If you’ve been in the workplace for a while, you’ve probably had great bosses and not-so-great bosses. Maybe you even had one who was toxic. While sometimes it’s simply a matter of personality fit, it’s also true that some people can be universally frustrating to work for—while others motivate and lift up everyone around them.
“Inspiring characteristics and infuriating characteristics tend to be the mirror images of each other,” says Adam Galinsky, author of Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others and professor of leadership and ethics at Columbia Business School. “For example, an inspiring leader is generous, but an infuriating leader is selfish. An inspiring leader is courageous, and an infuriating leader is cowardly. It’s so universal that it’s hardwired into the human mind.”
In his research on leadership, Galinsky asked people to talk about their best and worst bosses. He took the characteristics that people mentioned and reduced them into three core traits that all inspiring leaders have.
They’re Visionaries
Being a visionary is how you see and talk about the world. Galinsky says there are three core elements that make up what it means to be visionary. The first is having a big picture, optimistic, meaningful vision of the future. “You can see a better world,” says Galinsky.
Next, visionaries take that big picture, optimistic, meaningful view of the world and simplify it in a way that’s easy for other people to process. Galinsky uses an example from the movie Inception. Leonard DiCaprio’s character, Cobb, is tasked with implanting an idea into someone else’s brain. He talks to someone who unsuccessfully tried it.
“He asks, ‘You didn’t plant it deep enough?’” says Galinsky. “He’s told, ‘It’s not about how deep you go in the mind; it’s how simple the idea is.’”
The third element of being visionary is repeating the vision over and over again, so it becomes ingrained in people’s minds. “When I run exercises in the classroom, I have learned that I need to repeat instructions at least three times or my students will be confused about what to do.”
They’re Exemplars
Being an exemplar is how you act in the world. Inspiring leaders often are calm, courageous, and protective.
“When you’re a leader, you’re on a stage and have people’s attention,” says Galinsky. “The basic foundations of cognitive psychology say when you pay attention to something, whatever that is gets amplified, intensified, and has a bigger impact. It’s really important for leaders to be calm in a crisis because if they’re anxious, that anxiousness gets amplified and continuously and infectiously invades others. But if they’re calm, it becomes the cue for others.”
Being exemplar also means being passionate about your job, which shines through in your behavior and attitude. For example, your eyes light up, you smile, and exude energy. “Authentic passion is almost impossible to fake,” says Galinsky.
Exemplars also act consistently, which ties back to being visionary. “Your behavior must be consistent with the vision that you’ve sent out,” says Galinsky. “What’s most infuriating for people is when a leader is a hypocrite.”
They’re Mentors
Being a mentor is how you interact with others in the world. Galinsky says one thing most infuriating leaders do is micromanage. Inspiring leaders, however, trust their team.
“It’s about empowerment,” says Galinsky. “Are you giving people responsibility? Are you involving people? Are you letting them grow and develop?”
Mentors also elevate people. An infuriating leader, for example, steals credit and puts blame on others. “There’s nothing more infuriating than not getting the credit you deserve for your contributions,” says Galinsky. “But there’s nothing more elevating than when a leader recognizes your contributions.”
Finally, mentors have the ability to empathize. They seek to understand someone’s perspective, contextual constraints, and unique vantage point, says Galinsky. “The phrase I like to use is, understand that different people have different needs at different times,” he says. “Understand what motivates them but also understand what motivates them today might not motivate them tomorrow. It’s about calibrating and understanding the uniqueness of individuals.”
Each of the three traits of inspiring leaders are powerful because they satisfy a fundamental human need, says Galinsky. “Visionary satisfies the fundamental human need for meaning and purpose,” he says. “Exemplar satisfies the fundamental need for protection and energy and passion. And mentor satisfies a fundamental need to feel like you belong, have status, and are respected and matter in the world.”
Fortunately, Galinsky says it’s possible to learn to be inspiring. “Let’s put to rest the idea that leaders are born,” he says. “There is a universal, scientifically established set of characteristics that make up the inspiring archetype. Identify those characteristics, work on those characteristics, develop them, nurture them, and become more inspiring over time.”
