Wednesday, August 28, 2013

11 Simple Concepts to Become a Better Leader




Being likeable will help you in your job, business, relationships, and life. I interviewed dozens of successful business leaders for my last book, to determine what made them so likeable and their companies so successful. All of the concepts are simple, and yet, perhaps in the name of revenues or the bottom line, we often lose sight of the simple things - things that not only make us human, but can actually help us become more successful. Below are the eleven most important principles to integrate to become a better leader:

1. Listening
"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway
Listening is the foundation of any good relationship. Great leaders listen to what their customers and prospects want and need, and they listen to the challenges those customers face. They listen to colleagues and are open to new ideas. They listen to shareholders, investors, and competitors. Here's why the best CEO's listen more.
2. Storytelling
"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McAfee Brown
After listening, leaders need to tell great stories in order to sell their products, but more important, in order to sell their ideas. Storytelling is what captivates people and drives them to take action. Whether you're telling a story to one prospect over lunch, a boardroom full of people, or thousands of people through an online video - storytelling wins customers.
3. Authenticity
"I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." -Oprah Winfrey
Great leaders are who they say they are, and they have integrity beyond compare. Vulnerability and humility are hallmarks of the authentic leader and create a positive, attractive energy. Customers, employees, and media all want to help an authentic person to succeed. There used to be a divide between one’s public self and private self, but the social internet has blurred that line. Tomorrow's leaders are transparent about who they are online, merging their personal and professional lives together.
4. Transparency
"As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." -John Whittier
There is nowhere to hide anymore, and businesspeople who attempt to keep secrets will eventually be exposed. Openness and honesty lead to happier staff and customers and colleagues. More important, transparency makes it a lot easier to sleep at night - unworried about what you said to whom, a happier leader is a more productive one.
5. Team Playing
"Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." -SEAL Team Saying
No matter how small your organization, you interact with others every day. Letting others shine, encouraging innovative ideas, practicing humility, and following other rules for working in teams will help you become a more likeable leader. You’ll need a culture of success within your organization, one that includes out-of-the-box thinking.
6. Responsiveness
"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." -Charles Swindoll
The best leaders are responsive to their customers, staff, investors, and prospects. Every stakeholder today is a potential viral sparkplug, for better or for worse, and the winning leader is one who recognizes this and insists upon a culture of responsiveness. Whether the communication is email, voice mail, a note or a tweet, responding shows you care and gives your customers and colleagues a say, allowing them to make a positive impact on the organization.
7. Adaptability
"When you're finished changing, you're finished." -Ben Franklin
There has never been a faster-changing marketplace than the one we live in today. Leaders must be flexible in managing changing opportunities and challenges and nimble enough to pivot at the right moment. Stubbornness is no longer desirable to most organizations. Instead, humility and the willingness to adapt mark a great leader.
8. Passion
"The only way to do great work is to love the work you do." -Steve Jobs
Those who love what they do don’t have to work a day in their lives. People who are able to bring passion to their business have a remarkable advantage, as that passion is contagious to customers and colleagues alike. Finding and increasing your passion will absolutely affect your bottom line.
9. Surprise and Delight
"A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless." -Charles de Gaulle
Most people like surprises in their day-to-day lives. Likeable leaders underpromise and overdeliver, assuring that customers and staff are surprised in a positive way. There are a plethora of ways to surprise without spending extra money - a smile, We all like to be delighted — surprise and delight create incredible word-of-mouth marketing opportunities.
10. Simplicity
"Less isn't more; just enough is more." -Milton Glaser
The world is more complex than ever before, and yet what customers often respond to best is simplicity — in design, form, and function. Taking complex projects, challenges, and ideas and distilling them to their simplest components allows customers, staff, and other stakeholders to better understand and buy into your vision. We humans all crave simplicity, and so today's leader must be focused and deliver simplicity.
11. Gratefulness
"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -Gilbert Chesterton
Likeable leaders are ever grateful for the people who contribute to their opportunities and success. Being appreciative and saying thank you to mentors, customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders keeps leaders humble, appreciated, and well received. It also makes you feel great! Donor's Choose studied the value of a hand-written thank-you note, and actually found donors were 38% more likely to give a 2nd time if they got a hand-written note!

The Golden Rule: Above all else, treat others as you’d like to be treated
By showing others the same courtesy you expect from them, you will gain more respect from coworkers, customers, and business partners. Holding others in high regard demonstrates your company’s likeability and motivates others to work with you. This seems so simple, as do so many of these principles — and yet many people, too concerned with making money or getting by, fail to truly adopt these key concepts.
Which of these principles are most important to you — what makes you likeable?
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For a FREE collection of Dave's most inspirational stories on leadership, marketing and more, click here.
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If you liked this article, you will like:
The 1 Thing a Business Leader Must Do to Succeed
25 Quotes to Inspire You to Become a Better Leader
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Dave Kerpen is the New York Times bestselling author of two books, Likeable Social Media and Likeable Business. If you like this post, please share it and please click the FOLLOW button above or below for more great posts from Dave.
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Add a comment 6,806 comments
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  • Neeraj Shrivastava
    Neeraj Shrivastava
    Principal Consultant - CIBER US
    Another very important quality of a great leader is his\her ability to create more leaders!
    26 days ago
    Sachin Bakshi, AJIT SHIWAKOTI, Amani Elhoussainy, +75
    6 Replies
    • Dalila Ortega
      Dalila Ortega
      Clinical Research Coordinator at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles
      Very well put, I believe that all good leaders must also be good mentors.
      59 minutes ago
      Hsuan Wang, CISP
    • Patrick Bosworth
      Patrick Bosworth
      Founder of Leadership Choice
      Absolutely agree. Developing an effective leadership pipeline (not leadership succession, but rather having people within the company who are developing qualities you'd like in future leaders) is the best way to achieve both short- and long-term success as a leader.
      11 hours ago
      Hsuan Wang, CISP, Amy Renhard, Peter Kwarteng-Amaning, +6
    • Show More
  • Jeanne Ward
    Jeanne Ward
    Owner, Jeanne Ward Consulting
    Thank you, these are so important! What about encouraging others to follow 'The Platinum Rule' rather than 'The Golden Rule', though? The difference is: GOLDEN RULE- Treat others as you would like to be treated. PLATINUM RULE- Treat others as they would like to be treated.
    15 days ago
    Katri Wilson, Amani Elhoussainy, Rolf Kramer, +48
    5 Replies
    • Johnson Aderonmu
      Johnson Aderonmu
      I.T Systems/Network Engineer at YOMMEX INTERNATIONAL COMPANY
      I strongly believe that "The Golden Rule" and the "Platinum Rule" are both essential for climbing up the ladder of success! However, the strength of their potency is dependent on whether they are applied to the right situations as required!
      55 minutes ago
    • Ahmed Lotfy
      Ahmed Lotfy
      Assoc. Prof. Dr. at Military Technical College
      Excellent, I like the PLATINUM RULE but it needs an extremely Patient Leader.
      1 hour ago
      Cherian Grundmann
    • Show More
  • Tommy D. Leblanc
    Tommy D. Leblanc
    Advisor - IT Projects Framework and Delivery Office at Desjardins
    11 key elements. I live by the Golden Rule : Above all else, treat others as you’d like to be treated since many years. If everyone was using that simple rule, the world would be an ever better place.
    28 days ago
    Dalila Ortega, Alahyar Koochekali, Marian Galinato, +19
    1 Reply
  • Rina Giacchi
    Rina Giacchi
    Operations Manager at Debt Recoveries Australia (DRA)
    No matter what rules come and go for being a better leader, the golden rule "treat others as you want to be treated" always comes up triumphs everywhere
    22 days ago
    Herbert Zaranyika, Kimberly Hinton, Naveed Wasti, +12
  • Manjari Goel
    Manjari Goel
    Corporate Finance Assistant Accountant
    "we often lose sight of the simple things - things that not only make us human, but can actually help us become more successful! " My belief: if you are able to be a good human being, you can be successful at any thing that matters to you.
    23 days ago
    Deepthi Tatineni, Ruth Meade, Yan (Mary) Ying, +11
  • Abhilasha Shripat
    Abhilasha Shripat
    Commercial Product Manager at Farmers Insurance
    Well, the most important Principle that I follow is Being 100% AUTHENTIC no matter where I am - When you Walk your Own Talk - there is nothing more appealing to people seeing someone who is Actually into "Action" than merely uttering Words! Also I have realized that Corporate World as we say full of cut-throat competition, politics, aggressiveness etc. - It all boil downs to one simple thing - HUMANITY. If you follow that from your heart, stay authentic and just be human 100% - Nobody can stop you to Succeed. To top it all - Just Love all that you have and things start becoming more loving around.
    13 days ago
    Ahmed Lotfy, Kem Dinally, Nelson Ochaya Marie, +8
    3 Replies
  • Rajiv @.
    Rajiv @.
    Manager - Marketing & Insights
    Theory n practice are different.... This appears to be list of what we Wish, leadership to be like, in ideal world. But in practical world people are more moved by how u can benefit them rather than how good human u are... Eg ppl will appreciate transparency if u are transparent about something that will benefit them. Not denying all of above thoughts neither accepting all... These are for ideal world, but sadly world is not ideal...
    26 days ago
    Montgomery Truong, RAMESWAR REDDY, Akhilesh Mohan, +4
    2 Replies
    • Abhilasha Shripat
      Abhilasha Shripat
      Commercial Product Manager at Farmers Insurance
      For sure there is a difference between an ideal and a real world.Not denying what you said.... But, I feel even that "thought' of helping others has somewhere a Root in being a Good Human at heart! There are many fake people in world today, who might try very hard to be seen as benefiting people....and in the process there are many innocent people who even get moved (for a short-term) thinking they are being benefited / helped. But in long-run they Realize who is what worth for!! And ultimately a person who is really a Good human with best motive at heart...wins the long race and seen as Leader! Take any example of really great leaders and you will find they all were before anything, a Good Human being!
      16 hours ago
      Ken Antovski and Rajiv @.
    • Sayon Roy
      Sayon Roy
      General Manager - Lutech India at Chicago Bridge & Iron
      I echo Rajeev's sentiments on what we are called an " ideal " leadership. Imminently not possible to be such an ideal leader but today's thought leadership are more in the lines of what's in for the individual at the end of the funnel. Fact of life.
      23 hours ago
      Rajiv @. and Van Quyen Nguyen
  • Eric Qin
    Eric Qin
    A free thinking Huster
    Thanks for your sharing.It requires a lot of skills to become a great leader ,but I think the most important ability you need to have is the ability to motivate other people ,to inspire other people .As a leader ,your success should base on your team's success,if you have the ability to motivate other people ,you can take full use of your team member's talent to achieve your goal rather than rely on yourselt .There is an old saying in china "three ordinary people can be important than zhugeliang(a really smart guy in chinese history )I think we can know from the old proverb importance of multi intelligence of other people which is generated from your ability of inspiring other people .
    1 month ago
    George Phabian, Ray-an Angeles, Jelica Culafic, +6
    1 Reply
    • Caro Swanson
      Caro Swanson
      Service user lead, Te Pou
      I think if you apply the attributes written about, you then have the ability and opportunity to inspire and motivate people. The most inspirational and useful people I know have these attributes.
      19 hours ago
  • Kristen Capone
    Kristen Capone
    Leader. Coach. Human Capitalist. Agent.
    Leaders are first people. These principals are foundational (or should be) for life! We would not only have better leaders and more successful companies we would have happier families, better marriages, richer relationships...a more trusting and connected world. Amen Dave. I like this article even more the second time around. Congratulations on its success and thank you for your contributions as a LinkedIn influencer. I must say you were equally as inspirational selling cracker jacks back in the day. I remember you vividly from the games!
    17 days ago
    Crystal Upchurch, Paula Silveira Martins, Ray Mims, +4
  • Hanna Andersen
    Hanna Andersen
    Academy Manager at HSBC
    We must also remember that not everyone wants to be treated the way we do. Treat others as THEY would like to be treated. Great leaders understand people and tune in to their wants and needs.
    21 days ago
    Ambrish Netke, mohamed fargaly, Tayyab Bukhari, +4
  • Michael Murga
    Michael Murga
    Senior Licensing Specialist at EMC Europe
    "Taking complex projects, challenges, and ideas and distilling them to their simplest components allows customers, staff, and other stakeholders to better understand and buy into your vision." - Best Way to Make an Impact / get Connected
    24 days ago
    Susan Chavez, Marian Galinato, vijendra shekhawat, +1
    1 Reply
    • vijendra shekhawat
      vijendra shekhawat
      Owner, Traditional Paper / Green Paper
      This is Vijendra Shekhawat from Jaipur India. You can read here some thing more about me...... I am a young and small entrepreneur who's making handmade paper from "Elephant Dung ". 12 year ago I had started handmade paper making at my home. But it was not sufficient to survive for my family of 6 members whatever I was earning. After 2 years of struggle there was big change in our life because that time I had an idea of paper making by "Elephant Dung". It was new and unique idea. Our products are one of the most eco-frendly paper products in the world, because these are 100% wood n chemicals free. Some articles are here regarding my work in US news paper (la times) and in business today :- http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/03/world/la-fg-india-elephant-dung-20110303#.TnNMC27nBJM.email http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/jaipur-entrepreneur-who-makes-paper-from-elephant-dung/1/186762.html Please tell your friends too if they are going or planning a trip to Jaipur or Rajasthan because :- 1.This is a very small business (from home) but helping some unemployed, farmers who are living nearby areas. We prefer to people who's cutting jungles to survive (wood cutters). 2 . We are helping to clean our city n environment by using dung for paper making. 3. Water goes to irrigation after washing the dung, no wastage of water. 4. This water has good quality of natural manure so no need to give any chemical fertilisers or pesticides in these fields. 5. We are saving lot of friendly insects, butter flies by using this (drain water after dung washing) water in the farms. Let me know that what you think about my work......? Is it really a dirty work......! Your comments, suggestions really motivate me if you think it's good for our environment and society :) I am waiting for your response. Thanks Vijendra Shekhawat From Jaipur Rajasthan India
      1 day ago
      Mark Moody, RAMESWAR REDDY, and Yingli Luo
  • Cameo Doran
    Cameo Doran
    Senior Program & Project Manager | Agile Coach/Scrum Master | ★ Delivering Solutions Ahead of Deadlines★
    Gratefulness is so important in our professional relationships, especially for those in leadership positions. People need to know that their bosses see and appreciate the things they do.
    1 month ago
    Benjamin Tacquet, Paul Vozar, Tayyab Bukhari, +4
  • William Lawrence
    William Lawrence
    CEO Founder - WealthManager.com
    People do business with people they like, simple.
    21 days ago
    Marian Galinato, Paul Vozar, Syed Qaiser Ali, +2
    2 Replies
    • Malcolm Palmer
      Malcolm Palmer
      Regional Manager Gulf States at Reza Hygiene
      Hear hear!
      3 hours ago
    • David Hazlett
      David Hazlett
      General Counsel at Vogt Power International Inc.
      In some worlds, selection is an option But in others, you have to take your customer, or your supplier, as you find them. That is when leadership may be most in play. I would suggest that simple is complex in truth.
      1 day ago
      georgia alex
  • Fang Mo NING
    Fang Mo NING
    Enthusiast for Entrepreneurship and Organizational Psychology
    The part I love the most - All of the concepts are simple, and yet, perhaps in the name of revenues or the bottom line, we often lose sight of the simple things - things that not only make us human, but can actually help us become more successful. My personal experience is that while all sales people understand the importance of building relationships with their clients, only a small number appreciate the true value of relationship building, while most will only choose to invest in relationships that will bring about direct business benefits. It's true, a lot of times, it's the simplest things being performed in its purest form that sets someone apart for success!!! :-)
    1 month ago
    Erin Barnes, Joonseo Kong, mohamed fargaly, +3
  • Jodelle Faye De Jesus
    Jodelle Faye De Jesus
    Published Author-Editor | Content & Community Coordinator
    The surprising thing is how many people in positions of power often neglect to display these simple concepts, and yet these make a great impact on maintaining relationships. I think it's important to understand how critical leaders are in workplaces: for instance, a bad boss/lacking leader can make an employee choose unemployment over working in a disengaging environment (read: http://www.employeesurveytoolkit.com/choosing-unemployment-over-a-disengaging-workplace/). Thank you for this article!
    20 days ago
    dheeraj gupta, Syed Qaiser Ali, Minnas Mohamed, +2
    1 Reply
    • David Hazlett
      David Hazlett
      General Counsel at Vogt Power International Inc.
      Your observation is not surprising for those that have been around a while, as one comes to the realization that people in authority are not always leaders. Further, it may be intentional that they are not leaders - weird, but true.
      1 day ago
      Willis Okoth
  • Netta Tiippana
    Netta Tiippana
    -
    Leadership can only be learned, not really taught - I heard once. Enjoyed reading this article.
    1 month ago
    Ray Mims, Syed Qaiser Ali, Minnas Mohamed, +4
  • Barry Brockbank
    Barry Brockbank
    Experienced Sales Professional.
    I hope the people who need to read this actually take the time to read it!
    1 month ago
    Melissa H., Paul Vozar, Minnas Mohamed, +2
  • Tuaine Inakura
    Tuaine Inakura
    HRIS Project Manager
    Great article.. And the concepts are soooo simple..
    22 days ago
    Syed Qaiser Ali, Minnas Mohamed, vijendra shekhawat, +1
  • Shaunah Majcher
    Shaunah Majcher
    Project Planning & Management | Sustainability Strategy & Business Case
    I like the quotes.
    16 days ago
    Ray Mims, Syed Qaiser Ali, and Krithika Raghavan
  • Trish Supples, PMP
    Trish Supples, PMP
    InterAgency Collaboration at Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
    Good recap of common sense tactics--it's not rocket science but so many leaders become so myopically focused on running their own raise to get ahead that they never notice that their team is sitting on the sidelines.
    15 days ago
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