How do I become a better leader?

If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you are a leader, you take the responsibility seriously and you want to be as good a leader as you possibly can. That in itself is a great starting point for improvement.

Below are some ideas that will help you continue that development process.

When people ask, “How do I become a better leader?” they are often looking for a checklist of tasks. They want to know which software to use, how to structure a meeting, or the exact phrasing to use during a performance review.

While those things matter, they are secondary. Real leadership isn’t a series of tactical manoeuvres; it is a way of being. It is an attitude you adopt before you even walk through the office door or log onto a Teams call.

If you want to improve as a leader, you have to start by embracing the role itself. You have to decide that you are no longer just a “doer” of tasks, but a leader of people, an empowerer, a team developer. When you shift your focus toward wanting the absolute best for the people you lead: adopting what is known as a servant leader attitude: the skills and behaviours you need will begin to follow naturally.

In one shocking recent survey,  only 4% of respondants said that they believed their employer genuinely cared about them as people more than just workers.

A servant-leader attitude bucks this trend and has tremendous impact, both on the people you lead AND their productivity.

The Heart of the Leader: Attitude Over Skill

We often overcomplicate leadership development. We treat it like an academic subject where you must memorise theories and models. But consider this: have you ever worked for someone who had all the “correct” management training but lacked any real heart? It doesn’t work. The team feels it, and the results suffer.

Conversely, have you worked for someone who perhaps wasn’t the most polished communicator but genuinely cared about your progress? You likely worked harder for them because you trusted their intent.

This is the core of the Six Essential Pillars of Great Personal Leadership. When your attitude is right: when you are committed to the growth and wellbeing of your team: you will find yourself wanting to learn the skills.

• If you care about your team’s time, you will naturally learn to run more efficient meetings.
• If you care about their career growth, you will naturally seek out better ways to coach and mentor.
• If you care about the organisation’s success, you will naturally become more disciplined in your goal setting.

Attitude is the engine; skills are just the steering wheel.

What People Actually Want: The Kouzes and Posner Findings

For over four decades, researchers James Kouzes and Barry Posner have asked a simple but profound question to thousands of people across the globe: “What values, personal traits, or characteristics do you look for and admire in a leader who you would willingly follow?”

Their findings, detailed in their landmark study The Leadership Challenge, are incredibly consistent. People don’t ask for leaders who are the smartest in the room or those who have the most prestigious degrees. Instead, they look for four specific qualities.

If you want to know how to become a better leader, you should aim to embody these four traits:

1. Honest

Honesty is consistently the most selected characteristic. It is the foundation of trust. If people don’t believe in the messenger, they won’t believe the message. Honesty in leadership means being transparent, admitting when you are wrong, and having the integrity to do what you said you would do.

2. Forward-thinking

A leader must have a sense of direction. You don’t need a crystal ball, but you do need to be looking beyond today’s “To-Do” list. People want to follow someone who has a vision for the future and can articulate where the team is going. This doesn’t mean having all the answers; it means having a point on the horizon that everyone is moving toward.

3. Competent

You don’t need to be the best technical expert in the building, but you must be seen as capable. This means being competent in leadership itself: knowing how to organise, how to make decisions, and how to lead the team through a changing environment. People need to feel that their leader knows what they are doing.

4. Inspiring

To be inspiring isn’t about being a “rah-rah” motivational speaker. It is about being energetic, positive, and hopeful about the future. It’s about helping people see why their work matters. When a leader is inspired by the mission, that enthusiasm becomes contagious.

Adopting the Servant Leader Attitude

The concept of “Servant Leadership” might sound like a paradox. How can you lead if you are serving?

In reality, it is the most powerful form of leadership. A servant leader doesn’t view their team as tools to help them achieve their goals. Instead, they view themselves as a resource to help the team achieve the organisation’s goals.

When you adopt this attitude, your daily questions change:

• Instead of “Why haven’t they finished this yet?” you ask, “What is getting in their way, and how can I remove that obstacle?”
• Instead of “How can I get more out of them?” you ask, “How can I help them grow so they can contribute more?”

This focus on employee engagement and wellbeing isn’t just “nice to have.” It is a practical strategy for excellence. When people feel supported, they perform better. When they feel their leader has their back, they take more initiative.

The Path to Improvement: Start With ‘Who’, Then ‘How’

If you are looking to take the next step in your leadership journey, start by reflecting on your fundamental attitude toward the people you lead.

Ask yourself:

• Do I truly want these people to succeed, even if they eventually outgrow their current roles?
• Am I being honest with them, even when the conversation is difficult?
• Am I providing a clear, forward-thinking vision, or am I just reacting to fires?

Once you commit to being the kind of leader people want to follow, the development of your skills becomes a rewarding journey rather than a chore. You become a Total Leader: someone who leads not just by authority, but by influence and character.

Becoming a better leader is a lifelong process of developing leaders to succeed. It requires a willingness to look in the mirror and adjust your own motivation before you try to adjust the behaviour of others.

Leading by Example

The most effective way to teach a behavior is to model it. If you want a team that is honest, you must be the most honest person in the room. If you want a team that is forward-thinking, you must spend time every week looking at the long-term strategy.

As Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager, famously said:

“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”

Authority is given to you by a job title. Influence is earned through your attitude and your actions. When you focus on the four qualities identified by Kouzes and Posner: honesty, forward-thinking, competence, and inspiration: you build a level of influence that far outweighs any formal power.

A Simple Framework for Your Week

To put this into practice, try to touch upon each of the four qualities every week:

• Honesty: Have one “real” conversation where you share something transparently with your team.
• Forward-thinking: Spend 30 minutes purely on long-term goals and share those thoughts with someone.
• Competence: Identify one leadership skill you want to sharpen (like delegation or communication) and practice it intentionally.
• Inspiring: Find someone doing a great job and tell them exactly why their work is making a difference to the bigger picture.

By focusing on these foundational attitudes, you won’t just become a “better manager.” You will become a leader that people are proud to follow.

If you would like to discuss your own leadership development journey or explore how to develop these leadership attitudes within your organisation, feel free to contact LMI-UK. We specialise in helping individuals move from being managers of tasks to being true leaders of people through the Total Leader process.