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Leader Qualities: Interested in Individuals

dog-interestedResearch shows there are 11 key Leader Qualities with one having a sub-set of 8 characteristics. Of the 19 Leader Qualities, 7 of them are ‘Trust Factors’. These are listed again below, together with a fuller description for Trust Factor: Interested in Colleagues.The Trust Factor Leader Qualities are:

  1. Reliable & Consistent
  2. Accepts responsibility
  3. Discrete
  4. Walks the talk
  5. Authentic
  6. Supportive of individuals
  7. Interested in individuals.

Trust Factors are special because any lapse in these Leader Traits may lead to intractable relationship- and performance- issues for the leader, their team and those interacting with them.

Interested in Individuals

This is the seventh and last of the trust Factors. To be effective, the interest does not only have to be genuine, engaged and remembered, it needs to have actions arising from that interest.

The great management guru, Dale Carnegie, focused on these skills in his seminal book, ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’. Here are some thoughts of my own:

  • Have social chats
  • Remember details such as names of family members, hobbies, interests – especially those in which the person shows animation or excitement
  • Act on future events: if they are going to a show, ask afterwards about the show
  • If you give gifts, make that gift personal to their interests
  • Listen and ask questions – they should be talking more than you are
  • Be yourself, not a ‘role’
  • Have more face-to-face meetings and write more hand-written notes
  • If you share an interest or passion, share that with them but beware of one-upmanship and be brief
  • Mix at coffee-breaks and meals, avoid the cell-phone
  • Be unhurried, slow the pace, even if you have pressures, let those go for the duration of the conversation.

Interesting? Schedule a Conversation with Angus McLeod.

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