My Experiences with Great Leaders

In my career, I've noticed it has become easier and easier to separate the great leaders from the average leader. I've spent some time thinking about what traits they had in common in an effort to learn from others.

Here are some traits of great leaders:

• Collaboration - Great leaders understand that there are always competing priorities and product development requires the alignment of many disparate teams. I've noticed that they always have the ability to truly partner with others rather than throw dependencies over the wall and down the hill so to speak. Who wants to be on the other end of that? No one! Great leaders know that and work to partner and collaborate on planning and execution to drive results.
• Respect - Great leaders earn the respect of others. Don't be fooled by titles, titles don't mean you have earned any respect. The best way I've experience to earn that respect is to deliver results. Say what you are going to do and do what you said you would. Communicate and listen!
• Level Headed - We all hear about the famous CEOs who bang their fists on tables and cause a lot of angst among the whole company. Or the project manager that snaps at someone who misses a deadline. Great leaders know that there is a bigger picture and how you handle tough situations says a lot of about your character.

Every time I write a blog post like this I feel like I'm saying the obvious, but then I read other professional blog posts and I always think that their content is also pretty obvious. So I thought I'd also include some of these observations and learnings.

Enjoy!