Leaders are driven by performance and success. Consequently, they strive for more, learn more, and achieve more. Their success potential will be limited, however, if they lack the core competencies.
There are plenty of leadership styles and traits that you can adapt to your personal vision. Regardless of our approach, we need to excel at certain foundational skills.
Why are these foundational skills so key to leadership?
The foundational skills in communication, relationships, and management help you create a peak-performing environment for your team. They help you be more proactive, decisive, and resilient to meet objectives and goals. The better you are at these areas - the easier everything else feels. You tackle challenges easier, find new ideas often, and have a team that effectively translates your vision into reality.
But knowing how to continue growing in these areas can be a bit tricky.
In many cases, an executive coach can help you enhance your skills in these core areas. They have the unique perspective to help you identify opportunities for growth, as well as the experience in methodologies to guide you to make big changes. And they offer support, insights, and trust in a safe space.
So what are these 5 foundational competencies for leaders?
- EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION. Being able to express yourself clearly and effectively. Understanding others and their needs. Coaches excel at helping you enhance this skill to better collaborate, lead, and influence others in your sphere.
- INTERPERSONAL AWARENESS. Being able to notice, interpret, and empathize with others. Using emotional intelligence to understand how others are possibly feeling, and using that information to guide effective communications and actions to make good business decisions. Coaches work with you to identify how you can practice awareness and utilize good communication skills in your relationships.
- DECISIVENESS. Being able to make good decisions quickly without being stubborn. Coaches help you learn how to confidently weigh options, absorb the right information quickly, and make good decisions for your business. They also help you build resilience and adaptability, understanding that information and situations change which means your decisions may change too.
- CONFLICT RESOLUTION. Being able to effectively navigate and resolve conflict. A coach can help you learn how to produce win-win scenarios. Even further, they can help you recognize conflict triggers and work on resolving conflict before it even starts.
- INFLUENCE. Being able to lead a group of people who feel confident and capable. Have them trust your decisions and follow your lead. A coach can help you better communicate your vision or goals, align people and their efforts for effectiveness, and influence how things get done in desirable outcomes.
Conclusion
When you’re thinking about your current levels in these five areas, remember that they should be continuously improved upon. To be an effective leader you should continue to develop, adapt, grow, and strengthen in these foundational competencies. And remember that the journey is never linier - often times as you enhance one area you’ll find new opportunities for growth in another. With these five leader competencies at the core of your leadership, you can reach levels of success you never knew was possible.