The 5 skills for effective leadership

This post came out from The Business Times (29 August 2015)
Title - The 5 skills for effective leadership

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Managing time
2. Effective meetings
3. Communicate effectively
4. Getting things done through others
5. Decision making

On Managing time

• Leaders today are like jugglers keeping an increasing number of balls in the air while walking the tightrope of time. Most leaders struggle with this balancing act.
• Working longer hours is not a sustainable solution. Neither is multitasking. While no one solutions works for everyone, leaders need guidance on how to manage time effectively. 

On Effective meetings 

• Meetings take up an extraordinary amount of time and there is often much room for improvement. 
• There is a lot of advice available on how to run effective meetings but why little of it finds it way into leadership development programmes is not clear. To be effective, leaders need to run effective meetings. 

On Communicate effectively 

• The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. Presentation courses are typically offered lowered down the organisation whereas it is most needed higher up the organisation.
• Presentations are a small subset of communications. It's not just formal client presentations that matter. One-to-one communication, internal town halls and written messages are all equally important. How leaders connect and how they craft their message determines if they have impact. 
• Leaders needs to effectively distill and headline messages, to create a picture, establish an emotional hook and deliver effectively. 

On Getting things done through others

• There are lots of workshops on delegation and empowerment. But first things first. You need the right people to empower and delegate to. Placing people in the right roles and knowing when to take a risk is one of the most important drivers of leadership success. 
• Related to right fit is the issue of creating and sustaining teamwork. Teamwork is more than just showing up wearing the same tee or going rock climbing together. It's a skill that needs to be carefully nurtured and does not come easily to all. You can acquire good players but getting them to play together consistently well is the hard part. 

On Decision making

• Every leader has to make decisions and to execute. The more senior the leader, the greater the stakes. In some situations, only the leaders needs to make the call. In others, you need to facilitate the process of arriving at a decision. Knowing what to do when is a crucial difference. 
• In addition, behavioural science and systems thinking provide very effective tools for making decisions and executing under uncertainty. For example, understanding the pitfalls of rushing to cause and effect judgements, confusing causality for correlation, guarding against cognitive biases, recognizing the power of diversity, appreciating the importance of trial and error in innovation and taking a systems view of problems and opportunities can make a huge difference in the quality of decision-making and execution. Yet very little of this finds it way into leadership development programmes. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big