What Great Leaders Do Differently
And How You Can Do Them Too
In the world of leadership development, one truth holds steady: the best leaders aren't the smartest people in the room - they're the most intentional.
As a talent accelerator in the executive development and coaching space, I work with high-growth organizations and high-performing individuals to unlock potential and amplify leadership impact. And here’s what I’ve seen again and again: great leadership isn’t born.
It’s built behavior by behavior.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all formula, the leaders who stand out consistently practice a few core capabilities that separate them from the pack. These five fundamentals aren’t exhaustive, but they are foundational.
Let’s break them down.
1. Make Time to Lead
When you manage direct reports, being a leader is your job. Your ability to deliver results through others IS the work.
In exit surveys across industries, a recurring theme pops up: “My manager didn’t make time for me.” It’s not that these leaders didn’t care. It’s that they didn’t make connection a priority.
What this looks like in practice:
Weekly 1:1s focused on both business outcomes and people support
Quarterly development conversations with prompts like:
What motivates you right now?
What’s one area you want to develop over the next 6 months?
What are your 3–5 year aspirations and how can I help?
A VP of Sales I worked with led a high-performing, but increasingly disengaged team. When we looked into it, she realized she was canceling 1:1s more often than she kept them - always for valid business reasons, but the message to her team was clear: “You’re not a priority.”
We agreed she’d commit to just 30 minutes per person, at least one every other week, for 90 days. No reschedules unless urgent.
At first, her team was skeptical. But by the third month, engagement scores had risen, she was seeing issues sooner, and two team members credited those check-ins with helping them hit their quarterly targets.
Her investment was just twelve hours a month. But the return was immeasurable: Trust, retention, and consistent results.
2. Develop Relentless Self-Awareness
Great leaders are curious about themselves. They know their triggers and they track how their presence affects a room. And they’re not afraid to seek feedback - even when it stings.
Self-awareness isn’t just about knowing your DiSC type. It’s about understanding your internal landscape and your external impact. It’s also a gateway to emotional intelligence (EI), a proven differentiator for career advancement and team performance.
Ask yourself:
When I’m under pressure, how do I tend to react?
What assumptions do I make about others and are they always true?
What’s one piece of feedback I’ve resisted… but maybe needed to hear?
One executive I coached had a habit of jumping straight into the agenda, moving briskly from topic to topic. Her team described her style as “efficient, but exhausting.” After receiving anonymous feedback, she decided to experiment with a simple shift. At the start of each meeting, she asked: “What challenges are you facing?”
At first, it felt awkward. People hesitated. But slowly, the space began to fill with mentions of tough client conversations, personal stressors, or small wins worth celebrating. The tone of the meetings changed because her team felt seen.
That small moment of presence created a ripple effect. Simply making time to acknowledge the human side of work made her a more trusted, more effective leader.
3. Be Present
I’ll never forget what my client, Rebecca, shared about a 1:1 with her manager. Her manager was always distracted when they met. At one point, she even started typing. Rebecca left the meeting feeling invisible.
The fix is simple, but difficult: presence.
Presence is a practice. It’s built in moments. Moments like closing your inbox before a conversation, asking one more follow-up question, staying grounded even when you're pressed for time.
💡 Practical Habit Tip: BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits framework recommends pairing new behaviors with an existing cue. For example: “When I click the Zoom link, I’ll close all other browser tabs and take one deep breath.”
Presence creates psychological safety.
4. Communicate with Clarity and Consistency
Leadership communication is more than messaging. It’s meaning-making. You help your team interpret change, understand priorities, and make decisions with confidence.
Here’s what great communication looks like:
Active listening: Listen to understand, not to respond. Watch body language. Ask, “What I’m hearing is… Does that feel true to you?”
Transparency: If you’re thinking it (and it’s helpful), say it. People crave candor more than polished scripts.
Expectation setting: Clear expectations + accountability = performance. If your expectations live only in your head, your team can’t meet them.
James, a senior leader at a fast-scaling startup, was known for being passionate and sharp. But he was also known for dominating conversations. In tense meetings, he often jumped in to “fix” problems before others could weigh in. While his intentions were good, his team began to disengage. They stopped offering ideas.
To shift his approach, James started using the acronym “WAIT” Why Am I Talking? as a silent check-in before speaking. At first, it was clunky. He’d literally write “WAIT” at the top of his notepad during meetings to ground himself. But over time, it became instinctive.
It wasn’t silence that made James a better leader. It was learning to pause long enough to make space for others to engage.
5. Lead from Behind
Employees want to feel purpose and autonomy. And the most empowering leaders understand that their job isn’t to be in front of every decision - it’s to create the conditions where others thrive.
Recently, I was at the park with my toddler. He walked along a low ledge, arms outstretched for balance. I trailed just behind him. Close enough to catch him, but far enough away to let him lead. And I thought: this is what it means to lead from behind.
He trusted that I was there. I trusted that he could do hard things. And in that quiet, mutual confidence, we both grew.
Leading from behind means:
Sharing a clear vision.
Giving room for creativity and problem-solving.
Catching people when they stumble.
Being a great leader isn’t about grand gestures. It’s about micro-moments. The 1:1 you almost canceled but didn’t. The question you asked instead of assuming. The email you sent that said, “You’ve got this — and I’ve got you.”
It takes time. It takes effort. But it’s worth it.
Because when someone asks, “Who’s the best leader you’ve ever worked for?” you want them to say your name.