As my personal responsibilities have grown and I have moved further into leadership roles in my family and at work I have been working to get a better understanding of what good leadership looks like. There are a number of methods I have encountered from a variety of people over the years. One commonality I have noticed is that each person has a different style and philosophy (some very thoughtful and formulated and some less theoretical and more practical) and that each leader has found some key points, habits, techniques, or whatever you want to call them that work for them.

The first most important thing that I see required to be a healthy leader is understanding that everyone has their own methods and you don’t need to copy someone else. If fact it is critical that you formulate your own technique and strategy. This gives you, as a leader, a sense of empowerment and freedom that you cannot obtain by copying someone else’s strategy or methods.

The second key I have noticed is that the leader is not expected to have all the answers. There is some varying expectations on this front depending on the group dynamics and duration of proximity of the leader. Fundamentally, a healthy leader recognizes that hey do not have all the answers and instead of focusing on coming up with the right answers, focuses on asking the right questions. Questions, the right questions, lead to context; context leads to understanding; understanding leads to options; options lead to decisions.

This brings me to the third portion of healthy leadership, making the decision. Sometimes it is necessary for the leader to just make the decision, but this depends on the group dynamics and overall context of the decision at hand. Other times it is extremely vital that the leader involve key people in the decision making process. This could be for empowering others to make these decisions later, to build or reinforce other leaders, or to obtain buy in from relevant players. The real core here is simply that a decision must be made and the leader is responsible to ensure that a decision is made and clearly communicated to everyone necessary.

-joe