Key Leadership Skills

Over the past couple of months, we discussed several traits, skills, and behaviors that have contributed to the success of both past and present leaders. Intelligence, integrity, charisma, and confidence are some of the traits that characterize many of these leaders. Interpersonal skills, oratory skills, and conceptual skills are some of the more important skills that helped to shape their leadership style. Some of these skills go hand in hand with the traits that are essential for strong leadership. Meanwhile, the behaviors that drive these leaders include inspiring and motivating others, collaboration, having a strategic perspective and trust. Combined, these traits, skills and behaviors make for effective leadership.

Office politics have such a negative connotation and many people just do not want to participate or play the “political game”, but Political Savvy has nothing to do with politics. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Political Savvy is one who “understands and utilizes the dynamics of power, organization, and decision-making to achieve objectives” (“Leadership Competencies - executive,” n.d.). Political Savvy, when broken down to the root words, directs one to understand the people. The word Political originates from the Latin word for citizen and Savvy is given to us by the French verb that means understand. Political Savvy is a must have skill that should be encompassed into one’s leadership tactics because it is a crucial leadership skill, and it can be employed in a positive way for positive

Scholars define resilience as the outcome of successful adaptation to adversity (Zutra, Hall, & Murray, 2010). Resilience is the ability to recover from adversities challenges in a manner that leaves an individual more flexible and better able to meet future challenges. Resilience involves an ability to react creatively and constructively to change while recognizing that change is an ongoing part of life (Mikail, 2014). Zutra and Hall identify two core dimensions of resilience:

“We all have competencies. They are the sum of our experiences and the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes we have acquired during our lifetime” (Pickett, 1998, p. 103). A successful organization will have a set of competencies defined. Having competencies identified outlines the framework of standards that a company and employees should follow. There is a tendency to list a large number of competencies when creating the standards for an organization. Companies should focus on five to seven key core competencies that are needed in order to be successful. The core competencies should encompass the growth of the company, staff, and public perception.

The ability and strength of an individual to achieve goals by supervising processes, guiding initiatives and employees is defined as Leadership skills. Valuable leadership skills include taking thoughtful decisions, allocation of resources, and the ability to delegate, inspire and communicate effectively. Other leadership traits include honesty, confidence, commitment and creativity. Leadership competencies can be used to effectively select, develop and promote leaders in an organization .The difference between Leadership Skill and leadership competency can explained as the required level of efficiency to perform a task assigned is known as skill whereas the quality to accomplish the same is called as competency. When creating leadership competencies certain factors are considered such as business strategies and future trends. To drive the use of competencies in selecting and developing leaders HR practitioners should use the business strategies. To effectively build a unique set of skills for the organization 's leaders, the firm will sustain competitive advantage. The role of a project manager has always been my interest. The position which I have always desired is a role of project manager.

Leads others involves influencing Soldiers or Army civilians in the leader’s unit or organization. This competency has a number of components including setting clear direction, enforcing standards, and balancing the care of followers against mission requirements so they are a productive

The mission of a leader is to guide a group of people towards a goal, thus the leader must have a vivid vision of that

A leader has to get people so excited about their vision that they take ownership of the vision. Communication of the vision must include the people. It has to be a shared vision. Words are important because words matter. Words that ring of metaphors and images which people can identify with triggers their imaginations and they begin to see in their minds the benefits of the vision. The leader should exercise some charisma by showing

Understanding: An effective leader must have an understanding of him/herself and an understanding of others.A leader must understand what his/her strengths and weaknesses are. They must also understand human behavior and why people will act a certain manner as opposed to responding in another way.

The term resilience is described as being an individuals ability to overcome an obstacle successfully. If the individual can face the obstacle, overcomes the obstacle, and gain strength from doing so this is also known as resilience. However, not all individuals can overcome an obstacles successfully; some may develop other issues

If you are interviewing for the job you always wanted and you are asked to describe your best leadership competencies and to discuss two ways you have demonstrated these qualities at work, how would you respond?

Leadership is something that we are all born with because we are all born. Therefore, who is a leader and who is not depends on who really wants to be a leader and who does not. Leadership is a skill and so it can be learned. As anything that is learned it demands practice and practice to be the best. It would not be something that will happen in a matter of a day. There are multiple elements that make a leader. Collaboration is a key element for successful teamwork. Therefore, a leader must always be in the look for ways to foster collaboration. Creating trust within the team, support face-to-face collaboration, transfer responsibilities when making decisions, and ultimately teach other how to be leaders. All of this is not done if it is not done from the bottom of your own heart.

The nine Strategic Leadership Competencies describe a wide-ranging scope of attributes that can be arranged in three distinct classifications: conceptual, technical, and interpersonal. One competency under the conceptual category is the ability to envision the future. (Gerras, p.30). In Finel’s article, he summed up Secretary Gates’s biggest weakness was his “lack of consistent strategic planning.”

Surely one of the common goals between leaders is success. And success cannot be reached in the absence of Leaders’ farsightedness and wisdom. Regardless of how

We see leaders around us everywhere. Regardless of what the profession or expertise is, or what sort of an institution there is, leaders are required. There are many leadership characteristics that come into play. In other words, not everyone has what it takes to be a good leader. Surely, in school all of us are taught things like team work and good leadership skills, leadership itself falls under a huge category. There are many models of leadership present that serve to analyze and assess how much of the leadership qualities a person has in them.