hey there everybody and welcome to this brief presentation on the 14
characteristics of effective leaders i'm your host dr donnelly snipes
now y'all know i love mnemonic devices and this presentation is no exception so to remember the
14 characteristics of effective leaders i created the mnemonic device focuses leaders so let's take
a look at what that stands for the first one is focused good leaders are focused and goal directed
it's really hard to know what to do if your leader is not providing direction
if your leader is wishy-washy or scattered all over the place you may not be able to discern
okay exactly what do you want me to do right now so focus goal direction and that having a mission
or a vision that is guiding what they're doing can be helpful good leaders are open-minded they
recognize that they don't have all the answers and they recognize the importance of getting
multiple people's input on different situations on different ways to approach situations so
open-minded leaders are willing to hear out their subordinates as well as their colleagues
good leaders are communicative they tell people what it is they want when they want it by how
they want it done and why it's important at the very least that helps people know
what to do if they're guessing you know well he said he wants this report i don't know if he wants
it like today or next week it leaves a lot of ambiguity and creates a lot of anxiety and stress
so go back to those basic questions who what when where why and how and answer as many of those as
possible for your team when you are asking them to do things but communication doesn't just go
one way communication is both ways so good leaders also listen to what their subordinates and their
colleagues have to say they communicate they don't assume that people know what needs to be done
leaders are unifying people in a team need to feel like they belong they need to understand
what their role is in making the machine run so to speak so a good leader will unify
and will help people view each other's differences as strengths and opportunities to synergize
good leaders are self-aware they recognize their strengths they recognize their weaknesses
they recognize when they're having a good day and they recognize times when maybe they made
a mistake or they were unusually grumpy to somebody and they might need to apologize
or explain what's going on so they are self-aware and they are able to model that for other people
good leaders are engaged it is really easy to armchair quarterback to rule or try to lead from
your office but when you do that you miss a lot of the nuances and i've worked in multiple places
where c-level executives would decide that a change needed to be made and they'd make sweeping
changes without considering the impact it would have or they assumed that they knew the impact
it would have because of what the situation was like 20 years ago when they were line staff well
things change so an engaged leader is actually down there and in interacting with people and
when they see something that needs to be done they're doing it they're not too good to pitch in
engaged leaders are willing to recognize that things change and assess how everything that
they do impacts everything else good leaders are servants now it sounds a little weird but think
about it a good leader is going to mentor a good leader is going to help enrich and educate staff
a good leader is going to advocate for people to help them get promoted to help
them get raises to help them get what they need a good leader is going to make sure
do what is needed to make sure that people are in a safe and nurturing environment
a good leader leads by example they don't just sit at their desk all day long and assume everybody's
going to do what they're supposed to do if they want their staff to work hard they work hard
if they want their staff to be punctual they're punctual if they want you you get where i'm
going with this so a good leader is not going to say well i've done all that you know i've i've
run the ropes course it's time for me to just coast a good leader is actually down there and
modeling what they want to be done a good leader for example may model
effective communication maybe there's conflict between two different departments or something
and a good leader may step in and model assertive communication and problem solving skills
instead of you know grumbling and back talking and pitching a fit you know so they are showing by
example this is how we handle conflict this is how we reach compromise good leaders are emotionally
intelligent they are able to identify and deal with manage their own emotions but they're also
able to identify empathize and validate the emotions of others they are able to recognize
that subordinates above all are humans and we have lives outside of the group whether it's you know
a work group or a family group or what have you there are lots of different aspects to our lives
and an emotionally intelligent leader can recognize when someone is
experiencing distress and intervene appropriately
good leaders are adaptable things change the needs of stakeholders change the needs of people in the
group may change and a good leader is always scanning and saying okay is everything humming
along or are we starting to experience some stress in one aspect or another and they're able to
drop back and punt so to speak they're also adaptable to external situations for example in
2020 in behavioral health we went from almost always doing intensive outpatient and outpatient
services in clinic in a face-to-face setting to providing the majority of those services online
we adapted to the needs of the individual to the needs of the stakeholders in light of the pressing
pandemic concerns those companies that didn't adapt didn't end up surviving most of the time
the same thing is true you can look back at some of the big behemoth corporations from the 70s and
80s that you thought would live you know go on forever as organized as organizations and they've
filed bankruptcy or gone out of business because they didn't adapt to the online environment good
leaders recognize changes in stakeholder needs recognize changes in regulatory issues or the
landscape of their situation and they view it as a challenge and they say to themselves
all right we've been doing it this way forever however that's not going to be successful anymore
how can we adapt how can we morph in order to accomplish our goals in this new situation
good leaders are decisive and this kind of goes along with focused and goal directed when a leader
is focused and goal directed they know where they're going they have a mission they have
a vision they they know what they want to achieve decisive means okay we're actually going to do it
and they make decisions instead of saying well you know there are several options and we'll think
about them and pondering they're faced with a situation they get the facts they make a decision
it's not always going to be the right decision but a good leader when they make
a wrong decision is willing to own up to that and go well that didn't work out so good let's
take take a look at this again and figure out how to correct our course and they make decisive moves
instead of being wishy-washy good leaders are empowering and motivational they want
to encourage and inspire their subordinates to be all they can be to quote an old slogan
and this is an excellent aspect of a good leader instead of
oppressing their subordinates and keeping them you know as line staff or feeling intimidated
or threatened by their subordinates good leaders often surround themselves with people who have
skills and abilities and talents that they don't or even some that they do
yet they are not threatened by those they want to nurture people they come from a place a mentality
of abundance so they can encourage people to grow and and become what they want to be
good leaders don't hold people back either you know you may have a really good employee well
yeah you'd probably like to hold on to them forever but a good leader is going to motivate
that person to apply for those promotions apply for those transfers do what they need
to do in order to grow as an individual and as a professional good leaders are respectful
recognizing they're not going to agree with everybody all the time but they
acknowledge each person's experiences and perceptions and good leaders are stable they
operate from a wise mind place instead of an emotional mind and they're very consistent you
know what to expect with those leaders it's not a guessing game is this person going to come in
and be you know all over the place was she washy is this person going to show up at all
a good leader is consistent they are there and a lot of good leaders i've i use the mnemonic craves
when i talk about secure attachments but a lot of good leaders nurture secure attachments with their
team they are consistent in their presentation they are responsive to the needs of their team
they give positive attention you know that goes with being empowering and motivational
they validate how people feel they encourage and support their staff how awesome would it
be if your supervisor or your leader embodied those characteristics how much more would you
look more would you look forward to going to work if your supervisor if your leader embodied those
characteristics so on to those journal prompts which of these characteristics is a current
strength that you have give an example of how you have demonstrated each one in the past month
and how can you develop each of these characteristics that you do not
currently have you know maybe you recognize that you are not as engaged as you could be
with with your team so how could you increase that engagement
more in-depth resources can be found on the website motivating teams can be found at all
ceus.com slash org dash psych dash teams burnout prevention can be found at all ceus.com exhaustion
and trauma informed skills for supervisors can be found at tic dash supervision