In last week’s blog post we took a look at the leadership skills people are either born with, or have to learn and develop over time. Some of these innate leadership skills include extraversion, intelligence, and decisiveness. Important learned leadership skills include problem solving, people skills, and communication. Both sets of skills are incredibly valuable to leaders. The good news is you can work towards strengthening many of the learned skills necessary to be an effective leader. This week we’ll be looking at the importance of taking stock of your various leadership skills.
Taking Stock of Your Abilities
A leader’s prospects for success depend heavily on how well they make use of their natural talents and the skills they’ve developed. Well-rounded leaders who make effective use of both inborn and learned skills have the greatest success. There are very few leaders who can rely on only inborn or developed skills and successfully lead others.
Assessing your skills can help you focus on your strengths, as well as the areas you may want to improve. An objective evaluation of your skills can either enhance your candidacy for a leadership role, or further fuel the leadership role in which you’re currently engaged.
With a colleague or executive coach, devise a self-development plan. Get feedback from trusted co-leaders: seek honest impressions on areas where you excel, and where you can improve.
So, are you a born leader?
If it is asking whether someone will emerge as a leader among a group of peers, then those types of leaders are born. But if it is asking whether someone will perform effectively in a leadership position, then that is dependent on the context, the type of job, and the person’s ability to develop leadership skills.
As a leader, your prospects for success depend heavily on how well you make use of your natural talents and the skills you’ve developed. Take the time to learn as many leadership skills as you can.
If you’re looking for a coach to go help you evaluate your leadership skills and create an effective self-development plan, I am happy to help. As always, I would love to hear from you. I can be reached here or on LinkedIn.
