Leadership Is What You Leave Behind in People

Leadership. What is leadership? From the moment we are born we experience it. We may not know the word or the meaning, but we understand it, and ideally we follow it as children. As we grow and our horizons expand, we experience leadership in different forms. Our friends. Our colleagues. Our teachers and lecturers. And the most obvious ones: our line managers.

In my career, I have now reached the stage where I have individuals who report to me, and the other day it got me thinking about what kind of leader I am to them. It made me think of the traits I have experienced in the leaders I truly wanted to emulate. And while thinking about it, I realised something worth writing down.

To begin with, I should say this:

leadership is not in the title, leadership is in the character.

In theory, experience is meant to carry you up the corporate ladder, but not everyone who is a manager or above is actually a good leader. That realisation forced me to look within myself and ask where I fall on the spectrum, and what traits I believe good leadership needs. What follows is not fact-based or universal. These are simply the traits which, in my mind, speak to good leadership.

Oneness

I remember early in my career I joined an organisation where every week the whole company would come together for what was essentially a bonding session. The goal was to allow us to know each other, build better bonds, and create cohesion across the business. But that was company-wide.

I have also worked with leaders who brought that same closeness into the department itself. We would discuss campaigns, plans and strategy as a group. This enabled creativity to thrive, because it was never the boss's say that was final. If a team member had an idea, they could argue it and defend it against the boss's own views. Even when the rest of the team disagreed with the boss, we felt comfortable enough to speak out. Most of the time such leaders would relent when their ideas were not landing against the views of the rest, and that is trust and leadership. But sometimes a leader is a leader and can pull rank, and that too is part of the job.

What that kind of leadership did for me was simple: it made the team feel like a team, not a hierarchy. Ideas moved freely. People felt safe enough to disagree. And when a decision was finally made, it was owned by everyone in the room, not imposed from the top.

Mentoring

Some leaders shape you by how they see you.

I worked with a leader who was very open and worked with me and the team very well, in the sense that they were very good at reading people. They could quietly recognise the strengths of each individual, and then work with you to help you improve on your weaknesses.

I used to find that so valuable. I was always motivated to put my best foot forward. The most notable thing was that I felt very much part of the team. They had my back, and I most definitely had theirs.

Their mentoring and coaching, and their willingness to always have the tough conversations, gave me a level of tough love that resonated with me. That style may not be for everyone, but the openness and the trust made me truly thrive. For me, that is an important facet of leadership. Ideally, that kind of knowledge-sharing and honesty should be practised by the leaders of every section.

Knowledge of Craft

Others shape you by what they know.

There is that saying that if you are going to do something, do it to the best of your ability, or simply set out to be the best at it.

A few years into my career, I left one role and joined a new organisation, inspired by a friend who said all these nice things about the place. My first week at that organisation, I felt so lost. Everyone knew their role and what they were meant to do, and what was so fascinating was that the previous organisation I had been with was nothing close to that, or at least I had never felt the same level of gap in knowledge before.

A strong point of that organisation's knowledge of craft was that we would have weekly meetings where all the sections would present their weekly performance. The presentations were led by the section leaders themselves. One of the section leaders put up their presentation and was immediately called out by the Country Manager, because their numbers did not add up, and that was true. The Country Manager saying "your numbers are off" was a moment I never forgot. It reflected an understanding of the business, an awareness of what was happening, and the ability to look at a presentation and immediately call it out.

I was so inspired, because it taught me to watch the craft. No one takes seriously those who do not know or understand what they are meant to be leading or doing. It is a very important quality.

Having Your Back

And some shape you by standing behind you when you cannot see them.

There is that famous shot of a lion cub with its mother standing right behind it. It is one of those images that speaks volumes. "I've got your back. Go ahead and conquer." "Anyone who has an issue will have to go through me first."

Leadership is not always visible to you. But the leaders who have it are going to bat for you in rooms you may never be privy to. They are defending you to executives who, in the language of these corporate institutions, are quick to say "we don't see him," meaning they have not registered your contribution. Meanwhile, the leader who has your back understands the value you provide to the department, even if others do not see or fully appreciate it. They advise you on how best to grow within the organisation, who to talk to, and what you need to improve on, so you can build the visibility others are quick to say you lack.

This kind of advocacy shows up in small acts as much as in big ones.

I remember that at one of the organisations I joined, during the interview I was asked what my ambitions were. They have certainly changed since then, but that was the conversation we had. In my first week on the job, one of the leaders who had been on the interview panel, who had looked so disinterested throughout the interview that I had left thinking "they don't like me," sent me a list of books I could read and trainings and workshops I could consider attending, to advance the goals I had spoken about.

That gesture not only surprised me, it gave me a sense of belonging. A sense that I was appreciated, and that made me want to do more.

That is what leaders who have your back do. Sometimes loudly. Sometimes quietly. But always in a way that leaves the person on the other end feeling seen and, like the cub in that image, protected.

In Closing

Leadership is what you leave behind in people.

My father always used to advise me to leave a mark for people to remember me by. Jokingly, he would add: not the kind of mark people leave in public washrooms saying "James was here," but something that leaves people with a genuinely positive feeling or image of you.

That type of mark is what true leadership does. You find yourself recounting moments of awe and inspiration long after the day-to-day working relationship has ended. The leaders I have written about here are not people I still work with every day. But they are people I try to emulate, and hopefully, someday, others will have the same positive recollection of my own leadership.