At a conference I attended recently, one of the main speakers quoted a survey which showed that 65% of employees say that the most stressful thing about their job is their boss, and 58% of people looking for another job are doing so because they dont like their boss.

It seems as though there is plenty of room for improvement amongst our leaders in business. These are the 5 qualities most often mentioned by my coaching clients and delegates at my training courses as being essential for leadership:

1. Integrity employees want their bosses to show personal integrity in their job performance and in dealing with staff. They want to be listened to respectfully so that they can make their feelings known. They want to be treated fairly and see that their boss will stand up for what they believe in. Behaviour that is not acceptable must be seen to be challenged.

2. Enthusiasm if the leader is not enthusiastic, then the team will sag. Leaders need to be capable of challenging existing assumptions and embracing new ideas, both their own and from the team. They must be able to take risks at times to push the boundaries of what can be achieved. Inspirational leadership is never complacent and encourages everyone to be creative.

3. Decisiveness the leader has to take tough decisions, sometimes without all the necessary information. They have to know when and where to get help, but to take all responsibility for the consequences and be generous with credit where it is due. It takes a strong leader to encourage his staff to take risks themselves and not to blame them when the outcome is less than positive!

4. Transparency team members invariably want their boss to be clear and straightforward in their communication. This enables a similar clarity throughout the team. They need clear objectives and a culture of honesty in which feedback, whether perceived to be positive or negative, can be given and received without fear of consequences.

5. Humanity people want to be treated as individuals, not as units of production. They want a boss who takes the trouble to understand their strengths, weaknesses and circumstances, and who helps them to stretch themselves. Everyone wants to be recognised for their own unique contribution and the leader who can do this will be rewarded with so much more.

Andy Britnell

Andy Britnell has worked as a professional musician, a cheesemonger and in hotels, including Claridges and the Savoy in London. He spent 15 years with BT, latterly designing and delivering international management, sales and graduate development programmes. He now lives in Cornwall, UK, where as well as enjoying the surf and the coastal footpath, he runs a training and coaching practice specialising in sales, customer service and personal development training for the private and public sectors. He is an accredited coach and trainer of the Insights Discovery System which is a model based on the pioneering personality profiling work of Carl Jung. Using colour as a common language for better understanding of self and others, it helps people operate and communicate more effectively. Andy gains great satisfaction from helping his clients to grow and learn, and from the rapid progress they make in their business and personal lives. He works constantly on his own development and practises Ki Aikido, the ancient Japanese art of working with energy.