Leadership is one of those concepts that we have an inherent knack for recognizing but have a tough time defining well. Check out our article on Employee Engagement

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Empathy is also important when it comes to leadership. As Kate Pritchard, a consultant specialized in leadership management and employee engagement, told us, “To improve engagement, leaders need to demonstrate that they care about their employees, to listen to them, involve them, and respond to their views”.

The feeling of collaboration is essential. Everyone wants to feel like they’re contributing something, that they’re not just a cog in the wheel or a robot taking orders.

📙 Related: Top 5 Communication Skills and How to Improve Them
Leaders create the space for that kind of contribution and empower the people they lead to accomplish that through upward feedback. They have the ability to make those people around them feel bigger and bolder. It’s about the people they lead, not about themselves.


MIT Sloan’s blog writes,
“It is about empowering employees to feel and think like owners so that they remain motivated to create new opportunities. It is also about establishing a kind of radical transparency in which voices across the hierarchy can be heard. But all of this requires, in turn, the cultivation of an open and trusting environment”.
📙 Related: Empathy in the Workplace: Top Reasons Why You Need to Develop It
Kim Kurlanchik Russen, a partner at TAO Group, says the same thing as Kate Pritchard in different words. In an Entrepreneur article about the qualities of great leaders, she says, “communication is a balancing act. You might have a specific want or need, but it’s super-important to treat work as a collaboration. We always want people to tell us their thoughts and ideas — that’s why we have all these very talented people working with us.”
Having strong convictions, but continuing to learn
Balancing communicating well with taking in feedback goes hand in hand with having strong ideals while being willing to put those head-to-head with new data points you’re taking in.
According to Roselinde Torres,
“Great leaders are not head-down. They see around corners, shaping their future, not just reacting to it.”
📙 Related: 5 Ways to Truly Connect with Your Employees
There’s a great Quartz article that talks about what makes a great leader, and they describe them with a few different terms: