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Do you have the Essential Qualities and Skills of a Good Leader?

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We all recognise good leaders, but have you ever stopped to think what are the essential qualities and skills that are common to all good leaders?

In fact, these qualities which we admire so much in others are also inside of all of us and the real question is how much time and effort do we invest in our own personal development to develop our skills.

Good leadership includes being innovative, knowledgeable, taking initiatives and being a good communicator; but in addition it is having the ability to inspire others, involve others and be able to implement your vision. The most important quality is the ability to be true to yourself. You cannot fake inspiring and involving others, people are either engaged with your vision or they are not.

There are many theories on leadership from the “Great Man” theories, through to trait, behaviour, situational, participative, management and relationship theories to name a few of the classic works. In my view, it doesn’t matter what the theories say because it is about you, your style, your personality, your temperament, your attitude and your values. The functions of leadership include: setting objectives, planning, communicating, organising, reviewing, challenging and direction setting and only you know how well you perform in each of these areas. You may argue that this is the same list for managers, so what is the difference?

From a business perspective leaders lead growth and managers manage operations, a more insightful comparison is from a people’s perspective: management is achieving through others, whereas leadership is shaping and directing the behaviours of others. Leaders influence attitudes, skills, knowledge by which people translate their activity into mutually desirable goals.

It is the qualities of leadership that puts it into context. The essential qualities include:

  • Courage -Not being afraid to challenge or to be different. Being confident in the risk of your decision.
  • Integrity – Conveying a sense of standard and values that you adhere to, it is important that people can trust you and they can only trust you if they know what you stand for.
  • Enthusiasm -Would you follow anyone who lacks enthusiasm? Do I really need to elaborate?
  • Warmth – A warm personality is infectious and engaging; a cold and unapproachable person is generally not appreciated. In fact the intentions of anyone who does not display a warm and welcoming personality often find their intentions are misinterpreted.
  • Calmness – It is very important to be able to instil a sense of authority and knowledge. This is what people want when the pressure is on.
  • Tough/firm – A fine balance of being focussed on the vision and steering everyone towards it without being too autocratic or too laissez-faire. It is knowing where you need to be on a sliding scale between these two extremes that is appropriate for a given situation.

People welcome leaders who inspire confidence, are worthy of their trust, competent and forward looking. In addition, businesses welcome potential leaders in the making who display business competence, strategic thinking, influential communication, competent project and risk management, people and stakeholder engagement skills and above all else, a safe pair of hands into which they can trust the company growth.

To succeed as good leader you do need to be quite adept at being able to deliver on projects with fewer resources while balancing the team’s needs and developing their skills with their own project responsibilities, as well as being able to keep yourself up-to-date on industry advances and develop yourself personally and professionally. A good leader will have competent skills in the following areas:

  • Financial management and planning
  • Negotiation and Influence
  • Strategy and Vision
  • Communication and Presentation
  • Personal Effectiveness
  • People and Team Management

By assessing your own skills against the above list, can you identify where you need to focus your development?

This is a question only you can answer. But remember there is not one type of leader but many. We all have the essential qualities of a good leader, should we choose to display them and we can all develop the skills to be a good leader, should we choose to do so.

Why your Boss is Programmed to be a Dictator

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This is a brilliant book, which applies Systems Thinking to boss behaviour, written by Chetan Dhruve.

I found this book an excellent read explaining how bosses do not set out to be dictators. The author is certainly not analysing bosses’ behaviours, instead he explores how the systems in place influence bosses to behave in the way they do. I challenge you not to find any similarities with at least one of the case studies in this book with what you have experienced in your workplace.

Two particular studies that grabbed my attention were the Stanford Prison Experiment (I am not going to spoil a good read) and the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.

The details of the Challenger disaster is well documented and relates to the “O ring” failing to seal a gap at very low temperature, thus allowing hot gases to escape. This was the technical reason, but there was a people reason as well, which is explained eloquently in this book detailing what happened to all the parties involved. Everyone involved had a story, and everyone’s story was the truth. The root cause of the problem is traced back to the engineer’s advice not supporting the instructions imposed on the directors from above. If the engineer’s advice was taken then the management would fail to meet their targets and heads would roll big time. (If they had taken the engineer’s advice, maybe the disaster would have been avoided!)

I have seen similar situations arise many times in many organisations where in response to a problem the solution appears too difficult to implement, only because the solution does not alleviate other pressures influencing the project. The real problem is that everyone is trying to resolve the problem from a different perspective; everyone has a different priority ranking on the key project success indicators influenced by their own fear of the potential consequences. The fear of the potential consequences is very real, and amongst other things it can be the cause of stress in the workplace, exacerbated by the breakdown in communication and understanding of the perspective of all parties involved.

So a message to all you would-be bosses out there, don’t be dictated by a system, look at your own behaviours and the consequence it is having on the work environment of your staff.

You can start by seeking feedback from those you do not report to directly or indirectly. Secondly, encourage your staff to evaluate your performance. Thirdly, look in the mirror and ask yourself what you would really like to change in the way you respond to pressures in the work place.

All feedback should be received as a gift. Welcome it, reflect upon it, and positively act upon it.

 

 

If you would like to share your answer with me, or know more about me and the work I now do, please send us an email at info@kaurvalues.com

Do you have what it takes to be a Manager Whisperer?

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What do the dog whisperer, the horse whisperer and the ghost whisperer all have in common?

They all communicate in a language that is understood by the recipient they are communicating to.  (Ok so the last one is a TV drama, but the concept is the same).

What is the biggest problem in any organisation?

COMMUNICATION!

Can you see where I am going with this?

I am seriously thinking there is a market for a Manager Whisperer. No matter how people behave, as soon as they are in management there seems to be a communication problem between them and those they manage and vice a versa.

Everyone blames everything that is going wrong on communication (when they are not blaming the managers). Communication takes many forms, but as a Manager Whisperer you will need to understand how to listen.

Here are three critical skills you need to master if you want to be a successful Manager Whisperer.

  1. Empty mind listening – I know it sounds obvious, but listening to what is being said and ignoring the inner chatter in your head as you digest what is being communicated is quite a skill to master. Listening is not the same as hearing. Listening is a skill to receive what is being communicated without judgement, assumptions or analysis where as hearing is a function. So often we start to mentally think about what is being heard before we have finished hearing and therefore potentially miss vital elements of the communication.
  2. Effective verbal listening – Understand the tones, tempo and emphasis on the words. Often people leave half sentences hanging in the air as they assume that the tone they used has conveyed what they want to. It is equally important to listen to the tempo and what word(s) is/are being emphasised in a statement, as it can change the meaning of the sentence totally. For example look at the following sentences where the emphasis is on the word in bold italics.

      I did not say I wanted a report

    I did not say I wanted a report

    I did not say I wanted a report

    I did not say I wanted a report

    I did not say I wanted a report

    I did not say I wanted a report

    I did not say I wanted a report

    I did not say I wanted a report

  3. Effective non-verbal listening – Understand the expressions, body language, eyes. This is a big giveaway as to what the speaker understands and what they expect from you. Are they thinking as they speak? Are they dismissing the communication as an instruction from above? Are they aligned with the verbal communication? Experts always quote that non-verbal communication has the biggest impact on what you understand, whether consciously or subconsciously.

The easiest way to check how well you are mastering these 3 skills, is to give feedback on what you think you have understood by ensuring you are using the same vocabulary in the same context.

Communication is a two way process and any language is open to misinterpretation and ambiguity, never mind the gross misuse and misunderstanding of words and their meanings.

If you are not thinking of becoming a Manager Whisperer, but merely want to improve communications, the key is to develop a better rapport by practising the same skills as a “would be” Manager Whisperer. Communication is better understood the more you understand the individual. A big picture thinker often switches off if you spend too long in the detail before getting to the important message, likewise a detailed person may not understand what is required if you are talking in half sentences and half questions or vague details.

If you recognise your own speaking and listening style and that also of the person you are communicating with, then you have what it takes to be a Manager Whisperer.