“This has been a question in my mind since I was young-what are the real attributes that make great leaders?” shared Shane Watson in his session on day two of People Matters TechHR2018. In his session aptly titled, “Do not crack under weight-what does it take to be a high performing leader?”, former Australian cricket captain Shane delved deep into what goes into making such effective leaders.

Shane revealed that having worked with wonderful leaders like Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Steve Waugh, Rahul Dravid, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, he realized there are four attributes that go into making effective leaders who can get the best of the team around them.

Empathy

 A deep down empathy-not just in words but actions makes real leaders stand out. To know when people need support through thick and thin and when do they need a little bit of kick on, is the hallmark of a true leader. Citing the instance of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, he cited how Dhoni who was perceived as ice cool and someone who never gave away is actually a very empathetic captain, who knows how to care with his team when he needs to.

Not driving by failure but by confidence

When we try to achieve the best out of ourselves, that normally exists alongside with stress and anxiety. That comes down to a lot of leaders instilling the fear factor in the minds of their teammates. Fear of failure is something that when you are at your absolute best, you don’t think about making mistakes. Good leaders don’t inspire people by fear failure. They encourage them to be process driven. But there are some who drive their team by fear of failure, which is the last something someone needs when they are down.

Not being focused 100% on the results but on the process

Results are incredibly important but when you are 100% fixed on results, it puts an incredible amount of pressure on yourself. But the one thing with results is that there are factors that always pop up which are out of your control. The one thing you can control is your preparation and your mind being totally task focused at the moment of execution, and having an awareness of the results so that you know you are on the right track. So the thing to focus is on the process and the execution of the plan, the results will look after themselves.

All you can do is perform your best-that may or may not guarantee results.

Don’t ask your team to do something you won’t do yourself

A leader should never ask his team to do something he won’t do himself. That is something Shane learned from Steve Waugh. This trait provides so much confidence to the team that a leader is there to step up and won’t push it on to someone else on the team. Thus real leaders lead by example and back their teams through thick and thin.