Ten Critical Competencies for Leaders
To handle yourself use your head; to handle others use your heart.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Great leaders share many common traits. Though the workplace leadership criteria can vary from company to company, most effective leaders exemplify certain skills. By developing these skills, you can take your leadership abilities to the next level.
Develop the important traits necessary to become a great leader:
Self-motivated: As a leader, it’s crucial to motivate yourself to move forward toward your personal or team goals. Leaders are driven to get things done and lead their teams to do the same. However, you can’t lead others if you don’t first master how to lead yourself. Ensuring that you are motivated to give your best is the first step to being able to ask that your team does the same.
The ability to delegate: You can’t do it all yourself. The most effective leaders surround themselves with skilled people, define their responsibilities, and get out of the way. A single person is quite limited, but many hands can get a lot done. Learn how to share your workload.
Communicate effectively: You might have a clear picture in your mind of what you’d like to happen. Unfortunately, no one can read your mind. A leader is responsible for sharing their vision and making their desires known.
People can give you what you want when you communicate clearly what needs to be done.
Provide status updates and keep everyone on the same page. Employees lose motivation when they don’t understand the current situation fully.
Develop others: Being a leader isn’t just about utilizing others to reach your goals. It’s also important to develop those around you. From a more selfish perspective, the more skilled your employees are, the more they can assist you and the company. Share your expertise and help everyone around you to grow. However, as a servant leader developing future leaders is what it’s all about because that is truly how you shine as a leader.
Be committed: You can’t expect greater commitment than you’re willing to provide. A leader sets the ceiling. Everyone else settles in somewhere below that point. Set the ceiling high and set the example of what genuine commitment is.
Inspire others: A great leader knows how to inspire others to do their best work. It’s not always easy to inspire those content to show up daily and collect a paycheck, but it’s possible. Show your motivation and commitment. It will make a positive difference. The key is discovering what intrinsically motivates each of your employees. Trying a one size fits all approach here will fail. You have to get to know your people and what drives them to do what they do.
Have a clear focus: If you don’t know what you want, your team won’t know either. Leaders who are clear on their vision and readily share it with others drive the best results. A clear vision serves as a roadmap that aligns everyone around the common goal. Employees can easily ask themselves if their actions contribute to attaining the team’s objective once they have a clear roadmap. Know your focus and communicate it effectively.
Show respect: Treat everyone fairly and avoid playing favorites. Everyone is worthy of a basic level of respect. Ensure that you’re giving it. Great leaders lead with compassion and realize that we are all human. By showing their vulnerability, they create safe spaces for others to do the same. Creating a respectful environment will free people up to be open with each other and will lead to greater connection, more innovation, and lots more success.
Confidence: It’s natural to be drawn to others with confidence. People who have confidence are viewed as more capable and trustworthy. When your confidence level is high, you can make decisions and support your team more easily. Be comfortable with your skills and your plan. A lack of self-confidence will limit the ability of others to trust your vision and judgment.
Decisiveness. Leaders make tough decisions fearlessly and take responsibility for the outcome. Walt Disney stated that making quick decisions is easy when you’re clear on your values. Let me add that it’s also easy when you are clear about your company’s values. If you can’t decide on a course of action, your leadership skills will be questioned. Practice by making small decisions quickly and following through on them. It gets easier with practice. You’ll be surprised by how much more you accomplish when can make a clear decision.
Leaders are necessary for any organization to run effectively. How you lead greatly impacts the people put in your charge. Being intentional about how you want to show up as a leader is important. By ensuring that you put the above competencies into practice, you’ll be well on your way to honing your leadership skills and positively impacting your people and your organization.
