SELF MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES
People develop more effective ways to manage themselves – their thoughts, emotions, attitudes, and actions – over time.
The capacity for self-management enables leaders to develop positive and trusting relationships and to take initiative – important aspects of roles that help people work together in productive and meaningful ways
Self-management capabilities include -
A. Self-awareness
B. The ability to balance conflicting demands
C. The ability to learn
D. Leadership values
Self-Awareness
A key aspect of understanding oneself is having awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses
1) What one does well and not so well
2) What one is comfortable with and uncomfortable with
3) Which situations bring out one’s personal best and which are difficult to handle
4) When one has a wealth of experience/expertise to draw on and when one had better look for expertise elsewhere
But self-awareness also means that people must understand why they are the way they are –
· What traits, learned preferences, experiences, or situational factors have shaped their profile of strengths and weakness?
Self-awareness means understanding the impact their strengths and weaknesses have on others, on their effectiveness in various life roles, and on reaching their goals
Ability to Balance Conflicting Demands
In organizational life, people encounter conflicting demands. For instance,
1) Boss and subordinate may have different priorities
2) Internal systems may not match external clients’ needs
3) Joint demand of personal and work life may cause stress
People must learn not to let the conflicts paralyze or overwhelm them.
People must learn to understand the natural roots of the conflict
People must learn to develop strategies for balancing or integrating them
Ability to Learn
When we say someone has the ability o learn, we mean that the person recognizes when new behaviors, skills, or attitudes are call for, accepts responsibility for his or her own development, understands and acknowledges current personal strengths, and weaknesses, engages in activities that provide opportunities to learn or test new skills and behaviors, reflects on his or her own learning process, and works to develop a variety of learning tactics in order acquire needed skills and behaviors.
A person with the ability to learn does not deny or ignore the need for new approaches, does not get stuck using habitual behavior or outmoded skills, and is not seduced by past success into believing that no change or development is necessary.
Leadership Values
We have found that people who project certain personal values are particularly effective in leadership roles
Foremost among these values are honesty and integrity, which engender trust and credibility in others.
Strong personal initiative and drive are needed to preserver in the face of difficult organizational goals.
A positive, optimistic attitude supports both individual and group efficacy.
SOCIAL CAPABILITIES
People develop many interpersonal and social skills over the course of their lives.
Because leadership roles and processes are by their very nature social (meaning that they require making meaningful connections to others), the ability to work effectively with others in social systems is a fundamental capacity of leaders.
Social capabilities include –
A. The ability to build and maintain relationships
B. The ability to build effective work groups,
C. Communication skills
D. The ability to develop others
Ability to build and maintain relationships
At the hearth of social capabilities is the ability to develop cooperative relationships.
In leadership roles, the ability to develop positive relationships with many different types of people is particularly important.
The foundation of this ability is the capacity to respect people form varying background and to understand the perspectives that they bring.
Ability to Build Effective Work Groups
People in leadership roles need not only to develop their own relationships with others but also to facilitate the development of positive relationships among others who work together.
Effective leaders help create synergy, motivation, and a sense of empowerment in work groups.
Communication Skills
Communications skills operate in two directions.
In addition to being able to communicate information, thoughts, and ideas clearly in different media, individuals with effective communication skills are able listen carefully and understand what others are saying, thinking and feeling.
Ability to Develop Others
Leadership roles often call for the ability to develop others in ways that allow people to work together in increasingly productive and meaningful ways.
This includes –
1) The ability to help others diagnose their development needs
2) To provide appropriate feedback
3) To encourage changes in their behavior
4) To recognize them
5) To reward improvements
WORK FACILITATION CAPABILITIES
People develop skills and perspectives that enable them to facilitate the accomplishment of work in organizational systems.
Organizations consist of many individuals, groups, and subsystems that need to work interdependently to accomplish collective goals and outcomes.
Individuals in leadership roles facilitate the implementation, coordination, and integration of this work.
Work facilitation capabilities include –
A. Management skills
B. The ability to think and act strategically
C. The ability to think creatively
D. The ability to initiate and implement change
Management Skills
Management skills encompass a broad range of competencies related to facilitation and coordination of the day to day work in organizations, including –
1) Setting goals and devising plans for achieving those goals
2) Monitoring progress
3) Developing systems for accomplish work
4) Solving problems
5) Making decisions
Ability to Think and Act Strategically
Day to day work is accomplished in the context of broad organizational objectives that support the long-term vision and mission of the organization.
People who can think and act strategically have a clear sense of the desirable collective future.
They make decisions, set priorities, and support initiatives that will bring the current reality more in line with the desire future.
Ability to Think Creatively
Creativity involves seeing new possibilities, finding connections between disparate ideas, and reframing the way one thinks about an issue.
Creativity yields innovation when novel ideas or perspectives are used to solve difficult problems
Implementing innovations also requires an element of risk taking, of going into uncharted territory and leaving the familiar behind.
Ability to Initiate and Implement Change
Leadership roles often require the ability to make major changes in organizational systems and practices
This include establishing the need for change (for example, by demonstrating that current ways of working are no longer adequate), influencing others to participate in the change, and institutionalizing the new ways of working.
Although by no means exhaustive, our description of individual capabilities illustrates the breadth of capabilities needed to provide leadership in organizations.
To develop any of these capabilities, people first have to realize that their current skills or perspectives are inadequate or are not being fully utilized.
This alone can be a major step, sometimes triggered by a mistake or failure, a personal crisis, or a piece of feedback form an assessment experience.
Next, people have to identify the skills or perspectives that they want to more fully develop and begin to try it on for size.
Finally, after an extended period of practice, they can begin to feel comfortable with the new skills or perspectives and start to use it more effectively.
This cycle is repeated many times as people expand their self-management, social, and work facilitation capabilities.
This is why we say that leader development takes time.
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