Learn the skills to be a competent leader.
Why?
A leadership title is not equivalent to having the skills necessary to be a competent leader. If you develop and demonstrate competent leadership skills, people will more likely want you to become a formal leader.
What skills to develop
There are many frameworks describing relevant leadership skills, but I’ll provide a few that I prefer.
The Art of Action
The Art of Action uses 3 categories of skills:
Directing:
- Developing strategic direction considering goals, the environment you’re in, and current organizational capabilities.
- Building organizational capabilities to realize strategies.
- Giving direction by communicating intent.
Leading:
- Motivating and inspiring people to follow a direction and perform their tasks effectively.
- Defining and achieving the specific tasks for a group.
- Building and maintaining teams.
- Meeting the needs of and developing individuals.
Managing:
- Understanding objectives.
- Solving problems so objectives can be achieved.
- Creating efficient work processes to get the most out of resources and people.
CliftonStrengths
CliftonStrengths (see also Strengths Finder 2.0) is a framework for leadership strengths but can be reframed as a framework for leadership skills. It has 4 categories for 34 strengths:
- Executing (making things happen): Achiever, Arranger, Belief, Consistency, Deliberative, Discipline, Focus, Responsibility, Restorative
- Influencing (taking charge, speaking up, making sure others are heard): Activator, Command, Communication, Competition, Maximizer, Self-Assurance, Significance, Woo
- Relationship Building: Adaptability, Connectedness, Developer, Empathy, Harmony, Includer, Individualization, Positivity, Relator
- Strategic Thinking (absorbing and analysing information to improve decision-making): Analytical, Context, Futuristic, Ideation, Input, Intellection, Learner, Strategic
Korn Ferry leadership competencies
Korn Ferry Leadership Architect (see also FYI: For Your Improvement) uses 4 factors, 12 clusters, and 38 competencies:
Thought
- Understanding the business (business insight, customer focus, financial acumen, tech savvy)
- Making complex decisions (manages complexity, decision quality, balances stakeholders)
- Creating the new and different (global perspective, cultivates innovation, strategic mindset)
Results
- Taking initiative (action oriented, resourcefulness)
- Managing execution (directs work, plans and aligns, optimizes work processes)
- Focuses on performance (ensures accountability, drives results)
People
- Building collaborative relationships (collaborates, manages conflict, interpersonal savvy, builds networks)
- Optimizing diverse talent (attracts top talent, develops talent, values differences, builds effective teams)
- Influencing people (communicates effectively, drives engagement, organizational savvy, persuades, drives vision and purpose)
Self
- Being authentic (courage, instills trust)
- Being open (demonstrates self-awareness, self-development)
- Being flexible and adaptable (manages ambiguity, nimble learning, being resilient, siutational adaptability)
This is how I see all of these roughly relating to each other:
Where to start? The skills that separate okay vs strong leaders.
I generally suggest prioritising skills development based on the specific problems you’re facing. However, there are a few key skills that I’ve found distinguish strong vs merely okay leaders:
- Strategic thinking, not just the problem in front of you but broader context and horizon.
- Problem solving — identifying and addressing long-running issues. Showing the possibility of a better future.
- Communication skills, both written and presentation
- Hiring. Facilitating referrals and a reputation of being able to get positions filled. Depending on the company and the larger economic context, you might switch this with developing people and getting them promoted.
- Crucial conversations, that is, the ability to have effective dialogue during high stakes, emotional charged, disagreements.
