In my 19 fantastic years of career with my first company, I have (luckily) had 16 managers with 5 nationalities, and 3 of whom are ladies. Each one of them has played a crucial role in my growth in the professional world. Over my unique experience working with them at different stage of my career, I have distilled 3 key qualities that I believe an inspiring leader should possess. Thanks to all my managers, these qualities molded from them provide me a great model of leader that I am constantly aspired to be, and that’s the type of leaders I would love to work with.
Ambitious
A leader without ambition is hardly called leader. Ambition is grounded on a strong belief that something meaningful and something important needs to be done for good, and they are willing to go through the pain and suffer to achieve that. They take bold moves, they are constantly pushing the boundaries, and they never settle until the goal is reached. More importantly, they clearly articulate their visions and rally the troops with them on this journey, and they follow through responsibly every step on the way to reach the goal. I was lucky to have the opportunity to work with a few leaders like this in my career. I see the vision they see, it simply makes sense! I was inspired by their energy and drive to go after that and they made me feel I was part of that something meaningful and something important. There is one point about ambition is that often times people mixed it with ego, but that’s completely different in my opinion. Ego is a lot about oneself yet ambition is more about the belief in the big goal. Another thing about ambition is that inspiring leaders are willing to take responsibility for the results of their ambition. That means when things do not work out as expected, they are always there to acknowledge and take the necessary consequences and steps to correct the course. In essence, an inspiring leader creates better futures!
Magnetic
Great leaders attract high quality people around them like magnet. They have sharp eyes and ears, where they spot great talents and attract them to work with them. They create great team spirit and healthy environment for a diverse sets of talents to excel, yet function as a team to achieve great goals. I was lucky to have worked in a few such teams and it was amazing experience. It can be intense at first, as it seems nobody thinks alike and you constantly get challenged by your teammates. You then quickly realized that it is just those difference (diversity) that stimulates lots of innovative ideas and sharpened your mind. The transparency and the trust that people can actually raise different voices are extraordinary. At the same time, when situation calls, great leaders are able to use their magic to align the teams, converge and orient teams to focus on actions and drive results. Another very important aspect of inspiring leaders is that they know when to make the tough call NOT to have somebody on the team. From time to time, there are some people keep breaking the trust and team spirit, no matter how many chances they were given. In such situation, it is the leader’s responsibility to make the call that we can no longer have such individual on the team. It is tough but it needs to be done. In essence, an inspiring leader creates great teams!
Caring
A coach used to tell me, “the deepest desire of every single person in this world is, to be seen, to be heard and to be understood”. There you have it. An inspiring leader sees you, hears you and understands you. They care about you personally and you feel trusted when work with them. They are willing to invest their time and energy in you. They hold high standard of you as they believe in your best. That means they are not only your source of encouragement, but also that “annoying” but honest voice telling you that you can do better. That can be tough sometimes, but that’s how you excel. In my experience, I was super lucky that I have had a few leaders who has constantly been my inspiration, they always make me feel good about myself when I was down, and they nudge me when I feel too good about myself. In essence, an inspiring leader creates great leaders!
The journey to be an inspiring leader is long but exciting! It is the belief that you can be one and the conscious effort of do-reflect-improve-do loop that makes you a better version of yourself all the time.
Bin's Blog 