The Secret to Succession

Do you know who your agency’s next principal will be? While identifying a future leader might seem daunting, good news: there are concrete skills to look for.

Times change, but the qualities that make up successful leaders remain the same. Caliper has studied and assessed the qualities of successful leaders across industries for more than 50 years and found that in general, successful leaders share these traits:

Assertiveness. The best leaders are direct, straightforward and confident in their communications.

Reinforcing aggressiveness. Successful leaders are able to stand behind their decisions and their points of view.

Ego-drive. This desire to persuade is a motivating factor for successful leaders. Gaining buy-in is the most effective way to move initiatives forward, and leaders who are able to do so will likely better engage their teams in decision-making processes.

Ego-strength. Great professionals are like Hall of Fame baseball hitters: They have to fail a few times in order to succeed. True leaders are not broken by an inevitable setback. Instead, they use the experience as a learning opportunity and move on with a more motivated outlook.

Urgency. In a customer-driven marketplace, the need to get things done now is critical to winning and keeping business. Wait until tomorrow and a competitor might implement an idea ahead of you. Successful leaders know that there is almost no time in today’s world to procrastinate.

Empathy. Great leaders can put themselves in the shoes of both their clients and their own people.

Effective leaders share common qualities but also harbor their own experiences, which shape them dramatically and affect the ways make decisions, interact with people and ultimately lead an organization. The space between the qualities that define leaders and the experiences that form them is where true leaders either emerge or fall behind.

Herb Greenberg is the CEO of Caliper.

SIDEBAR: Dare to Dream
In a competitive marketplace, the winners are often leaders who are willing to try, dare—even make fools of themselves. The old ways of doing things aren’t always the best way. Leaders have to sift through all the noise to find strategies that can help their company stand out. Innovation can’t arise without first taking a chance. —H.G.