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True leadership requires more than just charismait requires being competent in addressing performance challenges and motivating others to do the same.
BEYOND CHARISMA:
I had known him for only a few minutes when Paul said to me, in so many words, Dude, you should join. Itll be great. He was organizing a risky venture and recruiting his team. Should I follow? He appeared to be a born leader: persuasive, condent, energetic, passionatein a word, charismatic. But the venture was risky, and I was hesitant.
Before returning to my decision, let me say that for card-carrying academics, its not always cool to embrace the
many lists of key success factors that leadership books and articles tend to offer. But that doesnt stop me from having my own list of leadership essentialsthe qualities that people want and, most importantly, need in their leaders. And they helped me decide whether or not to follow Paul.
In thinking about your own leadership development, may I suggest disregarding, for the moment, the usual interpersonal competencies and considering these performance-related components of leader competence: (1) having an action and performance orientation; (2) solving problems and seizing opportunities; and (3) developing in oneself and others the mindset and skills to demonstrate these competencies.
Leadership is, by denition, involving and motivating other people as well as oneself. Leader competence is about inspiring others to perform at high levels by solving problems and seizing opportunities.
Action and performance orientation
The need for an action and performance orientation may seem obvious, until you think about how many managers are too (choose one or more, or add your own) busy, distracted, passive, indecisive, risk-averse, maintenanceoriented, or laissez-faire in their approach. It is worth assessing yourself in these terms, including asking and answering the tough question of how others see you in these regards. Even if you are action-oriented, are you taking action on the right things the most important performance challenges that require your leadership? When you do take action, is your tendency to focus on: little challenges or big ones? personal challenges or those that could benefit others in your organization? challenges peripheral or central to the core mission of your company? problems to be fixed, while letting important opportunities pass by? every new and fleeting opportunity, while important problems fester and grow?
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DEVELOPMENt //
Solving problems and seizing opportunities
Of course, successfully meeting a performance challenge depends on how it is tackled. This is a complex topic, but we would all make great progress if we and our leaders just went back to the basics and executed the steps of a model that can be found in most management textbooksthe phase model of problem solving, perhaps best known among systems engineers. To execute the model identify the performance challenge that requires action determine your goals generate multiple options forecast their possible outcomes make your decision plan and implement monitor and adapt as needed. A few readers will find this model to be very familiar. Some will have vague recollections of memorizing the steps in school. Some will think that they routinely do these things. But the more you think about it, I suspect that you will realize that you actually dont, at least not as often or as thoroughly as you should for important performance challenges. If you stick to the belief that you really do these things when necessary, and claim that you do them objectively and without bias, I bet youll at least realize this: Many, many leaders dont. And if they did, they would be a lot more competent and deliver far better results. losing sight of your goals evaluating on short-term, but not long-term, bases inadequately planning implementation, assuming it will go smoothly, and failing to create or execute contingency plans. who people turn to for advice and help when they face difficult challenges. Train and develop others via workshops, case studies, and challenges that stretch people, both on and off the job. Although these are standard learning and development (and cultureinducing) recommendations, its the contenttrue leader competencethat differs from standard practice.
My inventory of what people want in their leaders has just three elements: charisma, character, and competence.
The opposite of self-sabotaging is achieving self-command. This means, in terms of the competently solving important performance challenges, such things as spotting and acting on important problems and opportunities, rather than letting them slip past pursuing the right goals maintaining proper goal focus assessing both pros and cons for both short term and long term planning well, including making contingency plans. Leadership is, by definition, involving and motivating other people as well as oneself. Leader competence is about inspiring others to perform at high levels by solving problems and seizing opportunities, within appropriate boundaries. You can spread the competence and embed it in the culture by modeling this type of competence yourself and clarifying the boundariesstrategic, ethical, cultural, and perhaps othersover which people should not stray. You also can bring in new people based in part on their track records of solving problems solved, identifying and realizing opportunities, and their current progress on major performance challenges. Identify your best current contributors via nominations, relevant performance appraisal criteria, data and critical incidents, and observe
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