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How Do You Acquire Leadership Skills? (Part I)

Leadership skills are a necessity – regardless of your role within the organization. And certainly they are a necessity if you are interested in moving up within your organization or in moving to another organization into a senior leadership role. Some people believe leaders are born with the skills necessary to be leaders and others believe that leaders can be developed. There is no scientific data that shows people are “born leaders” – though possibly there are individuals who have inherent skills for leadership – but undoubtedly those skills need to be cultivated. Either way – whether you believe leaders are born or made – those skills need to be fully developed to be successful and you need to work at being a good leader.

There are many skills that might be categorized as leadership skills. For example, the category leadership skills might include communication, negotiation, managing conflict, performance management, team leadership, strategic planning, etc. The list goes on and on!

Assuming you have a desire to be a leader, how do you go about acquiring new or enhancing current skills? Certainly, taking training seminar on that specific topic is an option. As with any education however, that is just a starting point! What other options exist to increase your knowledge and skills? Let’s explore a few.

Job shadowing

According to Wikipedia ‘….(T)he act of job shadowing is utilized by college students, sometimes within the terms of an internship, or by non-student adults simply wanting to experience a particular career opportunity.’

If you have the option to follow along with another individual who is in a leadership role within the organization, job shadowing is a good way to understand the requirements of the role. It also enables you to get a better understanding of the challenges the person in that role faces on a daily basis.

For one client, job shadowing was part of a mentoring program (mentoring/coaching discussed in Part II). The “leader in training” was assigned a mentor who, as part of the mentoring program, would help the mentee by allowing him/her to watch him work and assist as part of the learning experience. This included participating in meetings, assisting in interviews of new hires, and participating in strategic planning sessions.

Reading books (self-learning)

There are numerous resources to understand what is expected of leaders within an organization and how to be a successful leader. For example, some resources include:

Obviously, there are many others! Please add to the list if you have other such books you would recommend (add to Comments field below).

Another option may be to read biographies on individuals who are considered, generally, to be excellent leaders – such as Jack Welch, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, Henry Ford, Martin Luther King, and Sam Walton – to name just a few! You may or may not agree with their accomplishments, but there is something about them that attracts people to follow their lead. What makes them “good leaders?” What attributes do they have? What behaviors do they display?

However, reading alone does not provide you with enough skills and knowledge to ensure success as a leader. Combine this option with other options, such as obtaining a mentor or taking classes, to ensure that you have a better idea on how to put to work what you are reading in the various leadership books.

Think about some of the organizations where you have worked: who, in your opinion, was a good leader, and why? And who would you consider not a good leader, and why? Please share your thoughts/stories in the Comments field below.

Online resources/blogs/portals/newsletters

There are numerous online resources such as blogs, portals and newsletters to subscribe to written by experts in various fields. For example, Great Leadership blog covers general leadership information; Germane Insights blog covers leadership through the art and science of psychology and has some great articles focused on women in leadership roles; Center for Creative Leadership Leading Effectively newsletter offers an online newsletter on leading effectively; and Linked 2 Leadership offers numerous management and leadership topics. These are a few sources to get you started. Search on the Web for other sources in leadership. Do you know of others that are worthwhile? Please share in the Comments field below.

As with the Reading books option above, online resources should not be considered the only way to increase your skills and knowledge in leadership. Be careful about your selections for information – there are tons of resources on the Internet and not all are valid. Online blogs also offer you the opportunity to share your thoughts with others through Comments and make valuable connections.

Online sources are a great way to keep up to date with current trends/topics in the leadership field.

Next up: We continue with Options for Acquiring Leadership Skills: Part II