I’m often asked, “Martha, are leaders born or made?” If you’ve been following my BLOG posts, you know that I firmly believe leaders are made and only after certain key competencies have been identified, harnessed, nurtured and developed. As you look at yourself, your organization, and your team you may wonder, “Do I have the right stuff to lead?”, especially during this time. The reality is getting this right can drive your organization to new heights.
So, what does it take? What makes up the leadership competency “secret sauce”? Before I dive into what I believe are the five key assets, I want to emphasize that the most powerful way you (or anyone) can grow as a leader is to become self-aware. Ask yourself: Are you able to cultivate a sense of who you are? How do you show up? And what motivates you?
Essential Leadership Competencies
- Selection and Hiring Practices: You are a reflection of who you spend your time with, but you don’t want to always hire in your likeness! Surround yourself with a diverse team (that are complementary to one another). Selecting the right people for your team can make or break you as a leader.
- Listen! To be truly self-aware — to truly grow a team — you must listen. Turn off your pre-existing notions and watch/listen for the messages your team is giving you. Your ability to read their verbal and nonverbal messages and respond to them appropriately impacts your leader effectiveness. Communicate the way they want to be communicated with. They will listen and respond more quickly.
- Execution: Very simply, do you know how to get things done through others? Delegating crystal clear expectations to your team enables execution. Both effective delegation and holding people accountable are essential to your success and their success.
- Positivity people! No one wants to be around Negative Nelly or Power-Hungry Pete. You might get things done quicker with a top down approach, but the long-term productivity and happiness of your team may be compromised. The way to ensure engagement is to energize and motivate your team to perform their best. Also, celebrating the wins of your team members is as essential as acknowledging the losses.
- Leveraging Strengths — Look at your team. Look at your organization. Do you know what everyone’s strengths are…what about their areas for growth? Are you leveraging their strengths? Doing so enables the highest performance out of everyone (including yourself).
For the month of May, we’ll be diving into these five key leadership ingredients to your secret sauce to success. Success now during the pandemic as well as into the future. Enabling you to achieve your number one goal is my priority!
I can help you become the leader you aspire to be! Set up a time to have a strategic consultation with me.