging and motivating personal development and growth in individuals
• Exceptional problem-solver
• Excellent influencer and negotiator
• Self-aware
• Forward-thinking
• Goal-oriented
• Trustworthy
• Commitment to people
• Leads group decision-making, collaboration, and consensus
• Practices the power of persuasion
• Builds a strong community in the organization and fosters that sense of community
• Allows project teams to self-organize when possible and increase levels of autonomy

The servant leadership style may seem a bit unorthodox, but it has proven to drive results. As a leader or project manager in the world of business, you will often discover that the “people management” aspect of leading a project, initiative, or change requires more time and effort than managing and controlling tasks. It can be exhausting, but this is the life of a good, servant leader.

What is Project Leadership?

In addition to servant leadership, there is also the concept of project leadership, which is another term we hear about frequently today. Project leadership and servant leadership go hand in hand.

Project leadership is essentially the transformation of project management. It is the ability to get things done well through others. Project management today is really project leadership, and it involves the following:

• A vision and clear project objectives
• A commitment
• A realistic timeframe and clear project plan for getting there
• Develop and foster teamwork
• Good communication
• Flexible in responding to ambiguous or uncertain circumstances with little stress
• Skilled at various influence and negotiation tactics by using the art of persuasion

Team members can lose sight of the project goals and objectives from time to time. It’s up to project leaders to keep them focused on the “North Star”. Remember, great leaders manage outcomes, not activities.

By being a trustworthy leader, you help to create an enjoyable work atmosphere, which allows project teams the space to be more creative and produce results for your team and company you probably never would have imagined.

12 Tips for Becoming a Great Leader

Now that you understand the difference between leadership and management, and some different leadership styles, how do you become the leader you want to be? Here are some steps to get there in your own journey:

1. Understand your leadership style.

Everyone has a particular leadership style. If you’re stepping into a leadership role for the first time or growing in your current leadership role, take some time to learn your leadership style.

You can find several online leadership assessments, such as:

• The DISC Assessment
• MindTools Leadership Quiz
• Harvard Business Review Leadership Assessment

Each assessment will show your leadership strengths and weaknesses and your particular leadership type. Not only will this give you a baseline, but this information will also help you determine which leadership roles will be the best fit for you.

2. Take more ownership.

Being the boss isn’t about casting blame on others. If a project failed or your department didn’t reach a goal under your leadership, take a step back and look at yourself before you blame an individual on your team. Ask yourself the following:

• What was your role in the project or goal?
• What could you have done better? You likely had some level of involvement in it; what was it?
• Can you confidently say you did your part to the best of your ability?

Before pointing fingers at others or making excuses, be ready to “own” your part of it. Treat this as an opportunity for growth rather than a failure. Remember, if you don’t fall down, you aren’t trying hard enough. 

3. Be a curious listener.

A cardinal rule of good leadership is active listening. This means completely focusing on the speaker, understanding their message, and responding thoughtfully rather than interrupting, responding just to respond, or trying to get in the last word.

In a desperate attempt to respond, it is easy to fall victim to passive listening, which involves hearing a person speak without retaining their message. This isn’t only rude, but you can miss important details, leading to misunderstanding a problem or poor decision-making, which can discredit you as a leader and even put your job or business on the line.

Rather than mentally rehearsing what you might say after the speaker finishes, an active listener carefully considers the speaker’s words, processes the information, and asks clarifying questions.

Active listening takes practice. But when you nail it, you will significantly improve as a leader. Not to mention, you might learn a thing or two about your team members that you might have otherwise overlooked or missed.

4. Don’t micromanage.

Micromanagement is costly, in every way possible. If there is one thing you take away from this article it is do whatever it takes to avoid micromanaging—at ALL costs!

Regardless of what some old-school leaders might tell you or what you might think, micromanaging does not lead to motivation or a higher level of productivity. It is detrimental to any organization.

Instead, set up a system of accountability for your team and communicate that you trust them to get things done. Be sure to set clear goals, objectives, and expectations. If things don’t get done, then it’s time for you to step in and address them. But again, do not point fingers, cast blame, or send a scathing email or text message to a team member.

Ask WHY something didn’t get done. Maybe they were confused about priorities. Maybe you told them to do something else and you forgot. Maybe another issue came up that you didn’t even know about. Seek to understand.

5. Be curious.

Adjust your thinking, try new things, and listen to different perspectives. You will be surprised at what you learn, and your team will feel more empowered and comfortable approaching you with new ideas. This leads to increased innovation and faster problem-solving. It also gives your team a “safe space” to feel heard, which improves morale and productivity.

This doesn’t mean saying ‘YES’ to every idea they bring to the table, but every idea is arguably worth a discussion. Build a backlog of ideas. You can track these in a Google sheet, a spreadsheet, or a project management tool such as Asana, Trello, or Airtable. Then, set a recurring cadence to review that backlog occasionally.

6. Lead by example.

If you want your team to follow a set of principles, values, processes, or specific tools, then you yourself need to do those things as well. People see right through managers who bark orders but don’t follow them. If this is how you operate, then you will find it difficult to earn and maintain respect from your team.

Remember, good leaders do the right things. Above all, leadership isn’t about power—it’s about vision.

7. Be a motivator, not a manager.

It is easy to get caught between the power struggle of delegating tasks and projects to team members, getting things done, and being a patient and effective leader. In fact, it’s easy for leaders to get caught up in what Chris McChesney coins in his book, The 4 Disciplines of Execution, the “whirlwind”. The “whirlwind” is the day-to-day hustle of keeping up with meetings, client demands, phone calls, emails, issues, and so on.

Sure, you might see an uptick in productivity when you aggressively stress and communicate to team members that they are running behind schedule or when things are overdue. However, being a leader who encourages and mentors on the best way to get more things done, helps them prioritize, and offers support along the way will work better.

8. Don’t run from problems.

Anyone can see a problem. It takes a leader to fully examine and understand the problem domain, specifically why and how it occurred. Good leaders focus on facts to help them decide what to do about it. Leaders face problems head-on, ask how to make things better, and find solutions rather than run from them. 

9. Learn to delegate.

Not only will not delegating lead to burnout, but you are also robbing your team of the opportunity to develop as professionals and use their unique talents, ideas, and perspectives. It’s your job as a leader to allow your team the space to put their skills and talents to work, and figure out their own way. This might mean that they don’t do the job the way you would, but being a leader means stepping back allowing them to learn.

Remember, being a leader encourages ordinary people to become extraordinary people. Your goal as a leader should be to inspire others. No one likes someone breathing down their neck. Not delegating also indicates that you don’t trust your team.

10. Become a life-long learner.

Just because you have earned yourself a leadership role doesn’t mean you’re done learning. In fact, leadership and learning go hand in hand. Good leaders continually invest in learning new things. Learning and being open-minded to new ideas, concepts, and opportunities also allows leaders to be innovative, which brings us to our next point…

11. Be innovative and have a vision.

Leaders are often described as creative problem-solvers, influencers, and innovators. Innovation distinguishes a leader from a follower. Leaders with a vision are more likely to earn respect from their teams and successfully motivate them.

12. Focus on facts over feelings.

Even as a good leader, not every day is all fun and games. There will be times when you must put your foot down, set the bar straight, and have a difficult or uncomfortable conversation.

However, the best thing to keep in mind is to focus on facts over feelings. Think objectively. Don’t trust something at face value. Recognize common points and situations that involve mistakes and/or failure, as these are facts. Learn to separate your emotions from facts, practice active listening, address the problem, make the best decision, and figure out the best path forward.

What Are the Characteristics of a Great Leader?

To tie it all together, a great leader does the following:

• Shares information.
• Uses power mindfully and vigilantly, and recognizes that personal power is earned.
• Creates an environment that allows team members to grow and flourish.
• Communicates effectively and appropriately.
• Focuses on performance and results.
• Adjusts goals in any direction to ensure they are motivating.
• Has a high stress tolerance and executes stress management techniques for their teams, when appropriate.
• Shows ambition.
• Demonstrates a high level of emotional intelligence.
• Displays a charismatic, energetic, positive, enthusiastic, and motivated attitude.
• Has healthy boundaries and protects them.
• Understands power, politics, and influence.
• Creates and communicates vision.
• Accepts responsibility and accountability.
• Solves problems effectively.
• Does not point fingers or play the “blame game”.
• Emphasizes long-term productivity.
• Makes timely decisions.
• Questions and challenges the status quo.
• Embraces change and serves as a change agent.
• Is self-aware.
• Practices active listening.
• Empowers and encourages team members.
• Is constant and consistent.
• Provides feedback and recognition.
• Recognizes when they need to be agile and pivot.
• Encourages creativity and new ideas.
• Embraces life-long learning.

The list of great leadership qualities is lengthy; however, when you break it down, the four common traits shared by most successful leaders are the following:

• Maturity
• Intelligence (technical, organizational, emotional)
• Inner motivation and goal-oriented
• Considerate of others’ needs and values of team members (people-centric)
• After all, happier employees are not only more productive, but they also produce higher-quality work.

The Results of Great Leadership

As mentioned above, project leadership fosters a great deal of people management, and can be incredibly difficult at times and it might feel like it’s neverending. However, it is a rewarding and fulfilling role, especially when the project is a success.

Yes, sometimes you must sacrifice your agenda to help others in need. This is why, as leaders, having healthy boundaries is so important. Without healthy boundaries, you will not only risk being ineffective, but also put yourself in danger of burnout trying to keep everyone happy. Good leaders have the strength to say no when it’s the best thing to do, and they also know how to prioritize their own emotional strength.

All in all, you don’t have to be a “boss” by title or trade to be a good leader. Being a leader can simply mean serving as a mentor, role model, or someone who influences others. Despite popular belief, being a leader doesn’t always mean being serious, delegating, focusing “on the job”, and wearing the corporate “mask”. You can enjoy the team you work with. That’s okay. You know you have the right team when you not only love the work you do, you love the people you do it with.