Leadership Competency Skills

In most of the organizations that I know, when a manager reaches his/her goal for the year, he/she is considered to be a good manager. There is always a question of, “Do we assess a person’s leadership only by the goals achieved or there are some other competency skills that we can assess ?

Leadership is “Acting in any way that defines, articulates, influences, and/or models the mission, vision, culture, values, or goals of an organization.” Using that definition, anyone can serve as a leader.

If you would like to be a leader in your organization, this week’s article is written to provide you with the competencies, tools, and development opportunities specific to leadership.

Leadership: Applies leadership competencies to successfully execute strategy.

VISIONING
A leader to take a long-term view and acts as a catalyst for organizational change; builds a shared vision with others; influences others to translate vision into action; creates a compelling and inspirational picture of the future

ACTS WITH INTEGRITY
He creates a culture that fosters high standards of ethics; behaves in a fair and ethical manner towards others; demonstrates high professional standards; handles confidential and sensitive information with integrity; viewed as highly trustworthy; stands up for what is right despite potential personal consequences; demonstrates consistency between words and actions; honors commitments to others

ACCOUNTABILITY
He holds self and others accountable for rules and responsibilities; can be relied upon to ensure that projects within areas of responsibility are completed in a timely manner and within budget; sets high standards for self and others; assigns clear accountability backed by appropriate authority

GETS RESULTS
He achieves strategic goals with the team members; delivers measurable results, on time and within budget; translates ideas into concrete actions; champions initiatives beyond the scope of one’s job; mobilizes resources and removes barriers for success; anticipates potential problems and develops contingency plans to overcome them; works across organizational boundaries, avoiding turf issues, and eliminating unnecessary work to achieve the desired results; concentrates on outcomes rather than activities

IDENTIFIES AND DEVELOPS TALENT
He develops leadership in others through coaching, mentoring, rewarding and guiding employees; develops successors and talent pools for key positions

TAKES INITIATIVE/RISK-TAKING
He creates a work environment that encourages creative thinking; designs and implements new or cutting-edge programs/processes; challenges the status quo; recognizes opportunities and takes action to achieve objectives; empowers others to take risks, supports them when things go wrong and encourages them to learn from set-backs and failures

CHANGE MANAGEMENT
He understands the process and issues inherent in change management and plans accordingly; instills confidence and trust in others; coordinates resources across departments/units; evaluates measures, project plans and deliverables for strategic alignment; acknowledges individual’s responses to change and helps them adjust; Adapts unit goals and work plans in response to internal and external forces that will impact the future effectiveness of the unit

THINKING SKILLS (ANALYTICAL, SYSTEMIC, CREATIVE)
He identifies and integrates the critical elements of a situation, making correct inferences from data; breaks complex problems into component parts and organizes the parts in a systematic way; uses innovation to develop novel solutions; can explain to others how to understand and approach complicated problems

Business Knowledge/Organizational Acumen: Applies resources, customer needs, and processes to make sound strategic and business decisions.

STRATEGIC THINKING AND PLANNING
He formulates effective strategies consistent with the business; sees the big picture and holds a long-term perspective; determines objectives and sets priorities; anticipates potential threats or opportunities; aligns organization and department to support organizational goals; drives the execution of strategic plans and monitors results

MANAGES RESOURCES (HUMAN, FINANCIAL, TECHNICAL)
He assesses current and future staffing needs based on organizational goals and budget realties; ensures staff are appropriately selected, developed, utilized, appraised and rewarded; readily shares resources to support organization initiatives; understands key financial indicators; uses cost-benefit thinking to set priorities; integrates technology into the workplace to improve effectiveness and efficiency; understands the impact of technological changes on the organization

PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE
He continually enhances knowledge and skills to keep abreast of industry changes, developments and emerging issues; understands what it takes to be successful in this business; has a thorough knowledge of organization’s mission, history, stakeholders and customers

PROBLEM SOLVING/DECISION MAKING
He develops new insights into situations and applies innovative solutions to make organizational improvements; exercises good judgment by making sound and well-informed decisions; is proactive; distinguishes between relevant and irrelevant information to make logical decisions; effectively analyzes potential for risk and acts decisively; makes breakthrough decisions based upon a mixture of analysis, wisdom, experience and judgment; solicits input from individuals who can add significant value to the decision-making process

Builds Relationships/Communication: Cultivates effective relationships to create a culture that supports the department's and organization's goals and strategy.

INFLUENCING SKILLS
He builds coalitions through give and take; gains cooperation from others to obtain information and accomplish goals; collaborates across boundaries; recognizes which battles are worth fighting for and when it is time to compromise; seeks to build internal and external partnerships to better accomplish goals; invites other points of view; anticipates the reactions and objections of others

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
He identifies and takes steps to prevent potential situations that could result in confrontations; manages and resolves conflicts and disagreements in a positive and constructive manner to minimize negative impacts

LEVERAGES DIVERSITY
He recruits, develops and retains a diverse high quality workforce; leads and manages an inclusive workplace that maximizes the talents of each person to achieve sound results; respects, understands, values and seeks out individual differences to achieve the vision and mission of the organization

TEAM BUILDING
He inspires and guides others toward goal accomplishments; consistently develops and sustains cooperative working relationships; fosters commitment, team spirit, pride and trust; shares leadership and helps the team become interdependent by facilitating participation and group interaction

TREATS OTHERS WITH RESPECT
He considers and responds appropriately to the needs, feelings and capabilities of different people in different situations; is tactful, compassionate and sensitive; challenges others' ideas without getting personal; follows through on commitments to others

PRESENTS IDEAS EFFECTIVELY
He makes clear and convincing presentations to individuals and groups; listens effectively and clarifies information as needed; shares relevant information and expectations openly, honestly and in a timely fashion; targets presentations to the needs and level of the audience; translates complex information into understandable, meaningful, relevant language



Self-Management and Development: On-going development of skills and competencies to lead the organization and its strategies.

TOLERANCE FOR AMBIGUITY
He takes changing priorities and new developments in stride, even in the face of ambiguity; leads with a clear sense of priorities in a climate of uncertainty and change

FLEXIBILITY
He is open to change and new information; adapts behavior and work methods in response to new information, technology, changing conditions or unexpected obstacles; adjusts rapidly to new situations warranting attention and resolution

SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND DEVELOPMENT
He recognizes own strengths and weaknesses; seeks feedback from others; extracts learning from failure

LEARNS CONTINUOUSLY
He pursues self-development and opportunities to master new knowledge; applies new knowledge; embraces new and diverse ideas; shares learning broadly

Conclusion

Leadership development is an ongoing process, one needs to set a benchmark against himself and allow him to work on areas that he needs to learn, unlearn and relearn. It is recommended that one begins to analyze, based on a rating of 1 to 10 ( 1 being the lowest, and 10 being the highest ), where is his competency level in each of the competency skills highlighted above. Wishing you all the best !