What does a leader look like, sound like and do? There is no one correct mold. Great leaders come in all shapes, sizes, voices and styles. However, great leaders share a common outcome – they oversee getting important things done!

While leadership is hard to define, you know it when you see it, feel it, and hear it. An effective leader creates clarity about where the business is headed and how each team member can contribute to the cause. Such clarity helps reduce confusion and wasted actions and energy. Clarity also helps your employees to make better decisions within established boundaries. As a result, you can breathe more and supervise less.

Additionally, a leader motivates individuals to work together optimally as a team for a common cause or vision. A real leader pulls others along rather than push others around. Leadership is about communicating, not shouting out commands. You cannot coerce people to follow you for long. Command-and-control leadership never earns the hearts, minds and will of others.

Real leadership is all about influence, the ability to make others want to follow you and your cause. Proof of leadership is found in the loyalty and commitment level of your followers. When you turn around, are your employees eagerly and energetically following you and your vision? If not, commit to improving as a leader.

In addition to creating clarity of purpose and direction for the organization, a leader also creates the right conditions and climate for her/his team to succeed. It’s simple; you cannot succeed on your own. You need energized and committed followers as much as they need an effective leader. It’s a partnership in pursuit of a common cause. You are nothing without engaged followers. It’s a symbiotic relationship – a leader needs his/her followers to get important things done.

To help you develop a solid foundation of knowledge, here is a list of some fundamental leadership practices:

A Leader Creates Clarity of Purpose & Direction by:

o Knowing where the company is going and why

o Developing and articulating a compelling vision for the business

o Selling the benefits of this vision to employees with facts, emotions, stories, symbols, etc.

o Establishing direction, strategies, and objectives for the company

o Developing a simple business plan

o Defining roles for and responsibilities of your employees

o Establishing clear expectations for individuals

o Developing processes to hold employees accountable for getting results

o Encouraging individuals to work as a team; elevating the needs of the team over the needs of the individual

o Focusing employees on key priorities and results (organizational focus)

o Setting standards, monitoring performance and giving feedback

o Reminding everyone that the business exists to serve and satisfy customers as well as to earn a healthy profit

o Influencing the thoughts, feelings and behavior of employees

A Leader Creates the Right Conditions (climate, culture) for Success by:

o Being a true leader (CEO), not another employee – taking the time to think, plan, see the big picture, and solve problems

o Building and maintaining a strong, healthy team

o Marshalling resources to support the strategy of the business

o Allowing others to do their jobs, not micromanaging them

o Allowing employees to share ideas and in the decision-making process – avoiding command-and-control leadership

o Getting others to believe in themselves and the mission of the company

o Serving and caring for others – being a giver, not a taker

o Getting the right people on board and the wrong people off

o Establishing a goal-oriented environment

o Maintaining open and honest communication; being open to positive and negative feedback

o Helping the company to face reality – the good, the bad and the ugly

o Accepting 100% responsibility for the results of the business

o Being bold and decisive even in the face of limited information

o Driving out fear of mistakes; encouraging experimentation and innovation

o Teaching and motivating others to reach their potential

o Monitoring financial performance and taking decisive action, when necessary

o Maintaining a positive culture through interviewing, hiring, reviewing and rewarding the right type of employees

o Ensuring the company is a fun place to work

o Being a competent, caring and connected leader of good character

o Creating a sense of urgency

A company without a leader is like a sports team without a head coach and without a game plan. Both scenarios will result in players (employees) doing their own selfish thing, running around without a purpose, with no sense of accountability, making repeated mistakes, posting lackluster performance, and most likely losing the game.

Your business doesn’t need more defensive linemen; it needs an in-charge head coach. Let your employees do the daily "blocking and tackling". Create the game plan and let your employees play the game. Watch and coach from the sidelines, do not get in the trenches – you will lose vision of the whole field. Focus on creating clarity and conditions for success for your team.