Improving Your Leadership Skills
…the one thing to create a multiplier effect for your leadership skills
There are a broad number of leadership skills that you are expected to have and to develop. However, this takes time and effort and you cannot develop these skills in a classroom. You have to develop them in real-time and quickly.
The “key leadership skills” that are commonly cited include: inspiring and motivating others, problem-solving, delivering results, good communication, driving innovation and strategy, providing direction and goals, developing others, internal and external relationship building….
So how can you develop these skills quickly and effectively, and in a way that leverages your experience and helps you to improve what you are doing?
Simple. Ask questions!
In a blog post by Johannes Bayer he looks at some of the key questions that you might ask for each of these key leadership skills. I have included his ideas here (thank you, Johannes!).
In a nutshell, the process is:
- Define the skill you want to improve
- Create a list of many questions you can use to demonstrate this skill
- Narrow the list down to a handful of key questions.
The questions should help you elicit ideas for yourself and from others to: generate and gain insights; to expand your thinking and that of others; to generate new ideas and thinking; to leverage your experience; to help you gain traction and overcome inertia; to challenge the status quo; and to learn.
For the key skill, you are looking to improve what are the top 3-5 questions from your list which will have the greatest effect for you and others?
Here are a few examples too of how this might look like
| To improve this skill | You may want to ask questions like these |
| Inspiring and motivating others |
|
| Problem-Solving |
|
| Delivering Results |
|
| Good Communication |
|
| Driving Innovation and Strategy |
|
| Providing Direction and Goals |
|
| Developing Others |
|
| Internal and External Relationship-Building |
|
Use this approach to help you develop your leadership skills. Even more importantly, share this approach with your peers and reports – a great leader helps others to surpass himself or herself. So what have you found of most value in this blog post? What will you do as a result? Share this here and we can learn from each other!
To view or download a PDF version of this blog click here.
Share your thoughts and ideas here, or email me at [email protected]
If you found this article of use or interest please don’t hesitate to share it with others.
Click here to find out more about Andrew Cooke and Growth & Profit Solutions.