What makes a good leader? - Unboss yourself!

Imagine: You are a leader. That is why you have to and want have a say. The reason is that you know your area of ​​expertise, you identify yourself with your role and the company, you want to advance topics in terms of strategy and make important decisions and realize your good ideas for even more success. Stop it!

As a leader, you actually have a completely different task. First and foremost, you need to enable your employees to take on the driving and decision-making for you. This is especially relevant in modern work structures and matrix organizations. If you continue to make your own boot full of motivation, you inevitably will be pulling other people's plugs because you are ignororing areas of responsibility, and are busy with too many things - bottlenecking performance at the end. Hence, respect dance areas and adjust your leadership. Google has summarized how this works in an extensive study.

Research found that a good leader

1. is a good coach,
2. empowers and does not micromanage,
3. expresses interest and concern in subordinates’ success and well-being,
4. is results oriented,
5. listens and shares information,
6. helps with career development,
7. has a clear vision and strategy, and
8. has key technical skills.

You can use this list directly as a recommendation of priorities for your leadership behavior. Regularly remind yourself that sometimes you do more than is good for others' motivation and goal achievement. Unlearn your old impulses and give up traditional approaches. Thus, you will avoid creating problems where others are already working on the solution. If you are looking for more leadership inspiration, Charles Duhigg's book "Smarter, Faster, Better" and the Google study are a good read (rework.withgoogle.com).