Leadership - Is it Charisma or a Learnable Skill Set?

There is no doubt that in this media driven age that leadership can sometimes be mixed up with charisma. We tend to judge a politician’s leadership skills by how they appear on TV rather than actual policies or actions. Therefore those who may not feel particularly charismatic can begin to doubt their leadership aspirations.

The truth is of course that the foundation for leadership is based first on real knowledge of the business or profession in which we seek to lead others and secondly a desire to accept the responsibilities of leading others.

As for providing leadership – it is not about charisma but rather a series of learnable skills. Indeed experience with coaching many business leaders and empirical research shows that there five key skills that lead to the development of lasting leadership qualities.

Good leaders exhibit strong characters

Of crucial importance to your team is their individual importance to you and your attitude to developing and testing their skills. In short they are asking you to create challenges and opportunities for them as well as providing useful critiques of their work. Indeed it is all about helping them to perform by improving either the environment, systems or strategies of the team overall.

This is where character rather than charisma becomes very clear. Your team will judge you not on a wonderful speech - but rather on your everyday performance and the example you set for them. If you are transparent, treat others with respect, constantly search for improvement from yourself and your team, are passionate about your clients and your team – then you will be leading by example - delivering what you are asking them to deliver.

Relationship Building

Here you need to work with individuals and your team as a whole. Communication is a must. Issues such as how their team performance contributes to the company overall should be understood by the team as a whole. You should be seeking ideas from the them and when relevant using them. Giving credit to the team or team member who thought up the idea is critical. Be quick to let incompetent people go if you are satisfied that it is their incompetence not that of the team or the company which is at fault. The old saying about bad apples in barrels is quite true. Don’t be seen to reward incompetence. Look for ways to celebrate with your team – rather than with individuals. At the end of the day – it is the team that you want to deliver. Lastly be accessible I know one senior chairman in the communication industry who always tried to answer his own phone. Rather than be inundated by trivia his team appreciated his availability and used it wisely.

Leading Change

If it’s not broke don’t fix it is in many cases a truism of business. However if it is ‘broke’ then it is time to demonstrate your leadership by looking to change the way your company or your team does business. Chances are your team will feel threatened by the difficult operating climate and even more threatened when you set out to make changes. It is therefore critical to set out clearly why changes are required and co-opt the support of the team to implement them. Your relationship with the team will now be critical. Set objectives involve the team in your strategies and keep them abreast of the success resulting from change.

Focus on results

Ultimately good leadership is judged by positive results. And if you are to accept the accolades and rewards for good leadership then you must realise that your individual performance is a key ingredient of leadership. Here are a few questions you should be asking yourself on a regular basis:

 What stretch goals need to be set for my company, my team and for me?
 Do I constantly focus on the goals we set or do I drift off and think only of today’s operational jobs?
 Do I give feedback to my team on their performance?
 Have I provided a clears vision for my team?
 Do I give strong consideration to the needs of my clients with appropriate customer service standards?
 How can I improve?

Personal Skills

Jack Nicklaus once said that many golfers failed because they tried shots that they were not capable of completing successfully. He was saying that we need to understand our level of skill and then if we want to improve – set about improving those skills.

Just as leading sports stars have to constantly set new goals and develop new skills via coaching, applying psychology, constant practise – so too, today’s business leaders need to constantly improve.

You should consider attending professional workshops, reading journals in your industry and associated industries, seek business coaching and mentoring and learn to use technology more effectively.

Seek inspiration from those around you. Talk to your coach about setting personal goals, talk to and copy other leaders or people you respect. Most of all accept that the hardest person to change is ourselves. Many who are happy to change others do not like change being instituted in relation to their own roles. So accept the challenge of change and consider:

 New ways to improve productivity
 New approaches to client service and marketing
 New systems and tools
 New ways to train and develop your team.

In short, step outside your comfort zone. With each step you will grow as a leader.

Be an effective leader

We began by suggesting that charisma is often confused with leadership. It is true that many great leaders have charisma. Some leaders are shaped by circumstances such as a family with a history of leaders in business or the services. However for 95% of current and future leaders the areas we have outlined make up a manual for learning great leadership skills.

This article is really about improving your game. Lifting your skills so that you will be a better leader capable of helping others also improve both as an individuals and team members.

Why not make “being a better leader” your objective for 2007.