How to Be a Good Leader

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3. Leaders exude positive energy and optimism.

 

An upbeat manager with a positive outlook ends up running a team or organization filled with upbeat people with positive outlooks. Work can be hard. Your job as leader is to fight the gravitational pull of negativism. That doesn’t mean you sugarcoat the challenges. Instead, display an energizing, can-do attitude about overcoming them.

 

4. Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency and credit.

 

Your people should always know where they stand. They have to know how the business is doing, even when the news is not good. You have to fight the impulse to pad hard messages or you’ll pay with your team’s confidence and energy.

 

Leaders also establish trust by giving credit where credit is due. They never steal an idea and claim it as their own. They are self-confident and mature enough to know that their team’s success will get them recognition. In bad times, leaders take responsibility for what’s gone wrong. In good times, they generously pass around the praise.

 

5. Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls.

 

There are times you have to make hard decisions — let people go, cut funding to a project or close a plant. Obviously, tough calls spawn complaints and resistance. Your job is to listen and explain yourself clearly, but move forward. You are not a leader to win a popularity contest — you are a leader to lead.

 

Sometimes making a decision is hard because it comes from your gut and defies a “technical” rationale. The “gut” is really just pattern recognition, isn’t it? The facts may be incomplete, but the situation feels very, very familiar to you. Sometimes the hardest gut calls involve picking people. You meet a candidate who has all the “right stuff,” but something nags at you. Don’t hire the guy.

Vocabulary Focus

sugarcoat (v) [5Fu^EkEut] to make something unpleasant seem more appealing

transparency (n) [trAns5pZErEnsi] the quality of being clear, open and sincere

know where one stands (idiom) to understand and be aware of one’s place within a system and how others view one

pad (v) [pAd] to add unnecessary words or information to make something longer or to hide something or soften the effects of the information

spawn (v) [spC:n] to cause something new, or many new things, to grow or start suddenly

 

Specialized Terms

gut call (n) 遵从直觉的决定 a decision coming from or having to do with your emotions or intuition, not from logical thought

如何做个好领导

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3. 领导者散发积极的能量和乐观信念。

一个乐观且态度积极的管理者就会管理到由许多乐观且态度积极的人组成的团队或组织。工作有可能困难重重，但身为领导者，你的职责是对抗负面思维的拉力，这并不意味你要粉饰挑战，而是显现出令人振奋、有能力克服挑战的态度。

 

4. 领导者以坦诚、透明化及功劳来建立信任感。

你的属下应能随时掌握现状。他们必须知道生意如何，即使情况并不好。你要抗拒掩饰坏消息的冲动，否则就会付出失去团队信心及能量的代价。

领导者也会在该给功劳时毫不吝惜，以建立信任感。他们绝不会偷取点子然后宣称是自己的，他们有自信，也够成熟，知道团队的成功会让自己得到肯定。遇到困境时，领导者负起出错的责任；遇顺境时，他们慷慨地归功给众人。

 

5. 领导者有勇气做不受欢迎及遵从直觉的决定。

有时候你必须做困难的决定——让人离开、削减预算经费或关闭厂房。棘手的决定当然会引起怨言和反弹，你的职责是倾听与解释清楚，但依旧勇往直前。你不是要赢得人气奖的领导者——你是要领导的领导者。

有时候做决定很困难，因为它出自你的直觉而违反“专业的”的理性分析。其实“直觉”就是情境模式辨认，不是吗？现有数据也许不全，但你对眼下情况却感觉非常、非常熟悉。有时候最难做的直觉决定涉及选才——当你碰到一个有所有“合适条件”的求职者，但就是感觉有点不对劲时，不要用这个家伙。