The core leadership skills
Contributed by Center for Creative Leadership The "Fundamental 4" Competencies for Leaders
Leaders at different levels of the organization face different challenges. Whether you’re an individual contributor, a first-time manager, a senior executive, or somewhere in between, there are 4 leadership skills you need to learn and master. |
1. Self-Awareness.
This means simply understanding your strengths and weaknesses, but gaining self-awareness is anything but simple. Self-awareness is critical for ongoing and long-term effectiveness as a leader. 2. Communication. It’s one of the most basic, across-the-board skills all of us need to develop and refine during our careers. “Communicating information and ideas” is consistently rated among the most important skills for leaders to be successful. Communication is also embedded in a number of other leadership competencies, including “leading employees,” “participative management” and “building and mending relationships.” Writing clearly, speaking with clarity, and using active listening skills are all part of the equation. As you move up the career ladder, it expands to behaviors such as encouraging discussion, building trust, conveying vision and strategic intent, and pulling people along with you. That’s why communication is so important for leaders. |
3. Influence.
Developing your influencing skills helps you to communicate your vision or goals, align the efforts of others, and build commitment from people at all levels. Ultimately, influence allows you to get things done and achieve desirable outcomes. Influence can vary greatly at different levels in the organization. Knowing your stakeholders, or audience, is key. Do you need to influence your boss? Your peers? Direct reports? Customers? Each stakeholder has special concerns and issues, so various groups and individuals will require different approaches for influencing. 4. Learning Agility. You need the ability to constantly be in a learning mode, to value and seek out the lessons of experience. To develop as leaders and as people, we need to be active learners. This involves recognizing when new behaviors, skills, or attitudes are needed and accepting responsibility for developing them. Learning agility involves learning from mistakes, asking insightful questions, and being open to feedback. It includes learning a new skill quickly, taking advantage of opportunities to learn, and responding well to new situations. For senior leaders, learning agility is also about inspiring learning in others and creating a culture of learning throughout the organization. Developing your learning agility is how to enjoy a long career. |