One cannot be effective as a leader with developing leadership skills. But one must know what to develop. The skill approach to leadership means one has to develop many different skills.

Leadership Skills: What to Develop

In the September 24th issue of Business Week, the magazine had listed 95 corporations as "Best Places to Launch a Career." Of these top 95 companies, they also listed what skills and traits employers are selecting for (see below).

Desirable Traits or Skills	Number of Companies
College Major	22
Leadership Skills	19
Analytical Skills	18
Communication Skills	23
GPA	5
Misc.	8

What's interesting about the results, is that when one adds both leadership and communication skills together, you have over 45% of the total employers.

It's interesting to note that many employers are looking for leadership skills even in new hires strait out of college. Unfortunately, the top two skills are not classes or course of study most college students take.

 

 

What Are Leadership Skills?

These skills are different than those required to be a manager. Leadership and management are not the same. To be a leader, one needs an exclusive set of human relations and interpersonal skills. Tis essence is being able to influence.

To influence one needs a number of component skills. Some are fairly easy to development—others take a long time to protect. To get from A to B one can choose many different ways. for example one can ride a bicycle or ride a plane. One is easy to lear but not so fast. The other is fast but not easy to learn. For example, you can use your authority, it's quick. But leaning charisma take s more time but is more powerful.

 

Principle 1: Few Organizations Invest Enough Time or Money Building Leadership Skills

Leadership is needed at every level in the organization.

Many organizations are penny wise and pound foolish to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin. They are driven by short-term return on investment decisions, typically next quarters balance sheet and income statement. Therefore, anything that doesn't directly impact the numbers in the short-term is ignored.

There are a few exceptions. For example, organizations that must perform under stress such as the armed forces, have always known the importance of developing leadership skills. Similarly, nations in peace can be managed—in crisis they must be lead. Unfortunately, about one-third of the participants going through a leadership skills program consider it a waste of their time

 

Principle 2: I must Spend My Own Time and Money on Building Leadership Skills

One must face unpleasant facts—since one's organization is unlikely to provide much assistance, You will have to use personal resources

Principle 3: Leadership Skills Are Hard to Learn and Will Take a Long Time to Perfect

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. — Vidal Sassoon

Athletes know it takes years to get good enough to be called a professional. Consider developing leadership skills like growing a tree. Like a tree that adds new branches year after year, so we should keep adding new leadership skills.

There is a great deal of truth to the saying, "Good takes years— perfection decades.

Principle 4: I Must Figure Out What Leadership Skills to Build

One must first learn to walk, before one runs a marathon. — Anonymous

One can build traits, one can focus on leadership styles, one can have the right stuff, but without the right set of skills, nothing happens. There are many different skills one can build. Of these, communication skills and motivation ability are the most critical.

Principle 5: I Must Learn HOW to Building Leadership Skills

Surprisingly, not the many people know how to develop skills. But for some reason, most people assume that leadership skills can be mastered by attending seminars and reading books. That said, one can accelerate the process of learning leaderhip skills if one knows the secrets of skill development.

Leadership skill development is a big business. According to Training Magazine's October 2004 issue, 6.5 billion USD will be spent on the training of executives in 2004. Asia forms a part of the global executive education market that Business Week estimated to be worth US $662 million.

Great IT Leaders Have to be Made

There seems to be the perception that, "As long as tech organizations are profitable, there is no imperative to focus on leadership development." This, however, is a very short-term view.

Training directors, human resource managers, and the organization's executives all play important roles in human resource development. In fact, skills development has become an important priority for human resource managers. Two recent human resource surveys in the United States illustrate this:

HR.com presented a survey in October of 2004 that listed the top 25 skills development issues of human resource managers. Leadership development came in second, just behind performance management.

Leadership Skills and Competencies. The Office of Personal Managment (OPM) in the federal governement has defined 27 different competences essential to organizational success. These 27 skills are grouped into find ares:

• Leading Change
• Building Coalitions
• Business Acumen (Management ability)
• Results driven

Article: The Real Costs of Not Doing Leadership Training

Article: Leadership Skills Hold Britain Back

MindTools: Leadership Skills Page

Free Management Library: Suggested Leadership Skills