I was asked recently what traits I look for to determine if someone is ready to move into a leadership role, either as a manager or as a thought leader. This is easy if I have worked with the person because they will display the majority of these traits in their daily actions.

In addition to this post on Leadership, here are some of the traits that I looks for:
- Consistently demonstrates core values
- Respect for others
- Strong work ethic
- Honesty & Integrity
- Self motivation
- Discipline excellence
- Deep discipline knowledge
- Ability to mentor & coach others
- Results focus
- Leadership
- Desire to lead
- Consistently demonstrates accountability
- Mobilizes others to action
- Credibility
- Soft skills
- Communicates clearly and effectively
- Self aware
- Selfless
- Responds well to feedback
- Cares for others
- Helps develops others
- Demonstrates empathy
And the final item that I look for is:
Are others willing to follow that person’s lead?
I am always humbled by genius and talent; therefore when the writings of Guy Kawasaki are converted to wonderful imagery by Martha McGinnis, I just have to share.
The art above was created by Martha McGinnis – a hi-res version can be found here (7.4M)
Guy Kawasaki wrote this blog post on The Art of Innovation and provides a little insight to the visual artistry above.
I don’t know about you but I have run into the situation where a great employee is not delivering the results that the business needs. Here is the question that I ask myself:
If I put that person in a Life or Death situation where they face death if they are unable to deliver the results. Are they able to deliver the results?
And the options are:
- if they are able to deliver the results: – then there is a motivation issue
- if they are still not able to deliver the results: -Â then there is a skills issue
I do not recommend that you put any of your people in a Life or Death situation. For me, the ideal approach is to have conversations with them to determine what the issue(s) are. As long as you have already established a culture where they can share issues without any repercussions, they will share with you.