\ A leader’s job is tough. From defining the direction in which the company should be headed, making tough decisions, dealing with uncertainty to focusing on hiring the right talent, creating a culture of trust and respect, and building a highly performant team, they are expected to excel in everything.
\ They are constantly challenged to guide, advise and lead their teams to excellence. They’re required to navigate uncharted territory. Playing safe or doing ordinary things doesn’t fit their profile. They’re required to find solutions others didn’t know existed.
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Many people in the world see events as they are; leaders are different in that they see things that could be. And the future they see is always a better version of the present. We believe we can make a difference; we think we can make the world, or at least our part of it, better. Leaders are generally more optimistic than nonleaders.
— Mark Miller
\ Meeting these expectations isn’t always easy. It requires an extraordinary set of skills that can only be mastered with the right attitude to learn, grow and improve.
\ These five skills are crucial for leadership effectiveness. Without them, those in positions of leadership hold the title without the means to create the desired impact.
Connecting Strategic planning to tactical executionA leader’s biggest job is operating from a 10,000 ft view and charting out paths that others can’t see.
\ They answer ‘what’ must be done and ‘why.’ They look into the future and its needs. They have a keen eye for real issues that demand and deserve their attention. Future oriented thinking guides how they think and act.
\ They employ strategic thinking mindset to decide new initiatives to launch, identify projects that aren’t generating value and must be killed, ideas that require a new strategy to execute, challenges that must be addressed with creativity and innovation, conflicts that need to be resolved now before they are too difficult to handle, and decisions that require a fresh perspective.
\ Are we solving the right problem?
\ What’s our criteria to identify where our energy and effort must be spent?
\ These questions are always top of their mind.
\ They don’t stop at strategic thinking. They know that a good strategy without the execution plans is a job half done. Strategic thinking (what must be done and why) without tactical planning (how it must be done and when) is just the intent without a means to generate the desired impact. It’s thinking without action, direction without a path, and a desire to achieve goals without putting in the effort to achieve them.
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People think of execution as the tactical side of business, something leaders delegate while they focus on the perceived “bigger” issues. This idea is completely wrong. Execution is not just tactics—it is a discipline and a system. It has to be built into a company’s strategy, its goals, and its culture. And the leader of the organization must be deeply engaged in it. He cannot delegate its substance.
— Larry Bossidy
\ Giving life to strategy by stitching the two together is part of a leader's job.
\ To build this skill:
\ Building this skill is an on-going process. You need to audit, inquire and adjust your strategy based on learning from the past and the demands of tomorrow.
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Bridging communication gaps by seeking alignmentCommunication problems are the source of a lot of misery at work. They lead to expectation mismatch, misalignment, confusion and even friction between people.
\ When communication breaks down, project deadlines are missed, stakeholders lose trust and business suffers. Poor communication makes it hard to get things done and achieve success.
Leaders bridge these gaps by asking:
\ What communication problems are we facing?
\ Why are these problems occurring (think root cause)?
\ What are we doing (or not doing) that’s contributing to these problems?
\ What can we do to reduce these gaps?
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One reason some leaders misunderstand communication is that they think they're already good at it. They've been speaking since before they were one year old; reading since age four or five; writing since soon after that. Unlike just about every other discipline leaders have had to master, they've been communicating their whole lives. It seemed to be no big deal. Just as a fish is unaware of the water it swims in, leaders often are unaware of their own communication abilities. Or lack thereof. \n — Helio Fred Garcia
\ To build this skill:
\ Making communication less painful and more productive can ease out collaboration helping teams achieve targets without stress and anxiety.
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Connecting at a deeper level through empathic listeningThe higher someone is in the work hierarchy, the worse their listening skills. They are more distracted, interrupt often, lead with judgments and ask less questions.
\ These behaviors make team members feel unheard and undervalued leading to decreased morale and shutting down active communication.
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To listen well is to figure out what’s on someone’s mind and demonstrate that you care enough to want to know. It’s what we all crave; to be understood as a person with thoughts, emotions, and intentions that are unique and valuable and deserving of attention.
— Kate Murphy
\ Learning to listen well is a skill all leaders need to build.
\ To build this skill:
\ For example:
Your team member is feeling down about a setback. You listen deeply, acknowledge their feelings, and reflect back their emotions, showing that you truly care about their experience. You say things like, "I can see how much this project means to you and how hard it is to deal with the challenges you’re facing. It’s okay to feel this way. Let’s talk about what you need right now and how I can help."
\ Conversations get messy when leaders don't put an effort to grasp other's point of view, validate their feelings and recognize their perspective. People are more likely to share openly and honestly when they feel heard and understood. Understanding the full context and underlying issues also allows for more effective problem-solving and decision-making. It gets you on the same page as them and move forward constructively.
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Applying resilient mindset to overcome challengesLeaders are required to make tough decisions without accurate information. They need to deal with high pressure situations that require them to think clearly and make trade-offs. They need to look past the obstacles, evaluate their circumstances, reflect on the challenges they are confronted with on a daily basis, make creative decisions and act in ways that open opportunities that didn’t seem possible earlier.
\ They are required to make the best use of resources to create solutions to problems and to drive forward an agenda. None of this would be possible without exercising their agency—which is the ability to find a way to get what you want, without waiting for the conditions to be perfect or otherwise blaming the circumstances. It requires a resilient mindset to push through in the face of adversity with courage and confidence.
\ Once a leader learns to recognize and cultivate it, high agency turns into their secret weapon for leadership effectiveness.
\ Leaders with high agency are known to practice the 3 R’s:
Leadership’s responsibility is to work intelligently with what is given and not waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.
— Eric Greitens
\ To build this skill:
\ Resilient leaders don’t play safe or give up when confronted with a challenge. They consider obstacles as opportunities to try new strategies, explore different possibilities and put their creative thinking skills to use.
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Handling conflicts head-on to improve productivityConflicts are the reality of every workplace—differences of opinion, disagreements on decisions, mismatch in expectations etc.
\ Avoiding conflict, not taking responsibility, denying or worse delaying it doesn’t help. Not paying attention to the conflict does not make it disappear, it only makes it worse.
\ Not getting a closure keeps people’s minds preoccupied with the conflict instead of putting that time and energy to work. Unresolved emotions create a mental imbalance that harms their productivity and performance.
\ Leaders embrace conflict and the discomfort that comes with it. They don’t treat conflicts “bad” or a thing to avoid, but rather as something that provides tremendous opportunities to improve and do better.
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Crucial conversations well held accelerate the building of trust, they not only not damage it, they create a sense of connection. \n — Kerry Patterson
\ To build this skill:
\ Leaders treat conflicts as a sign of a healthy workplace and not something to avoid.
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