Are you leading, or managing? Daniel Taylor explores the many skills needed for effective leadership
Before I start this blog, take a moment to consider what you think are the skills needed to be an effective leader? Stop when you get to 15!
I recently delivered leadership development to a group of future leaders at a University and challenged them with this very question and when I set it, it didn’t feel like a particularly broad question as I wanted them to focus on the “effective” skills.
Storytelling is something that I rarely see in leadership development programmes
So what did they capture? Communication skills? Influencing people? Strategic mindset? The answer is yes, but also so many other skills, in fact the list that they captured was huge. Just check it out.
I recently posted a video from Karen Brady on The Diary of a CEO where she highlights that managers are there to set goals and ensure these are achieved. She continued that a leader sets a vision and ensures those around them understand it, as they may only be the one who really understands it, initially. This is a skill in its own right and can be termed as storytelling. This is something that I rarely see in leadership development programmes, yet connecting with the people around you is so important for you to achieve that vision.
Leadership overwhelm
This made me reflect that it’s no wonder that new leaders can feel overwhelmed about where to focus their development with so many responsibilities and things that need to be developed and that’s before you even consider the day job. Just pick up a leadership development programme overview and see everything that is covered, or select you favourite leadership text with its list of 101 skills that you might need.
This also highlights the challenges with leadership programmes and development sessions once someone is a leader. These programmes can try to support someone, but many off the shelf programmes are very broad and may not deal with the particular issues someone is facing.
On your marks
So where does a new leader start? My thought was to start with an audit on what you are doing. If those tasks really fell into the world of management, then you are in trouble. It’s important to work this through with your learning support so they can challenge some of the tasks and responsibilities to help free up the leader.
They might also benefit from a coach, someone to work with you one on one, to help you focus and achieve that vision for your organisation. What do you think? Let me know on LinkedIn.
Daniel Taylor is Learning and Skills Development Manager at the National Lottery Heritage Fund and a Coach / Facilitator at Daniel Taylor L&D
