Successful organizational leadership in 2019 will require a mastery of skills: leadership skills, management skills and people skills. Some of these are developed early in a leader’s career, and others take time and experience. Have you mastered all three?
Simply knowing the theory isn’t enough to be successful. I wrote about this in my previous post. Successful leadership requires an expanding of perspective and mastery skills, all aimed at bringing out the best in everyone.
Master Your Leadership Skill Set
Leaders are the vision setters. They assess the business climate, see opportunities and chart the course. Leaders analyze trends, capabilities, resources, competition and markets. Making sense of all this input and fashioning it into an achievable plan is at the heart of leadership skills.
Skillful leaders create a diverse, yet cohesive leadership group of individuals who can collaborate and synergistically refine the vision. Ideally, the vision points the way to security and offers direction, affirmation and prosperity. Once a vision is agreed upon, the leader engages the organization. A part of your leadership skill set is selling your vision.
Selling a vision requires corporate communication skills that stir passion and inspiration in others. It requires an understanding of the needs of all stakeholders, from employees to board members. Skillful leaders tap imaginations, trigger feelings and link to benefits. It takes care and skill to properly deliver a message that conveys this.
Master Your Management Skill Set
Mastering your management skill set is necessary to take your vision to the next phase: action. Vision implementation requires significant planning and coordinating. During implementation, leaders continue to employ their leadership skills of inspiration and selling, but that skill set now shares the stage with management skills.
Managing a vision project gets into the finer details, where action plans, schedules and goals are needed. Specific skills are required to coordinate the many facets of a vision project. Delegation is required to cover all the bases. Many things need monitoring including deadlines, budgets, manpower and the problems that spring up.
Problem-solving is a valuable management skill and can keep a project on track. Issues continue throughout a vision-implementing journey, requiring a leader skillful with mitigation. This includes the wisdom to bring in the appropriate resources.
Another management skill that makes vision implementation successful is the ability to assess progress. This requires perspective, strong analysis skills and insight. Leaders with great management skills know how to make adjustments and keep their staff at peak performance, without losing interest or motivation.
Undergoing significant change while implementing a vision can sidetrack an organization from its everyday course of business. Leaders with strong management skills recognize this and account for it. They keep their hands on both steering wheels to ensure normal tasks are completed and customers are happy.
What do you think? Have you mastered your management skills? You can call me at 561-582-6060, let’s talk. And as always, I can be reached here, or on LinkedIn.
