by Steve Adubato, PhD

About a month ago we covered the topic of leadership and the characteristics and traits of a great leader. At the end of the column, I asked readers to complete the following sentence; A great leader is…. Some of those responses have been published. Here are a few others that offer a different perspective;

One of the more interesting comments came from Jetta Capaccio of Nutley who argues; "A great leader is someone who leads not just for their own greatness but for the greatness and fulfillment of others."

What a powerful statement and a tremendously high standard for all of us who try to lead to dare to live up to.

Sometimes people are convinced that great leaders are the best speakers. That's not always the case as says Steve Powanda; "I think a great leader is someone who listens to you before they offer you a solution." Listening is by far the most ignored and potentially important characteristics of a great leader. I think the key is for a leader to acknowledge that he or she doesn't have all the answers. Further, that he or she is secure enough to accept the recommendation and feedback from others on the team. Finally, real leaders understand that who gets the credit, while important, is not nearly as important as getting the job done and moving the team forward.

A particularly interesting perspective was offered by Douglas Simon, President and CEO of DS Simon Productions, Inc., who took issue with me in this fashion; "I disagree that a great leader 'has unrealistic expectations as to what is possible.' The truth is a great leader has 'visionary expectations' about what others don't realize is possible and the ability to make others believe in their vision to make it happen."

I really respect your opinion, Doug, and don't disagree with you at all. After thinking about it, I'm not really sure we disagree, we just might be saying the same thing in different ways.

Bill Schetlick wrote about leadership from a totally different perspective; "I saw your article in the Ledger recently. It was interesting how some folks responded with 'personal' characteristics (integrity, honesty, etc.), while others sought to define a great leader by what she or he does/does not do (delegates responsibility, takes/gives criticism/advice in certain ways). Both are useful, but ought to be separated thusly; 'A great leader is someone who has the following personal attributes…' and 'a great leader is someone who always…'"

Great stuff Bill.

Finally, on a related topic, I recently wrote about how leaders and managers should communicate with their employees when an organization is experiencing dramatic restructuring and/or downsizing. I talked about empathizing with employees and trying to understand their perspective. Domenic Proscia wrote back and said that I was missing a big piece of this complex equation. "I read your article on downsizing and it caught my eye because my company just went through this. But the one thing that gets me is that everything is a challenge for the manager. The manager must communicate the bad news to his or her employees and then try to make them feel secure and wanted. My question is, what about the managers? People get cut and all managers get is more work with no compassion given on this end."

What a wonderful point you make, Domenic. To that end, I'm asking all managers reading this column who have experienced an organizational restructuring to write to me and share your experience. It might be cathartic for you and I know it will be helpful to others in a future column on this subject. As always, thanks for the feedback.

Next week, we take on the issue of micromanaging.