Leadership Attributes: Leaders are Results Driven

In the organization that I worked at, there were three “Obligations of Leadership” for all of our leaders. They were: drive results, build a high performing work environment and develop people. I believe that’s a good summation of what the obligations of each leader should be. However, the achievement of each of these obligations was not rewarded equally. What I tended to see was that those who drove results were rewarded and recognized at a higher level than those who built a high performing work environment or those who excelled at developing others. And as important as those latter things are, organizations pay leaders to drive results and move their organizations forward. In our series on leadership attributes, we now look at the importance of leaders driving results. A leader who is results driven excels in many leadership attributes and competencies. Briefly, here are 10 of them:

Focus. A leader has to deal with many important issues. Those who are successful at driving results are able to focus on what is most important, and create a sense of urgency while successfully managing multiple priorities.

Accountability. Leaders who drive results have a high degree of accountability and build a sense of accountability into their team members.

Decision Making. Leaders who drive results excel at effective decision making, making decisions that are in line with the vision of the organization.

Asking the Right Questions. John Maxwell wrote an entire book about good leaders asking great questions. Asking the right question is often how problems are solved, which aids in driving results.

Servant Leadership. Ken Blanchard has written that the only way to create great relationships and results is through servant leadership. The role of the servant leader is to help their team members and their organization be successful.

Communication. A leader who drives results needs to be able to clearly communicate to their team members and organization what is needed to achieve results.

Vision. A leader who drives results needs to develop and clearly communicate a vision of where the organization is going.

Inspire and Motivate. A leader who drives results must be able to inspire and motivate their team members to buy into their vision.

High Integrity and Trust. A leader who drives results demonstrates integrity and builds trust with their followers.

Humility. In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins stated that Level 5 leaders display a powerful mixture of personal humility and indomitable will. Randy Conley writes that authentic leaders display humility, admit what they don’t know, walk their talk, own up to their mistakes, and do what they say they will do.

Self-Discipline. A leader who drives results must demonstrate self-discipline. John Maxwell has written that without exception, great leaders always have self-discipline.

These are just 10 competencies or attributes of leaders who drive results. There are many more. Which of these would you say is most important? What would you add to the list?

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This is an Adapted Excerpt From My Book “A LEADER WORTH FOLLOWING:
40 Key Leadership Attributes and Applications to Master”.