Leadership Checklist

Kylie Wright-Ford and I researched what good leaders are like for our book, The Leadership Mind Switch (McGraw-Hill, 2017).  Through observing hundreds of outstanding leaders, we learned that they generally tend to be more:

• »  Personally accountable
• »  Informed and curious about the wider world
• »  Committed to both their job and the job of the whole organization
• »  Emotionally stable
• »  Positive in a negative situation

They also have:

• »  A combo of competencies, traits, experiences, roles, personality inclinations, and values that ts the needs of their organization
• »  An understanding that they must maintain morale, engage stakeholders, and remain trusted
• »  The ability to get a group of high-powered individuals to cooperatively interact with one mind, one heart, and one voice.

• »  A willingness to engage
• »  A comfort with ambiguity
• »  An ethno-cultural empathy
• »  The capability to easily relate across generations
• »  Cognitive flexibility and openness
• »  Varied interests beyond the office
• »  Willingness to show their true self when the environment allows for it
• »  Solid relationships with their work partners, especially their executive assistants
• »  A mindset where success is considered a derivative of not only their own efforts, but also the efforts of those around them