oliviatamccue

I was once in an interview to a position where the hiring manager confidently said that “people don’t leave a company, they leave their manager”.  I give him the vote of confidence of a good leader and would not mind a bit working in his organization.

How does one differentiate great leaders from not-so-great ones?   People with enough years of working are likely having fair shares of relatively great, good or bad managers.

– is the organization a prosperous one with high spirit and high level of engagement?

– is the organization doing meaningful things?

– is the employee of the organization highly motivated, willing to try new ideas?

– is the leader competent in its position and ready to take up additional responsibilities?

– does the leader acknowledge challenges facing the staff versus make the staff feel incompetent?

– does the leader help to remove obstacles versus creating obstacles?

– does the leader listen and ask probing question versus offer solution that belittle the staff?

– does the leader expand the strength of people versus exploiting the weakness?

– does the leader say “thank you” enough?

– does the leader care about career goals versus squeeze the most?

– does the leader put effort to help people grow?

– does the staff learn from the leader?

– what does the top performer and average performer say about the leader?

There are zillion books on Leadership.   The reality is – when we run into great leaders, we know them; and when we run into bad ones, we also know.

There is a saying that “a bird should find a good resting place”, so is it that “one need to find a great leader along the way”.

Posted in Career Management