So You Want To Be A Good Leader
17 Mar
Truly great leaders all have two things in common. First they have great empathy and regularly ‘walk the floor’, communicate and connect with their employees. The second character trait is that they the boldness and tenacity to make the tough decisions needed to lead the company.
One of Canada’s most effective business leaders is Annette Verschuren, President of Home Depot Canada and Asia. Verschuren possesses that rare balance between great empathy and incredible tenacity for getting the job done.
I can recall a comment made by one of her office staff, “28,000 associates in Canada don’t work for Home Depot, they work for Annette”. Now that’s quite a statement if I ever heard one. After you meet Annette for the first time, you can easily see why they think that way. She really does care about her staff (all of them), and she leads the company to great performance with resolve each and every day.
What I take away from this are two things. First, I know my weakness – empathy. Knowing that, I can work on becoming more empathetic, and I can also make sure that I hire managers who possess more empathy than I might to help balance the organization’s talent. Secondly, I now look for both of these qualities when I recruit managers or supervisors. When I’m considering someone for any kind of management role, I’ll now look for these two qualities in every candidate before I make my final hiring decision.
Empathy and tenacity, two character traits every leader should work on.
Andy Buyting has been in the retail industry since he was six years old. Today, he applies his entrepreneurial know-how to Green Village Home & Garden, one of Canada's most successful specialty garden stores. Green Village Home & Garden is currently expanding into multiple locations throughout eastern Canada.
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I truly believe having the ability to connect to your employees is crucial. After all, who wants to be recognized as an employee number rather than a person. Leaders get valuable insights from having a relationship with your employees who directly deals with your customer.
Edie Ames is another highly successful leader who goes out of her way to develop relationships with her employees at all levels. It seems like it is mostly female leaders who recognize this skill….