This material is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical, psychological, or psychotherapeutic advice. If you are experiencing an acute psychological condition or need professional support, please contact a doctor, psychologist, psychotherapist, or crisis service.
A small bookshop's manager closes the shift and once again finishes the orders himself. He knows the stock, answers customers quickly, and can correct almost any mistake. Yet colleagues wait for his decision even in straightforward cases. After several evenings like this, the question extends beyond personal stamina: which parts of the working process depend on one person?
A list of leadership qualities is useful when each label points to an observable action. Here are 21 prompts for looking more closely. You do not need to score yourself on every item or construct a flawless leader's personality. Choose one recurring situation and consider what would help you handle it more effectively.
A bookshop shift handover: colleagues need information, access, and room to act independently. Fictional MriyaRun illustration created with AI.
Understanding a situation
1. Consider possible consequences
Extrapolation helps you imagine developments if present conditions continue. A forecast nevertheless remains a hypothesis. If orders increase, check whether demand is sustained, connected to a single event, or seasonal. What information supports your conclusion, and what would make you revise it?
2. Keep several areas visible without constantly switching
Several projects do not need to be performed simultaneously every minute. It is more useful to see priorities, deadlines, and responsibilities while allowing focused work. In the bookshop, distinguish who handles dispatch, who helps customers, and which questions genuinely require the manager.
3. Act with incomplete information
Uncertainty can worry experienced people too. Ask which step is available now and how reversible it is. A small collection-process change can be tested during one shift; a decision with substantial consequences needs more information and time.
4. Check intuitive impressions
Experience may help you notice a familiar problem quickly. But “something feels wrong” does not yet explain its cause. If you think an employee has lost interest, ask about tasks, workload, and available help. An apparent motivation problem might turn out to involve unclear requirements.
Sharing responsibility and workload
5. Take defined authority
A manager needs to state decisions and explain the limits of responsibility. This is compatible with apologising for a mistake and attending to objections. Before a difficult conversation, prepare a request or refusal in the personal-boundaries diary: which deadline can you not confirm, and what are you proposing instead?
6. Persist while allowing review
Continuing important work is easier when its purpose is clear. An unpopular decision is not necessarily correct, however. State review conditions beforehand: if the new procedure delays collections, return to it after two shifts and investigate why.
7. Cooperate without having to switch feelings off
You can feel irritated with a colleague and still agree on work. Friendship or simulated affection is not compulsory. Clear tasks, an acceptable way of speaking, and room to raise problems without personal insults matter. Feelings do not cancel responsibility for behaviour.
8. Take initiative with attention to risk
Initiative can mean proposing a small trial rather than a dramatic leap. What can be checked with limited resources? Who faces the consequences if the attempt fails? Employees need an opportunity to flag a risk before it becomes a problem.
9. Protect capacity and plan cover
Always working longer than everyone else is not the only way to demonstrate commitment. If a process relies on one person's exhaustion, examine staffing, priorities, and knowledge transfer. In our example, training a colleague to complete a standard order independently could be a useful step.
Reviewing workload: which tasks fit the available time, and what needs changing? Fictional MriyaRun illustration created with AI.
Working with people and developing the team
10. Transfer knowledge and the ability to act
Delegation requires access, criteria, and authority as well as a task. Explain it, let the person try, and agree when to review the result. If every small decision still requires approval, delegation may amount only to additional waiting for the manager's reply.
11. Check your understanding of another person
Empathy does not provide direct access to someone else's thoughts. Notice that a colleague is quieter and ask what is happening. If wanted, online metaphorical cards can prompt associations during a conversation, but they cannot determine an employee's hidden motives or replace their answer.
12. Separate the task from wanting complete control
What matters more here: the outcome or every detail following your method? Sometimes a requirement is justified by safety or quality. Elsewhere, agree on criteria and leave the method to your colleague. This makes it easier to see where control is genuinely needed.
13. Combine compassion with clear arrangements
If someone is struggling, ask about available help and temporary adjustments. Compassion need not conceal consequences for the work. Discussing a deadline, however, does not require describing the person's difficulties as weakness. Both sides need to understand the agreement.
14. Develop a process that can work without you
Instructions, shared contacts, and a clear shift routine may be less conspicuous than a personal rescue but offer lasting value. Check what would stop during your absence. One such question can begin specific work on documentation and training.
15. Form your own judgement and hear arguments
Independence does not mean deciding everything alone. Listen to different views, explain your reasoning, and take responsibility for your part. If a proposal conflicts with important values or creates unacceptable risk, discuss the limits of your involvement and possible next actions.
Responding to change and your own condition
16. Change the method when conditions change
Flexibility becomes visible when new information actually affects a plan. It does not require starting again every week. You might retain the shared goal while changing when orders are checked, explaining why and when the team will review the change.
17. Notice overload before exhaustion
Resilience is not invulnerability. The WHO connects burnout with chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. This is not a reason to accuse someone of unprofessionalism. Examine workload, recovery, and working conditions; seek help if your condition persistently worsens.
18. Know what your priorities serve
A goal helps when it clarifies what to do now and what to defer. It need not sound grand. For the bookshop, it might be reliable order collection without constant evening catch-up. Which observable change would show that you are approaching it?
19. Consider consequences for other people
A decision affects more than sales. Who takes on additional work, what conditions do visitors face, and is private information protected? Social responsibility also begins with ordinary questions like these. Compare good intentions with actual consequences.
20. Use humour without humiliation
Humour can support connection when people can genuinely laugh together. An employee's laughter does not always mean the manager's joke was enjoyable. If someone becomes a target or asks you to stop, hear that rather than explaining that the team lacks humour.
21. Align words with actions and notice contributions
Integrity shows in fulfilled promises and honest updates about change. Gratitude can also be specific: who did what, and how did it help? the Steps of Gratitude workbook can hold written observations. Thanks should not require silence about overload or unfairness.
Choose one prompt to try
Take one recurring situation. In the Self-Discovery course diary, examine an expectation: why do you keep taking all the work back? In the EQ journal, describe irritation or fear around handing over a task. These are examples of using the tools, not assessments of leadership potential.
Use Insight Planner for one arrangement you can check: who takes the standard order, what access they need, and when you will review the result. At the week's end, ask “What works differently now, and what still needs clarifying?” rather than whether you have become a perfect leader.
Further reading
Joseph Cangemi, Casimir Kowalski, and Kanwar Habib Khan edited Leadership Behavior (1998). Their leadership work is listed in Western Kentucky University materials. Use the prompts above to examine particular situations rather than calculate a total score or a diagnosis.