You are a ‘nice’ leader if you follow these tenets

Whenever a leader is being described, adjectives like visionary, strategic, decisive, courageous, accountable, influential, inspiring, passionate are often used. But, after Sundar Pichai got the top job at Google, the word “nice” got added in the corporate dictionary and it became the coolest quality to look for in the new CEO.

Even in the case of Dr. APJ Kalam, whose demise was mourned by one and all across the powerful and the powerless, his popularity and effectiveness was owing to the fact that he made people feel loved, cared and capable to make things happen and improve their lives. The “nice” man was mourned and people are still cherishing the memories of him, whose tenderness and nice ways impacted us Indians.

I, for once feel that the most undervalued and understated trait in a successful leader is to be “nice”.

With the new breed of CEOs, starting with Jeff Immelt to some of the recent appointments of Satya Nadela and Sundar Pichai, the corporate world is finally coming around and recognizing the core value we were taught in our moral science class and our middle class homes.

People must believe in both the message and the messenger and for that they need to be able to relate and imagine themselves in the leader.

Here are a few tenets of ‘niceness’ that we have identified in a leader. This is also what we validated in our Top Companies for Leaders and Best Employers research studies.

1. It is important to be “self-aware”. It is a clear perception of your personality, strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation and emotions. Self-awareness helps you understand people and appreciate their strengths and value that they bring.

2. Resilience is another critical ability in these VUCA times. Leaders with high resilience encourage their team during crisis, providing decisive direction when times are difficult and most importantly don’t reprimand failure. Resilient leaders are level-headed, build strong relationships and celebrate small successes.

3. Firms that achieve both top quartile engagement levels and better business results than their peers, find that they have something in common. It’s the prevalence of a certain kind of leader, this individual we call an Engaging Leader. They are not the mettle-testing sorts, but are caring and attentive mentors. They believe that leadership is a contact sport and are thoughtful about human relations.

Did you ever wonder what leadership is required at the battle field, when you have to motivate people to be proud to lay their lives? Few armies make it sound simple, by having their officers lead from the front. When you are ready to take the bullet before it hits your men, it is not difficult to have people follow you. That is one of the biggest reasons of high mortality of officers in the Indian Army.

We need to reward and promote a set of common behaviors; proactively own solutions where others cannot or do not own, energize others, keeping people focused on purpose and vision with contagious positivity and lastly, connect and stabilize groups by listening, staying calm, and unifying people. Serve and grow, by empowering, enabling, and developing others.

The recent news on nice guys being appreciated, respected and growing globally is helping us all change in our minds the adage that ‘Nice guys finish last’.

(The article is authored by Sandeep Chaudhary, CEO, Aon Hewitt)