COMPETENCIES EVERY GOOD LEADER MUST MASTER (MANAGEMENT)

Leadership competencies in many different areas are salient in order to effectively influence the behaviors of others – and ultimately achieve desired results.

Competency is defined as “the quality of being competent; adequacy; possession of required skill, knowledge, qualification, or capacity.”

Some competencies come naturally for people while others need to be learned and practiced.

 Common Leadership Competencies:

1. Supervising Others

Managing others can be a challenge for the new supervisor who has not had management experience. Training new managers on what to do, as well as what not to do, can help to minimize issues related to supervising others.

2. Conflict Resolution

Conflict in the workplace is an inevitable reality. It is important to manage this conflict because it can affect relationships between people and groups of people – which can have a major impact on organizational culture and worker productivity.

Leaders should be able to manage conflict and create win-win situations for those involved. This can be done by identifying the source of conflict and working with both parties to negotiate and collaborate to resolve issues.

3. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is defined as “the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.” Emotional intelligence is a skill that can be learned and is a mark of professional maturity.  It can take years to develop and a lifetime to master.

There is an ongoing debate as to whether EI is a natural or trained ability.  Regardless, it is an important leadership competency that every manager and supervisor needs to perfect.

4. Communication Skills

Managers need to have good written and verbal communication skills to effectively manage employees. Additionally, there needs to be a structured communication processes to filter information throughout the organization.

5. Manage Performance 

To effectively manage employees, managers need to understand the basics of managing performance. To do this successfully, managers need to do the following:

• Set clear expectations for job assignments.
• Write and monitor employee goals.
• Hold employees accountable for job responsibilities and achieving goals.
• Reward employees for doing a good job.
• Mentor, coach and discipline employees when necessary.

6. Team Building

 

Leaders need to be able to build strong teams that rally around the mission and vision of the organization. This necessitates managers to have basic team leader skills that help them develop teams, minimize team conflict and manage team dynamics.

7. Delegation

Anyone who has ever managed projects understands the importance of delegation. Delegating helps develop employees by gradually increasing job responsibilities and accountability. And, effective delegation is the result of forethought and strategy.

Successful delegation is knowing the people you work with and is an innate understanding of what others can do – if given the chance.

Learning to trust and develop others to perform tasks takes skill and practice. However, once learned it can be very liberating for a manager and allows them to perform higher level tasks.

8. Change Agent 

Organizations are being forced to make dramatic improvements to products and services, to not only compete, but to survive in today’s economy.

Progressive organizations understand that change is constant and that in order to move forward, there needs to be a continuous process of improving what, and how, work is done.

Consequently, leaders need to be the change agents and lead continual change initiatives.

9. Coaching

Being a good coach is one of the most rewarding aspects of managing others. Helping others build on their strengths and improve weaknesses is part of the professional development process.

10. Problem Solving

Managing people and processes requires problem solving skills. Problems could be with employees, work processes or related to product or service quality.

Managers must be able to identify problems, understand basic problem solving techniques and facilitate a process to solve problems and resolve issues within the work environment.

11. Motivating

Leaders need to understand what inspires and motivates their employees. There are many different motivation models that can be incorporated into a manager’s strategy for motivating employees.  And, it is important to remember that we are all motivated differently. The trick is to identify what motivates employees and develop systems and processes that support those motivators.

This is merely an example of a few leadership competencies.  Having the ability to identify specific competencies for your organization can help create a work environment that motivates, develops and manages employee performance.

YOU ARE A LEADER!!!