The Leader Sign

I can tell an effective leader from an ineffective one from one interaction. One single behavior will predict whether the person I’m observing will be an amplifier of talent or hinder it.

When confronted with unsatisfactory behavior, do they jockey for status or do they get to a solution?

It’s simple when you boil it down – you can let the other person “know who’s boss,” or you can get the actual behavior and results you want, consistently and in the long term. You can’t do both.

If an employee delivers work that doesn’t meet specifications, you can let your ego drive. You can make sure they know how disappointed you are, how bad their work was, and how it could jeopardize their job. You can disrespect them professionally in this way, and it will certainly establish who has the higher status in that moment. Of course, it won’t do a thing to improve the actual work in the long term, and in fact even in the short term, the best-case scenario is just someone who takes less initiative. More likely, that employee now has one foot out the door.

The true leader skips all that. They immediately identify the gaps between the delivered work and the desired work and look for ways to close them. They coach, guide, and support. They don’t care if the employee “feels bad” about their prior work – why would they want that? What they *want* is a happy employee who delivers good work consistently. And they know that the way to get that isn’t to dress them down and disrespect them.

That one mentality underpins everything else about leadership. If an employee’s failure to meet a goal threatens your ego to the point that your first instinct is to defend your status, you shouldn’t be in charge of anyone.