Leadership is about making happen something that both yourself and others find important. It is about getting from where you and your organization is right now to someplace better you both want to be. To do that you have to get good at discovering where everyone is right now and where you all want to go together.
You have to coordinate shared agreement about what you plan to achieve but also about exactly where you are right now and what is important about where you are going and how you will get there. To be a good leader you need to learn to be great at evoking responses from yourself and other people. This is more than traditional communication skills, it is tracking everyone’s thinking and emotional reactions as well and being able to use those to get the responses you need.
Learn how to ask the types of questions that will help people discover the details of this process. You need a procedure for determining exactly what success will look like and how you will recognize success when you achieve it. You need skills to align people’s thinking and actions so that they work in a coordinated way rather than at cross purposes to one another.
You need the ability to ferret out what makes people think and act the way that they do so that you can predict how to best use them and work with them in a synergistic way that brings out their excitement and engages them in the collaborative work you need performed.
Leadership is about getting from where you are now to a better place by coordinating a like-minded group of specialists. You can learn this.
The first skill set that must be mastered is the capability to define the current state of affairs and compare them to a description of a desired state. And learning to make your goals a reality always starts with you proactively deciding on what you want for your team that will make a noticeable difference.
The better you are at envisioning and articulating a future that appeals to the values you and your bosses hold the more people will want to align with you and follow your lead.
These are the Leadership Skills I am thinking about this week. If you feel ready to take the leading role, let’s talk about sharpening your skills in these areas. Drop me a comment, or give me a ring: 512-512-5464
