What on Earth Does "Good Leadership" Even Mean?

If you ask five leaders in your organization what good leadership is, they are likely to give you five different answers. One will say that it's about achieving targets. Another will think that it's about developing people. A third will claim that it's about being seen and available. A fourth will argue that it's about staying out of the way. The fifth will shrug and say, "You know it when you see it."

The issue is perfectly summed up in that final answer.

If your organization is unable to explain what good leadership really consists of, then it doesn't have a leadership culture; it merely has a game of guessing, and everyone from your newest manager right through to your most senior executive is taking part in it.

The Silent Epidemic: Leaders Who Don’t Know What They’re Aiming For

Clear leadership expectations seldom manifest as one obvious failure; instead, they appear as a gradual leak. For example, there's a manager who is technically competent but has never been promoted since "something doesn't seem right," and no one can say what exactly. A high-potential employee who takes on a leadership position, does all the things they believe are appropriate, and is nevertheless overlooked during performance reviews. A team that seems to have a different character each time it gets a new boss, since each leader has their own, unspoken understanding of what "good" means.

It is more widely acknowledged than most companies are willing to admit. Although leadership competency frameworks may exist only on paper and be stored somewhere in an HR portal, they seldom result in a clear understanding among people of what is expected of them. Because of this lack of clarity, individuals tend to copy what they have seen; they follow the example of their own boss, copying both the good and the bad habits, and as a result, the organization's standard of leadership becomes whatever has carried over from one generation of management to the next rather than something that has been deliberately designed.

Why Ambiguity Is More Dangerous Than a Bad Standard

Lacking a clear standard is an improvement on having a defective one, but that is not the case. A standard that is flawed yet explicit can be discussed, questioned, and enhanced, whereas ambiguity cannot be argued about since there is nothing firm to argue against.

When expectations are unclear, a few predictable things happen:

Leaders begin to focus on avoiding punishment rather than on creating value. When they don't have a clear understanding of what good means, their best option is to prevent obvious mistakes. This results in a leadership style that is cautious and risk-averse, precisely the opposite of what most organizations say they desire.

Performance reviews end up being subjective and inconsistent. A manager may receive praise for being decisive, while another one is criticized for the same characteristic since a different reviewer places more value on consensus-building. As a result, people no longer trust the evaluation process because it seems arbitrary.

People who perform well tend to withdraw. Intelligent individuals are interested in finding out how to win. When the rules are unclear, the best leaders usually feel the most frustration, since they are the ones most eager to get it right and, at the same time, least able to work out what 'right' actually means.

The culture breaks down into teams. Rather than a single leadership identity, you end up with a series of small, separate cultures, each influenced by the manager currently in charge. New employees experience a jolt when moving from one department to another.

What “Good Leadership” Should Actually Look Like: Getting Specific

A poster in the break room featuring just five inspirational words won't do the trick. Although broad values such as "integrity" or "excellence" sound satisfactory, they don't say what people should actually do on a Tuesday afternoon when a project is behind schedule, and a team member is underperforming.

For something to be clear, it has to be specific enough that when two different people observe the same leader being acted upon, they will agree on whether the leader is meeting the standard. This generally involves giving answers to questions such as:

• What is different about this leader's behavior during a crisis as compared to during calm times?
• What process does this leader follow when the data is incomplete?
• What is this leader's approach to giving feedback, and how frequently does he do so?
• What kind of things does this leader do to develop the people who are under them?
• How does this leader pass on bad news to people above, below, and alongside him?
• What behaviors, even if they lead to short-term results, are clearly unacceptable here?

That last question is crucial: defining good leadership also means setting clear boundaries for what isn’t acceptable. A leader who hits every target through fear and micromanagement is not upholding the true standard of leadership, even if the results look good on paper.

How to Build Clarity Instead of Hoping for It

The organizations that manage to do this do not rely on osmosis; instead, they deliberately define it and then reinforce it.

You can start with behaviors rather than traits. For example, 'Communicates transparently' is a trait, whereas 'Shares the reasoning behind decisions, not just the decision itself, within 48 hours of making a change' is a behavior. Behavior can be observed, taught, and measured, whereas traits generally sound good in a values statement.

Make it so that leaders at all levels take part in setting the standard, not just the top officials. A definition of leadership formulated entirely by executives usually fails to capture what leadership really requires on the front line. Frontline and middle managers should have a real say in determining what good means, since it is they who experience it every day.

Link the standard to actual situations rather than to abstract ideals. Only by using case studies, real (anonymized) examples, and 'what would you do' scenarios can the standard be made concrete, something that value statements never can do.

Go over it and make the necessary amendments. The kind of leadership that seemed appropriate five years ago might no longer suit your organization, particularly if you have expanded, changed strategy, or altered how your teams work. View the definition as a living document, not as something to be displayed on a wall.

Make this visible. Unless senior leaders set an example themselves, no framework will be of any help. People pay much closer attention to what is rewarded than to what is written.

The Payoff: Leaders Who Know How to Win

Once people have a clear understanding of what is expected of them in their role as leaders, a change takes place. They cease to guess and begin to develop. Instead of feeling as though feedback is always changing, they start to act on it. New leaders can improve more quickly because they are not left to work out the culture by making mistakes and learning from them. And your organization ends up creating something far more valuable than a collection of individually talented leaders: a consistent leadership identity which people can recognize, trust, and ultimately pass on to the next generation of managers.

Vague expectations are quietly among the most costly issues in leadership development, since they undermine all the other efforts you make. Whether it's coaching, training, or mentorship programs, none of these measures function very well if people aren't clear about what they are being coached, trained, or mentored towards.

People shouldn’t have to work out what good leadership is on their own. You should define it, put it in writing, demonstrate it through action, and then see how much faster your leaders will grow once they finally know their aim.

If this message resonates with you, share it with another leader or start the conversation with your own team today.

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Author: Haley Sellers