How often do you see “leadership skills” vaguely listed on a resume? How many ads for leadership conferences, seminars and retreats have landed in your inbox? How about leadership training sessions, exercises and modules?

“Leadership” is one of those words you hear so often that it can easily start to lose its meaning, which is why business leaders should constantly ask themselves: What is leadership? Why is it so important? How can it be identified, taught and reinforced?

Effective leaders have to be acutely aware of the outcomes their companies are trying to achieve and how the available resources can be used to secure these outcomes. They have to embrace transparency, facilitate open communication between departments and teams, and galvanize action across the company. And they must have an ambitious vision – instead of dwelling on problems and constantly reminding their colleagues what can’t or shouldn’t be done, they have to be virtuosos in the “Art of the Possible.”

These are a few of the lessons I’ve learned in my years in senior management in technological disciplines. Whether you’re a C-suite executive, a manager or anyone else who’s trying to build a team of innovative and engaged tech leaders, you should always hold yourself accountable, focus on transparency and work toward a vision worth realizing.

Pursue Concrete Outcomes

Tech leaders are responsible for setting clearly defined objectives and prioritizing them across the company. While engineers, programmers and designers can put most of their energy into solving narrow technological problems, tech leaders always have to keep broader outcomes in mind. If a company isn’t capturing market share, building customer trust and loyalty, and marketing its products and services effectively, it won’t be around for long.

There have never been more resources available to outcome-oriented tech leaders. For example, AI-powered data collection and analysis tools can help companies learn about their customers and provide them with outstanding experiences. 

A recent IBM survey of almost 1,200 executives found that the top-cited “operational benefit” of AI is “improved customer insights.” Machine learning can track consumers’ habits and preferences over time and provide highly personalized recommendations and services. Attribution software can determine how well marketing campaigns are performing. Sentiment analysis can identify trends and extract meaningful insights from huge amounts of consumer feedback and other forms of data.

On top of all the conventional indicators of success (such as revenue and profit), tech leaders have access to more and more powerful mechanisms for tracking concrete outcomes. It’s their responsibility to use these mechanisms to hold themselves and their colleagues accountable. While this may sound like it creates a high-pressure work environment, the best leaders know how to set achievable goals that actually improve morale – “good job” is nice, but employees need objective evidence of their success. It’s essential to know what your employees are capable of and how to motivate them to do the best work possible.

Prioritize Transparency and Communication

Nothing builds trust like communication. From top-down engagement about company policies and goals to interactions between departments and employees, leaders have to foster a culture of transparency at all levels. One of the biggest threats to productivity and innovation is compartmentalization. When there isn’t a free flow of information across different parts of the company, good ideas don’t get enough exposure, opportunities for collaboration are missed, and it’s easier for problems to develop and persist.
Whenever I build a team at my company, I’m looking for a diverse cross-section of the organization. I want some employees who have a strong tech background and others who are experts at communicating complex technical subjects to the average person. A solid team needs people who are concerned about deadlines and logistical constraints, as well as perfectionists who are constantly tweaking a product and figuring out new ways to stretch limited resources. And, perhaps most importantly, teams need leaders who can inspire leadership in others.

Anyone can be a leader – from an entry-level employee who has only been with the company for a few months to a seasoned manager or executive. The elevation of every voice (regardless of experience or job title) is how you can make sure the best ideas are always getting a fair hearing. In fact, this is why diversity and inclusion are valuable across the board – people with unique backgrounds and perspectives are capable of looking at problems differently and coming up with unique solutions.

It’s no surprise that a recent Deloitte study found that organizations with inclusive cultures are six times more likely to be “innovative and agile” and eight times more likely to “achieve better business outcomes.” This brings us back to the main point – inclusion is impossible without communication. It doesn’t matter how diverse your employees are if their voices are muffled.

Emphasize Possibilities Over Obstacles

If there’s one point that distills everything you just read, it’s this: Leaders have to inspire those around them. While it’s necessary to set realistic expectations and have a sober understanding of the constraints the company faces, effective leaders should always be thinking of new ways to capitalize on the resources that are available to them.

As a member of technology leadership at my company, it’s my job to consult with all the relevant teams and departments to figure out exactly what we’re capable of accomplishing. These conversations need to be grounded in a keen awareness of what’s technically possible, but they should also be ambitious and imaginative. The biggest mistake a leader can make is underestimating her colleagues – it’s always better to try to do something exceptional and difficult than to settle for mediocrity.