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How To Develop Your Leadership Skills: A Guide For Individuals

This is a resource for individuals who wish to develop their leadership skills.

Much of the university material on leadership development focuses on the organization—what the human resource manager should do, the succession plan, the responsibilities of the CEO, etc.

But there's a vast number of people stuck in organizations without formal leadership development programs. When these individuals ask for leadership programs, they must overcome a long list of mind numing rationalizations such as, "There's no budget," "We don't have the time," and my favorite, "What's the ROI on leadership development?"

This knol is for those who wish to develop themselves as leaders, but lack organizational leadership development support. It's dedicated to the self-starter, the self-disciplined, the self-motivated, and the self-reliant.

Are Leaders Born or Made?

If you are thinking about becoming a great leader, this is a critical question—one that demands an answer. It's actually a trick question, something known in persuasive circles as a false dichotomy. It's false because genetics and environment both play a part in the expression of leadership. However, the relative contribution of each is subject to much scientific debate. 

For example, intelligence (IQ) plays a part, as does emotional intelligence. Certain personality traits such as self-confidence, dominance and extroversion also play an important role. Our family often influences us, as does our national and organizational culture. Sadly, some may have the potential to lead, but were never given the opportunity. And tragically, some believe they cannot lead, when they could have. 

However, most leaders would no doubt agree with the words of the great American football coach Vince Lombardi who said, "Contrary to the opinion of many, leaders are not born. Leaders are made, and they are made by effort and hard work." 


Elizabeth 1, Queen of England

Barriers To Leadership Development

Leadership is a complex skill—requiring as it does keen psychological insight into the mind, behaviors both rationale and irrational, beliefs, attitudes, values, emotions, human motivation, communication skills, and so on. It's surprisingly difficult to develop into an influential and wise leader. Reasons for this include both organizational factors beyond our control, and individual factors which we can control. Some of these factors are listed below.

Organizational Barrier 1: Lack of Leadership Development Programs

Unless you happen to belong to one of the best corporations in the world or are a member of the military, there just is not that much organizational support for leadership development (see below). 

Organizational Barrier 2: Lack of University Leadership Courses

Leadership development, when is it studied at all in the university, is commonly included in the business school curriculum, often included almost as an after thought somewhere in a management or organizational development course. Not only are business students short changed, but the vast majority of university students in the sciences and humanities have no exposure to leadership theory. 

Organizational Barrier 3: Faulty Training Methodologies

Even in organizations that offer seminars and courses to the employees, the leadership development methodology is often wrong—one receives training without development. Performing an exercise once in a class-room or listening to a speaker in a hotel conference room fails to address both the issue of knowledge retention and skill development.

Primary Individual Barrier: Ignorance In Its Various Forms

Primary Ignorance. The most obvious form of ignorance is simply not understanding or not knowing. We don't know; but we realize we dont' know we don't know. But there are two more suble forms of ignorance.
 
Partial Ignorance. The form involves a false assumption—that one understands something throughly when one does not. It's a common form of ignorance when it comes to leadership. Just because you took a course once (of which 90% is now forgotten), read two books years ago, or attended a 3-day executive seminar does not mean you understand leadership. 

The reality is, like in most fields of study, developing leadership expertise requires years of fairly consistent study and effort. Unfortunately, one sees this form of ignorance in some MBAs -- they think know, but they don't know. And because they don't know, their careers careen to a halt when a lack of people skills prevent further advancement.  
 
Delusion. The final form of ignorance is more subtle still, what the psychologists call delusion. According to Wordnet lexical database at Princeton, it is, "An erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary."

To site one example, here is a fairly common leadership question followed by a typically wrong answer. The question goes, "What is better, to be respected or liked?" The answer commonly heard is, "To be respected." However, psychological research has demonstrated the real answer is, "Its better to be liked."

Professional and social relationships are based on trust. And we don't trust people we don't like. In fact, we don't even respect someone we don't like. 

Delusions are especially insidious when the false belief becomes part of an political or business ideology accepted as fact by millions. For example, the belief in self-regulating financial markets is one type of economic ideology that contributed to the financial crisis.

Leadership Opportunities and Threats


The Great Recession Tests Leaders Inside Organizations—Will They Rise to the Occasion?

Any fool can run the ship when the seas are calm, but it takes a great captain to navigate the storm. — M. Johannsen

The financial crisis is as much a failure of leadership as it is a failure of management. Whether organizational leaders will rise to the challenge of dealing with this crisis is an open question. According to the 2009 study titled Leaders Without Sea Legs, leadership failure during a crisis occurs in a number of different ways. Four of the most obvious ones include: a failure to take operational control; mental rigidity preventing adaptation of new ideas and threatening innovation; an inability to handle the stress, manifesting itself as a lack of emotional stability; and a failure to communicate in a way that inspires hope and trust. One can tolerate this kind of incompetence in middle management. But if it exists at the c-level, the ship is likely to hit the reef and sink.

Corporations Desire Good Leaders But Don't Want to Pay for it

According to this 2008 study, seventy-five (75) percent of executives surveyed for the Global Leadership Forecast identified improving or leveraging leadership talent as a top business priority from among a list of 14 challenges. However, only 41% of managers surveyed were satisfied with their organizations leadership development programs, a decline of 12 percentage points in only two years. 

This suggests that in many organizations, you can expect little in the way of help to develop your leadership ability. Even for those who are on track for critical overseas assignments find that they are mostly on their own. This same report mentioned that only 29% of MNCs had processes in place for cross-border leadership.

Leadership Skills Are Important In Working Globally

For those looking at working globally, another 2008 study by DDI called Growing Global Executive Talent, offers a number of important insights into the types of leadership skills one should develop. Interestingly enough, the top two priorities were team motivation and cultural adaptability, while the least important were technical knowledge and making the numbers.

  1. Ability to motivate a team — 34.7%
  2. Works well across cultures — 33.5%
  3. Developing Talent — 25.7
  4. Can make tough decisions — 23.8%
  5. Ability to create a strategy — 23.1%
  6. Creativity or innovation — 22.8%
  7. Ability to execute a strategy — 21.6%
  8. Interpersonal Skills — 21.1%
  9. Integrity or ethics — 16%
  10. Technical Expertise — 11.2%
  11. Bring in the Numbers — 10.2%

Organizations Want to Hire Leaders

Business Week in September 2007, examined what traits or skills 95 great companies wanted to see in college graduates. This is what was listed:

 Desirable Traits or Skills     Number of Companies
        College Major                        22
        Leadership Skills                   19
        Analytical Skills                    18
        Communication Skills            23
        GPA                                     5
        Misc.                                    8

So while one's major (or technical skill) is still extremely important, a large number of the sample corporations also want new hires to have demonstrated leadership skills.

Leadership Failures Exist Even at the Entry Level

Unfortunately, many new hires lack even basic leadership and human relation skills. According to a September 2005 study by Leadership IQ, "46% of newly hired employees will fail within 18 months, while only 19% will achieve unequivocal success." Interestingly, it was not the technical skills which gave companies problems, it was basic human relations abilities, the kind associated with basic leadership skills. In this case, the top five problems were:
  • Coachability (26%): In this case, the ability to accept negative feedback.
  • Emotional Intelligence (23%): EQ typically includes self-awareness, self-regulation, achievement motivation, human relations and empathy.
  • Motivation (17%): The drive to excel or do the job well. Sometimes known as conscientiousness.
  • Temperament (15%): Here, one should posses both attitude and personality traits that match job requirements. 
  • Technical Competence (11%): Functional or technical skills required to do the job.

Developing Leadership Skills: 

The Legacee Skill Mastery Model

The journey of a thousand miles begins with the very first step.— Chinese proverb

Unless you have been blessed with having your own leadership coach or sports psychologist, the first step in individual leadership development is to understand how to build a skill. The model presented here for individual development is not the same as that used in organizational leadership development. This model stresses developing both mental and behavioral leadership skills in an easy to remember three-phase approach. 

Careful study is an important element of skill mastery

Phase 1: Learn Sound Theory

“Our greatest adversary is our own ignorance.”  

Your leadership development program is only as good as the theory behind it. In other words, before you practice, you must know and understand intellectually what has to be done. 

Good theory is relevant, practical, detailed and convertible into a behavior. It's important to understand that many commonly accepted leadership principles are very difficult to turn into actionable behavior. Take for example, "Treat people with respect." Nothing wrong with the principle, but respect is an abstract concept not easily turned into actions.

Phase 2: Skill Practice

“If you don't practice, you can fall down, but you can't ski.” 

Skills vary tremendously in terms of the amount of time and effort one must dedicate to practice. For example, learning a new language as an adult is extremely difficult; while for a three-year old its effortless. Mastering complex skills require a great deal of practice, sometimes hundreds or even thousands of hours. For example, great leaders are commonly persuasive speakers. But even those with great aptitude, blessed with a large dose of talent, need to practice many, many times to get really good. It's also good to keep in mind two more points.

Practice Requires Motivation
"Skill is nil without will.” — Judah ibn Tibbon, c. 1120-c.1190 Spanish physician and translator, A Father's Admonition to His Son
It is unrealistic to expect any teacher or coach to motivate you if you are apathetic or just plain lazy.The primary motivation for skill mastery has to come from the inside.  Still, smart individuals define positive and negative consequences for behaviors that hinder or accelerate leadership development. And will power is another key component to the motivational puzzle. Finally, great athletes talk about "psyching themselves up" by using self-talk and guided imagery to attain peak performance.

Practice Requires Feedback
"Feedback is the true breakfast of champions." —Unknown
While there are many different types of feedback, there are only two real means of receiving it: self-monitoring or getting feedback from others. Self-monitoring has some real advantages since it allows one to adjust in real time. However, few know how to monitor thoughts and behavior real time to make these type of adjustments.

Getting feedback from others can work. However, there are two major problems with this type of feedback. The first is that people self-censor—they often don't say anything if we do something wrong. Even if someone says something, individual Ego defense mechanisms often activate when experiencing negative feedback and that feedback is ignored or distorted.

Phase 3: Skill Mastery

“You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.” — Wayne Gretzky

Mastery is a special state of mind in which the skill largely runs in the unconscious. This frees up the conscious mind and the Ego to focus on other things. Sometimes called over learning, one experiences tremendous accuracy, precision and speed. In fact, if is the very speed of the action that prevents conscious thought. This can be seen in a number of sports such as basketball and soccer.

What's true for sports professionals is also true for more common skills such as typing or driving. It's rather disturbing to imagine that the next time you are on the eight-lane freeway, that the person on the right and the left, the one in the front and the one in the back, are all devoting very little thought or attention to driving. Yet, we almost always manage to get to our destination safely.

Examples of Mastery (Some world records and some unusual behaivors)

Michale Phelps, 7th Race , 2008 Beijing Olympics. What's fascinating about this race is how it was won at the very end.

Typing The Alphabet (in 1.72 seconds). Ok. This is a nice one to test for whether you are a novice or an expert typist. How quickly can you type 26 letters?

The Trampoline Jump. You need to watch it to the end to get a feel for the record that was broken.

Eat Drink, Man and Woman — Opening Scene. Watch a master chef preparing food. You will see many of the characteristics of mastery: speed, precision and a sense of the aesthetic. 

Good Books on Leadership: 

    1. Yukl, Gary (2006). Leadership in Organizations, 8th Edition. Prentice-Hall.
    2. Northhouse, Peter (2006). Leadership Theory and Practice, 4th Edition. Sage.
    3. Burns, George McGregor (1978) Leadership. Harper and Row.
    4. Kouses, James and Posner, Barry (2008). The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition. Josey-Bass.
    5. Goleman, Daniel (2004). Primal Leadership. Learning to Lead With Emotional Intelligence. Harvard Business School Press. 
 

Comments


swaroop

Good article

So much to learn in such a short article! The mention of self-talk really appealed to me. Can you tell me where can I find good articles on this topic?

Thanks,
Swaroop

Last edited Apr 22, 2009 2:22 AM
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mgrobertson1

A Comment on Physical Attractiveness

Physical attractiveness or physical ability is also a extremely beneficial aspect to leadership. A physically attractive leader will be more effective, as it ties into their likability (and if they have the intelligence to back it up). And, an athletic leader will be seen as more capable, even though his position does not require it. I witnessed this over my nine years in the military, and although it was preached to us that physical ability was not synonymous with leaderhship ability, I saw the extremely ignorant, athletic types constantly rated higher in their performance than others that were better leaders, but were not Olympiads.

Last edited Nov 18, 2008 10:41 AM
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