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You’ve heard it before: People don’t leave bad companies; they leave bad managers. To gain employees’ trust and retain them, it’s important to exhibit leadership behaviors like adaptability, empathy, and integrity. These skills can be instrumental in guiding teams through change, fostering growth, and creating a purpose-driven workplace.
If you want to be an effective, respected leader and cultivate high-quality leadership characteristics in your organization, the following 30 leadership behaviors can help you develop a productive and engaged team.
30 key leadership behaviors
According to a Gallup research report covering 2.5 million manager-led teams in 195 countries, one in 10 people possess a naturally high talent to manage others. Additionally, one in two employees has left a job to get away from a manager. These statistics highlight the significant impact of leadership on business success.
What separates successful and unsuccessful leaders often lies in the ability to manage your social-emotional reactions to your surroundings. By developing strong leadership behaviors, you can inspire your team to be accountable, trusting, resilient, proactive, and passionate about their work and company mission.
Foundational leadership behaviors
The first five behaviors, authenticity, integrity, humility, accountability, and transparency, are foundational to leadership and influence your success across all other behaviors on this list.
1. Authenticity
Authenticity is being genuine and honest. A good leader is authentic and makes people feel they’re transparent and trustworthy. For example, say a CEO is rolling out a new policy for annual reviews and isn’t sure it’ll work. But they could show authenticity by acknowledging potential leadership challenges and encouraging employees to provide feedback. This can help them build trust and morale.
2. Integrity
Great bosses and leaders act ethically, using integrity to align with their values and principles. A hospital director might refuse to cut corners on patient care to reduce costs, upholding their belief that treatment quality is more important than bending to financial pressure. In response, their team will likely be more enthusiastic on the floor, knowing their efforts to improve patient care matter.
3. Humility
Using self-awareness in leadership means recognizing your limitations and valuing your team’s contributions with humility, especially when they complement your skill gaps. An engineering manager might have expertise in back-end development and champion their team’s input on front-end development decisions by giving them autonomy.
4. Accountability
Accountability is taking responsibility for your actions and their consequences. An engineering manager might show effective leadership or management by reporting an error and quickly owning up to it, correcting it, and informing clients proactively. This accountability reassures clients of the team’s integrity and reliability.
5. Transparency
Transparency is related to authenticity in that it requires honesty, but it differs in the need to be open about those honest feelings with others. A director for a nonprofit might openly share funding challenges with their staff by explaining budget constraints and inviting suggestions. This transparency ensures everyone understands the organization’s financial situation and trusts their director is doing everything possible to rectify it.
Relational leadership behaviors
Those who show the following seven leadership characteristics align with the relational leadership model: compassion, emotional intelligence, relationship building, cultural awareness, inclusivity, patience, and active listening. These characteristics reflect the interpersonal and relationship qualities of a good leader.
6. Compassion
Compassionate leadership involves supporting your team with stress management techniques and flexibility. Compassion differs from empathy in that it creates emotional distance, which allows good leaders to assist another person proactively. A manufacturing manager who notices an employee on the warehouse floor is tired might offer support by providing flexible hours. This compassion increases loyalty and well-being in the workplace.
7. Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence includes managing your own emotions while also understanding others’ emotions. Say an employee working in customer service feels defensive when they encounter an angry customer. A leader with high emotional intelligence will empathize with the customer’s frustration while guiding their employee toward a positive resolution.
8. Relationship building
Relationship building is the process of making strong connections with your employees or clients. In sales, a manager might take each team member to a quarterly lunch to talk about their career goals and strengths. This builds a strong connection with their team members and helps them feel supported.
9. Cultural awareness
Cultural awareness means understanding and respecting diverse perspectives. An international marketing manager for a packaged goods company might show effective leadership by considering the cultural nuances of the words on their packaging. They could argue that language should be adapted to align with various cultural norms, resulting in loyalty from international customers.
10. Inclusivity
Inclusivity ensures everyone feels valued and involved. A human resources director might invite feedback from all team members, especially from those with quieter voices. They may ask them about the specifics of the company’s benefits packages, promoting a culture of belonging.
11. Patience
Patience provides time and space for others to work and grow at their own pace. A teacher may show patience by supporting, but not rushing, student teachers while they work through lesson plans for the first time. This allows new teachers to slowly gain the confidence and skills needed to become leaders and run their own classrooms.
12. Active listening
One collection of studies from Wright State University summarizes that “to a large degree, effective leadership is effective listening,” but the average person listens at only about 25% efficiency. Active listening requires staying fully engaged when others speak without being distracted by your thoughts.
For instance, a police chief who listens to staff concerns about new protocols without interrupting and intending to genuinely hear every concern is more likely to create cohesive bonds, increase commitment, and build trust.
Strategic leadership behaviors
Visionary thinking, systematic perspective, optimism, and strategic foresight focus on operational and future-minded leadership skills.
13. Visionary thinking
Visionary thinking means seeing and planning strategies to create a compelling future. A startup founder who anticipates specific market changes in the restaurant industry might share a bold direction for food safety with investors so that they feel compelled to support this initiative.
14. Systematic perspective
A systematic perspective requires an understanding of the way in which smaller functions contribute to a company’s goals. In logistics, a leader might consider how a change in supply chain processes affects other departments. This systematic perspective allows them to coordinate to prevent disruptions.
15. Optimism
Optimism describes maintaining a positive outlook, even when anticipating challenges. A retail manager who believes communication is key in the workplace could face a sudden staff shortage but remain optimistic despite the new challenge. Their team shares concerns about being overworked during the holiday season, so they brainstorm and share creative ideas to help keep the store running smoothly without overwhelming the staff.
16. Strategic foresight
Strategic foresight is the ability to predict and prepare for future challenges. A construction project manager might foresee potential material delays when talking with suppliers. In response, they arrange to work with alternative suppliers to keep the project on schedule.
Action-oriented leadership behaviors
The following six leadership behaviors — decisiveness, bold decision-making, a focus on results, poise under pressure, problem-solving, and resilience — all focus on decision-making skills and a bias toward action.
17. Decisiveness
Decisiveness is making timely, clear decisions with confidence. A hotel manager, for example, might quickly evacuate guests when they learn the hotel has a gas leak. They prioritize safety without hesitation to assure guests they are the highest priority.
18. Bold decision-making
Bold decision-making skills focus on the confidence to make high-stakes choices despite the risks. A product development leader for a mobile phone manufacturer may have decided to launch a COVID-19 exposure feature ahead of competitors. They believed it would establish market leadership early in the pandemic, even though it delayed other feature releases.
19. Focus on results
An ability to focus on results refers to keeping your eye on specific goals. A sales director responsible for setting clear revenue targets may actively track their team’s progress. Any adjustment in strategy is made specifically to meet their revenue objective.
20. Poise under pressure
Remaining poised under pressure means staying calm and focused when you’re stressed. An airline operations manager may handle flight delays calmly by coordinating solutions and updating passengers. This sets a good example and helps the rest of the team maintain composure and service quality.
21. Problem-solving
Problem-solving is the ability to identify practical solutions to challenges and act on them. A university president might address resource shortages by partnering with local businesses. This could help the college find creative ways to fund programs without sacrificing student opportunities.
22. Resilience
Resilience refers to your mental fitness and ability to bounce back quickly after setbacks or in the face of challenges. A coach who’s had to take out several players for injuries might confidently put players in new positions. The coach’s confidence reassures players that they can adapt and overcome the absence of those typically in those roles.
Innovative leadership behaviors
The following leadership behaviors focus on your ability to innovate and adjust. These include adaptability, inquisitiveness, encouraging creativity, and continuous learning.
23. Adaptability
Adaptability involves adjusting your strategy when the situation changes. Perhaps a design firm has a client who pivots on requirements at the last moment. The creative team lead finds a way to meet these new needs with slight adaptations to keep their team’s morale high.
24. Inquisitiveness
Inquisitiveness is a desire to ask questions, learn, and explore new ideas. A finance leader who studies emerging market trends might have many questions about the tools and materials businesses use to thrive. Remaining curious about decisions on where to invest helps them stay ahead of industry changes and provides a valuable example for their team.
25. Encouraging creativity
Encouraging creativity means creating a workplace where new ideas can come from anyone. A user experience (UX) team leader might host regular brainstorming sessions for their team to submit ideas on improving their app. They welcome out-of-the-box ideas in a psychologically safe way to keep things creative and innovative.
26. Continuous learning
Continuous learning is something good leaders should actively seek for themselves and their team to encourage personal and professional growth. A healthcare executive might participate in ongoing leadership training to improve patient care strategies and stay updated on best practices.
Developmental leadership behaviors
This last group of effective leadership behaviors focuses on developing others’ professional skills, including empowering a team, effectively delegating, having a coaching mindset, and inspiring others.
27. Empowering others
Empowering others means encouraging team members to take initiative and make their own decisions. A manufacturing supervisor who delegates decision-making to experienced workers on the floor empowers them with autonomy and, in turn, builds their trust in themselves.
28. Effective delegation
Effectively delegating requires assigning tasks based on your team’s strengths and areas needing growth. An account management director might use soft skills to assign new accounts to team members who are well suited to onboarding while providing growth opportunities by having others assist.
29. Coaching mindset
A coaching mindset focuses on dedicating time to helping others reach their full potential. In sports, a coach helps each athlete on the team set personal goals, provides constructive feedback, and supports their progress to boost their performance over the season.
30. Inspirational
Good leaders are inspiring, which means their teams feel motivated to do their best work. Inspire your team by creating a strong sense of community, regularly celebrating achievements, and setting high standards for performance.
For example, a dentist might set a high standard for customer satisfaction for their assistants who treat fearful patients. When team members put in effort, the dentist celebrates the team’s achievements in weekly meetings.
Why key leadership behaviors are important
Effective leadership styles matter because they have the power to make your company more successful if you can successfully motivate employees to do better work.
- You’ll better navigate change. One research review from Johns Hopkins found leaders who adapt their communication skills based on the situation are better able to handle a crisis.
- Empathy increases the effectiveness of leadership. One paper from the International Scientific Conference on Economic and Social Development showed that empathy helps increase leadership effectiveness and employee engagement and retention.
- Authenticity creates a good culture. The same research review from Johns Hopkins found that good leaders who take ownership of their actions help reinforce organizational loyalty.
These leadership styles suggest that dedicating time to develop these skills is essential for your company’s success.
How to develop key leadership behaviors
Taking practical daily actions can help you develop core behaviors to become an effective leader. Try incorporating the following tactics to help develop these behaviors:
- Make a habit of summarizing what you’ve heard in conversation before responding.
- Use storytelling to make points in meetings and sound more inspiring.
- Write down one new thing you learned each day to foster a growth mindset.
- Work from a different location or at different times to practice flexibility.
- Schedule regular check-ins with your employees to ask about their well-being and workload.
- Jot down how someone is feeling after a conversation to practice empathy.
- Allocate 10 minutes a day to exploring a new tool to practice continuous learning.
- Incorporate data into everyday choices, like using performance to set one-on-one goals.
- Use one weekly meeting to share a story that reflects your leadership values.
- Schedule a few minutes at the end of each week to ask for specific feedback.
- Listen to leadership podcasts, take a leadership training course, or watch talks on leadership to learn from others’ examples.
These actions, rooted in daily practice, help you avoid toxic leadership traits and make each leadership behavior actionable and measurable.
Cultivate leadership behaviors with the help of a coach
It’s possible to learn effective leadership behaviors, including resilience, empathy, and adaptability. A leadership development program or a leadership coach can help you develop skills that ensure progress on your career path.
By learning about leadership theories and honing your leadership skills, you can work toward achieving your professional goals and help your team members achieve theirs.
Work with a BetterUp Coach to gain the support and feedback you need to lead confidently.
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Build leadership skills with AI coaching
BetterUp Digital’s AI Coaching supports leadership growth with actionable strategies and proven methods to enhance management skills.
