Here are the 6 essential qualities of a grounded leader

The heart of an organization are its leaders. Without them there is no beat, no impulse, no initiative whatsoever. This is why strong leadership is so important to an organization. This has always been the case, but in a time where a pandemic, inequality, global unrest, and climate change dominate the political and corporate agendas, it is more so than ever.

With leaders I don’t refer to just the top of the organization or its middle management. I mean all people in an organization from whom leadership can be expected. This includes people in formal leadership positions—such as the board or management team—but also informal leaders at whatever position in the organization.

But what makes a good leader—especially in the uncertain times that a crisis brings? We certainly need no HiPPOs – leaders that believe that the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion is all that counts. And we also don't need old style top-down, "bossy" leadership, telling people exactly what to do. But we also don't need fuzzy or overly democratic leadership where it is unclear who is in charge or where the majority vote is all that counts.

But what then? For defining the type of leadership that is needed, the literature is full of descriptions and typologies. There is the traditional autocratic leadership, charismatic leadership, visionary leadership, participative leadership, servant leadership, transformational leadership and so on and so forth. Especially the last type gets a lot of attention today. It highlights the role of a leader as a facilitator of change (transformation) in the organization. Transformational leaders challenge and motivate others to enhance their productivity and efficiency through communication and high involvement.

Even though transformational leadership may have a lot of advantages compared to other types such as autocratic and charismatic leadership, it is not necessarily the best type of leadership for strategy. Of course the motivational approach may be useful, but making strategy happen requires additional skills too, especially in times of crisis. These are not necessarily in conflict with transformational leadership, but need to be explicitly mentioned as well.

What we need is grounded leadership. It implies all the dictionary meanings of the word grounded, including being wise, sensible, down-to-earth, realistic, practical, stable and unpretentious. In addition to this general sense of being grounded, grounded leaders are characterized by having the following six qualities:

When they have these six qualities, leaders will be able to lead an organization—or a unit, department, or team—effectively and in a grounded manner. They will be able to balance between thinking big and acting small, between aiming for the best and being pragmatic, between insisting on their own views and listening to others, and between the organization’s interest and people’s personal interests.

Such leaders have what it takes to effectively identify and address strategic issues and opportunities together with the rest of their organization—in times of crisis and in "normal" times. Do you have what it takes to be a strong, grounded leader?

Being able to withstand such storm and focus on what is really important with respect to strategy is a challenge. It requires a grounded attitude and approach to strategy—the kind of approach that all strategy consultants should adhere to.

Copyright notice: the six qualities described above were taken from The Strategy Handbook.