By McKinley Malbrough III, J.D., MS-HRM
Published November 7, 2026.
Short answer
People follow leaders who do seven things they can see: say what is expected, decide in time, tell the truth, give credit, take responsibility, develop others and keep their word. Score yourself on each for one week using specific examples, ask two people to score you too, and pick one behavior to improve for 30 days.
People follow leaders who do seven things they can see: say what is expected, decide in time, tell the truth, give credit, take responsibility, develop others and keep their word. Score yourself on each for one week using specific examples, ask two people to score you too, and pick one behavior to improve for 30 days.
I am Mac Malbrough. I hold a J.D. and an MS-HRM, I am not an attorney, and this is general information, not legal advice. I wrote this for owners, new managers and HR leads who are asked to build leaders and are handed a list of traits. Traits are hard to coach. Behaviors are not. You can watch a behavior, count it and change it, and employees notice it long before they can describe it.
The problem this solves: Someone was promoted to manage people and nobody showed them how, so the team follows the title and not the leader, and good intentions fade by autumn.
How UHR solves it: The professional development plan kit ($29) turns one behavior into a written 30-day plan with check-ins, Hard Conversation Scripts for Managers ($9) covers the talks leaders postpone, and the First-Time Manager Workshop Series ($49) trains a group.
A trait is a word like confident, visionary or charismatic. It describes how someone seems. A behavior is something a camera could record: the leader opened the meeting by stating the decision, the leader thanked a named person for a specific piece of work, the leader called the customer back on the day they promised.
Behaviors work better for a small employer for three reasons. You can write them into expectations. You can give feedback on them without attacking someone’s personality. And employees can see whether a leader is improving, which builds trust faster than any speech about change.
The seven below come from patterns I see in small organizations where people stay and perform. They are my practical framework, not a research model, so treat the self-test as a mirror and not as a scientific score.
People cannot follow a destination they cannot see. A leader who is clear states the outcome, the standard and the deadline for each task, and checks that the person heard it the same way.
One-week test: For each assignment you give, write one sentence that says what done looks like. Ask the person to repeat it back in their own words. Count how many times they described it differently than you meant.
Delay is a decision with a hidden cost. When a leader waits for perfect information, the team waits too, and people start deciding for themselves, often in different directions.
A leader who decides in time sorts decisions by how reversible they are. Easily reversed decisions are made quickly with the information at hand. Hard-to-reverse decisions get more thought, but with a date attached.
One-week test: List every open decision in your inbox. Beside each, write who is waiting and since when. Decide or set a date for at least half of them.
Employees forgive bad news faster than they forgive being misled. A leader who tells the truth shares what is known, what is not known and when the next update will come. They do not describe a cost-cutting move as a growth opportunity.
Truthfulness also covers feedback. Vague praise and avoided corrections feel kind and leave people unprepared. The Hard Conversation Scripts for Managers: 15 Scripts for Feedback, Boundaries and Repair ($9) gives you the wording for conversations most leaders postpone.
One-week test: Identify one conversation you have been avoiding. Hold it within the week and note what happened.
Credit is how people learn what you value. General praise such as “great team effort” teaches nothing. Specific credit, such as “Dana caught the billing error before it reached the customer, and that saved us a call,” teaches everyone what good looks like.
Credit also has a mirror image. A leader who takes credit for the team’s work loses the team’s discretionary effort quickly.
One-week test: Give three pieces of named, specific credit, at least one in front of other people and one in writing.
When something fails, a follower-worthy leader says what they will change about their own part first. They do not begin with who made the mistake. That does not mean ignoring accountability. It means starting with the system and the leader’s contribution, and then addressing individual performance with facts.
One-week test: The next time something goes wrong, say aloud, “Here is what I could have done differently.” Count how the room responds.
A leader who keeps all the interesting work becomes a bottleneck. A leader who delegates with a plan builds a team that can run without them. Development means a stretch assignment, a coaching conversation and a path that the person helped design.
Coaching is a skill, and it is different from telling. For when each fits, see coaching versus telling. For growth conversations, the Stay Interview Kit for Managers ($9) helps you ask what keeps a person and what might move them.
One-week test: Hand off one task you normally keep, with a clear outcome and a check-in date. Do not take it back.
This is the behavior that holds the others together. If you say you will review a draft by Thursday, review it. If you promise a raise conversation in the spring, hold it. If you cannot keep a promise, say so before the date, and explain.
One-week test: Write down every commitment you make in the week, however small. At the end, count how many you kept on time and how many you renegotiated openly.
Leading people in California carries legal duties that the best behaviors support. Supervisors are covered by harassment prevention training requirements under Government Code Section 12950.1 for employers of the size the law covers, and the law prohibits harassment and retaliation. A leader who tells the truth, listens and keeps their word is far more likely to hear about a problem early, when it can be corrected, than one who is feared. Several of the behaviors also protect fairness. Clear expectations make discipline more defensible. Timely decisions reduce the sense that favorites are treated differently. Specific credit makes pay and promotion decisions easier to explain. None of this replaces legal advice. When a situation involves a complaint, leave or discipline, involve a qualified employment attorney.
Choose one behavior and not three. Leaders who try to fix everything at once usually change nothing.
The problem for most small employers is that a development conversation ends with good intentions and no plan. The leader agrees to improve, the year moves on and nobody remembers the commitment in the fall. The professional development plan kit ($29) gives you an editable plan with goals, actions, support and check-in dates, so the behavior you chose has a written path and an owner. You can use it for yourself, for a new manager or for the leader who is promoted next year.
For a group, the First-Time Manager Workshop Series: 6-Session Facilitator Kit is $49 and covers six sessions you can run internally, and the Manager Conversation Bundle is $15 for stay interviews, one-on-ones and hard conversations.
If you would like support building these behaviors across your leadership team, the HR compliance check-up reviews the practices that surround them, and fractional HR support can coach managers and set the expectations with you.
McKinley holds a J.D. but is not a licensed attorney. Articles here are general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, talk with an employment attorney.
Data current as of November 2026. Sources are linked where each figure appears.
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This article is general information, not legal advice. Laws change and every situation is different; for advice on yours, talk with an employment attorney.
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