I was flying home several months ago from a management-leadership program I was teaching for a company in Phoenix, and I struck up a conversation with the gentleman next to me on the plane. During the conversation, I asked him if he considered his boss to be a good manager, and he said, “Yes, he is.” I then asked him if he thought his boss was a good leader, and after thinking a moment, he said, “No, he isn’t.”

This man was not alone in the way he thought. According to a survey by the marketing information company TSN, “Less than one-third of all supervisors and managers are perceived to be strong leaders.” As a result, increasingly larger percentages of our workforce are disengaged. According to the survey

40% of workers feel disconnected from their employers

Two out of every three workers do not identify with or feel motivated to drive their employer’s business goals and objectives

25% of employees are just ” showing up to collect a paycheck”

There is a tremendous opportunity for managers and supervisors to set themselves and their companies apart from their competition. So what does it take for a manager to be “perceived as a strong leader?”

THE FIVE “C’S” OF LEADERSHIP

Character

People will not follow someone for long if they can’t trust them. Not long ago a well known CEO was “ousted” after a probe into a personal relationship with a female executive at the same firm. “The board concluded that the facts reflected poorly on his judgment and would impair his ability to lead the company…his actions were inconsistent with our code of conduct.” Leaders have to be trustworthy to produce sustainable results.

Caring

The old clich