The mystery of leadership - Part One

Very simply put, leading is setting direction and guiding others to follow that direction. What skills and qualities do you need for that - this is a question many practitioners and leaders are trying to answer. And I bet that there are hundreds of different answers...

All good answers would start with "it depends"... It depends on the person, the organization, the colleagues you are working with, the industry, etc... How can we find our way out from this maze?

In this series of articles I will share the essence of my leadership training and coaching experience. A few models, theories, best practices that are really working at many areas of life. It is intended to be a "palette" you can choose from if you are a practicing leader. There is no guarantee that all of it will work out well for you, but it is always worth trying, you will surely find some that are applicable.

There are three main type of skills you use in any positions within all organizations, in any industry – no matter of the level and the job itself:

• technical skills (getting the job done)
• human skills (delegation, motivation, etc. and
• conceptual skills (this entails the “big picture”-type of thinking, so long-term planning, formulating the vision and basic values of the company, analizing the market, strategic thinking, etc.)

Conceptual skills are utilized most at executive levels, whereas technical skills are mostly utilized at non-supervisory levels. Managers at the supervisory level have a special position: they are the linking structure within the organization. They have to take messages from the top levels and find means to communicate these down within the organization. Moreover, they also have the burden of taking the issues/problems of employees at the non-supervisory level and channel these towards the management.

Generally the problem is that most places in the world people are promoted for their technical skills. Eg. “Christina, you are an excellent sales person, you have outstanding results in the past few months, therefore we promote you to lead a team of sales people.”

However leadership is a human skill. There is no such thing as a “leadership fairy” that sprinkles around and says “puff, from now on you are excellent in leadership”. This has nothing to do with technical skills, it actually requires a completely different skill set.

Success of leaders is always tangible and result-based. This is always measurable: profits, overtime, revenue, costs etc. Here the challenge is to get the job done at all costs.

Effectiveness is intangible. This has to do with the morale: how do people feel about their job? What else can we do to make people feel happy about their jobs? How satisfied are they with their leader? Etc.

The challenge of good leaders is to be up high in both: to be highly effective and highly successful. Sometimes it is impossible, but my advice is this: whenever you can add in effectiveness, do it. This is the "human" side of effective leaders, who can inspire to grow and outperform without pushing or forcing.

What do you need for that? If you ask me, I would say you have to believe in yourself and you have to know yourself very well. This is where it all starts...

Self-awareness is probably the least discussed leadership quality, however it is possibly the most valuable one. This means being aware of what someone is good at while acknowledging what he still have to learn. On an interpersonal level, self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses can increase credibility which will in turn increase leadership effectiveness.

On an organizational level, the benefits are even greater, because a self-conscious leader is modeling an important attitude, i.e. it's okay to admit you don't have all the answers, to make mistakes and most importantly, to ask for help. (Remember: a fear from making mistakes is a serious obstacle to experimenting which is necessary for development.) These are all characteristics of an organization that is constantly learning and supports innovation and agility - two features of high performing organizations.

One part of our personality always remains partly unknown to us; this is how others see us. To have an awareness on that, we need to ask for feedback.

So my first advice: be open to criticism and constructive feedback, be interested in how others might see you, because with this you can get access to this "hidden" part of your self-picture.

Sources of pictures:

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