Top 10 Essential Tips for Being a Successful Leader (BOMA 2024)

“Leadership is about people, not outcomes.” That was the opening takeaway that Joe Markling, president and principal advisor at C7 Advisory Group, offered attendees of Tuesday afternoon’s session at the 2024 BOMA International Conference and Expo in his session titled, “Elevating Your Leadership: Tools for Growth and Impact.”

Management and leadership are not the same thing, Markling said. Watching someone changing a tire on a car is not leadership—it’s supervision, he added.

Markling has been leading people for decades and said his goal now is to leave a legacy behind for the next generation of up-and-coming leaders to show them how to effectively lead their teams into the future. Following are his top 10 tips for becoming a successful leader—and you might be surprised to learn how simple yet critical they are.

1. Be Kind

After a brief pause, Markling said, “We could stop right here and it would be enough.” He urged attendees to remember to simply treat people with kindness. “What does it cost you?” Most people have no idea what a colleague is bringing into the workplace, so Markling makes it a habit during Monday meetings to ask what his employees did during the weekend. “Someone may have had a really bad weekend, so we talk about that. Tasks come afterwards.”

2. Have Fun

“Let people enjoy themselves,” Markling said. He urged attendees to create fun things to do and be part of it on occasion. While he noted that managers generally do need to walk a fine line and keep a certain amount of distance from employees, “people will be more productive if they’re happier.”

3. Share Information

“Give people some context about why things are important to the organization and why decisions are being made,” he urged. “You’ll get a better outcome. They’ll buy in” to what’s happening when they understand why it’s happening.

4. Focus Your Time

Markling had a very simple formula for how to achieve this tip that has served him well: do it, delegate it, discuss it or discard it. “That will teach your people how to organize their time,” he said. “They’ll emulate what you do.” He added that a manager who’s constantly frazzled and “bouncing off the walls” is not a true leader. A leader knows how to prioritize time and demonstrate to their employees how to do it as well.

5. Give People an Opportunity to Succeed

“My job is to guarantee your success. Tell your people that!” Markling suggested. He said it’s important to cultivate an environment where employees are not afraid to ask questions that they feel might be stupid. “Make it safe for them to ask questions,” he said. Markling also noted that a true leader’s role is to prepare employees and step out of the spotlight. A leader will give employees an opportunity to shine and help them achieve their goals.

6. Set Realistic Goals

The first job a leader has is to negotiate goals to ensure they are achievable for his or her employees. “Not everything can be an A-level priority,” Markling said. Again, leading by example teaches employees how to determine which goals are a priority and whether they are achievable.

7. Be the Bulldozer

“What does a bulldozer do?” Markling asked the audience. “It pushes stuff out of the way.” That’s what true leaders are called to do: to clear the path to success and effectiveness within their teams. However, he noted that sometimes clearing the path involves removing a difficult or unproductive team member, which isn’t pleasant but it necessary for the rest of the team to thrive. “If you don’t move them, it’s demoralizing to the rest of the team,” he added.

8. Be a Player and a Coach

Using a familiar sports analogy, Markling observed that the best coaches in professional sports were also players—and very few of them were actually the best in their positions. From the sidelines, they were able to see the game on the field unfold and watching the best coaches make decisions in real time. It also means employees trust that, if needed, you can step in and do what they do. “Your people have to know you’re competent enough to play the game at some level,” Markling said. Otherwise, they’ll lose respect and trust in your leadership abilities.

9. Give Feedback

If a manager is conducting an employee’s review and something come as a surprise to the employee, that’s the leader’s fault, according to Markling. “Positive feedback should come often and done publicly,” he said. On the other hand, reprimands and corrections should always be done in private or even offsite. A leader should never say to an employee publicly, “You really dropped the ball on that one.” Everyone is aware of the issue, and now you’ve alienated the employee and set a tone that will lead to demoralization. “Unfortunately, it happens all to often, and it shouldn’t happen, ever.”

10. Be Flexible

If the COVID pandemic taught us one thing, it’s the importance of flexibility, Markling said. “Rigidity is management; flexibility is leadership,” he noted. He advised attendees to hire people who know how to do their jobs, and then let them do it. “Trust people.”

Markling left the audience with several of his favorite inspirational quotes about leadership, including: “People leave bad leaders, not bad companies.”

He concluded by saying, “If your actions encourage others to dream more, learn more, do more, become more, you are a leader.”