Developing 21st Century Leadership Skills
Leadership is an art form. Therefore, those who lead must develop their interpersonal and intra-personal skills to be successful leaders. Learning to communicate with others and understanding oneself is of vital importance in leadership.
Developing interpersonal and intra-personal skills requires developing hard and soft skills. Effective communication allows leaders to influence the behavior of those they lead. Without foundational knowledge from a formal education and the development of social skills from networking, leadership becomes difficult.
Twenty-first century leadership requires the ability of the “technician and the artist” says John McKenna in an article in the S.A.M. Advanced Management Journal entitled Management in the 21st century: A modest proposal. Hard skills are those skills that allow an individual to work well with things and objects. This skill-set is necessary for understanding the mechanics of what it takes to get a job done.
Soft skills are those skills that allow an individual to work with people. Leadership involves getting things done through people. Therefore, without the right personality it becomes difficult to overcome the challenges that come with guiding people in the process of goal completion. When developing leadership skills it is imperative to remember that motivation comes from inside a person and inspiration comes from outside influences.
In a sense, leaders need to see that which lies within rather than just see the exterior says Otto Scharmer in Self-transcending knowledge: sensing and organizing around emerging opportunities. Developing leadership skills require the aspiring leader to get in touch with oneself in-order to learn how to deal effectively with others. This skill-set is critical to understanding how to get a job done.
Getting the job done equates to the removal of emotional barriers says Paul Wieand, Jan Birchfield, and M. Carl Johnson in The New Leadership challenge: Removing the Emotional Barriers to Sustainable Performance in a Flat World. Subsequently, developing leadership skills in the twenty-first century require those who aspire to lead to adopt a model of effective leadership that requires "personality, leadership, collaboration, culture, and commitment" say Wieand, Birchfield, and Johnson.
In their article Wieand, Birchfield, and Johnson outlines a communication model from the Center for Advanced Emotional Intelligence (AEI) that can assist in the development of critical leadership skill.
Wieand, Birchfield, and Johnson says in their article that AEI reports that the five-step communication model is effective in helping leaders make those necessary changes to develop better leadership skills. The five steps for developing effective leadership skills are:
Step one overcoming personality, by removing the barriers to self-knowledge and authenticity. This is a process of developing the ability to speak and help others speak the truth about situations. This step requires would be leaders to understand personal biases, limitations, and blind spots in his or her beliefs and abilities.
Step-two involves developing authentic leadership. This step involves developing trust within an organization by increasing the quality of communication based upon the truth. An atmosphere must be developing in which people feel free to speak without punishment.
Step-three involves collaboration. Learning to develop unity in the middle of diversity is at the core of this step. Developing this skill require the leader to learn how to gain input for good decision-making when everyone does not agree. Again, this step is about telling the truth even if it hurts but maintaining the integrity to move forward in spite of differences that may exist.
Step-four is developing culture. An effective leader must develop an atmosphere that encourages dialogue, fairness, and trust. Communication must be open, nonrestrictive, and inclusive of good and bad news.
Step-five is commitment. Every leader must develop the ability to deal with the difficult decisions in-order to foster commitment. Leaders must develop the ability to listen as well as speak in all situations. Developing commitment require the leader to restrain from stating opinions until everyone has been heard.
Potential leaders must therefore, work on both interpersonal and intra-personal skills in-order to develop the skills necessary to lead in the twenty-first century. Ultimately, skill development requires commitment, dedication, practice, and hard work.
