Module 1

Leadership Excellence

Leadership: the action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do this.

Self Leadership: GREAT leadership is a cultivated art. It begins with self- leadership. Because at
the center of leadership is the person who, more than anything else makes the difference.
Leadership success or failure begins with how the leader approaches self-leadership. Bill Hybels,
a noted leader of one of the largest non-profit organizations in the world, points out, “The toughest
management challenge is always yourself.” Dee Hock, writing about leadership for over 20 years
and a laureate in the US Business Hall of Fame, shares this wisdom, “We should invest 50 per cent
of our leadership amperage in self-leadership and the remaining 50 per cent should be divided into
leading down, leading up and leading laterally.”
Self Leadership Competencies

What is Self-Leadership?

There are four different aspects to self-leadership.

• Self-awareness: The ability to acknowledge, understand and be conscious of one’s own
values, perspectives, strengths, weaknesses, leadership propensity and emotional needs.
• Self-management: The ability to nurture and harness one’s own passion, abilities, emotions
and leadership capacity in decision- making.
• Other-awareness: The ability to acknowledge and recognize the passion, gifting, strengths,
weaknesses, potential and needs of others.
• Other-management: The ability to grow and motivate other people to develop their
potential and/or fulfil the organization’s objectives.
•
Great leaders begin with self-awareness and move to self-management, then proceed to other-
awareness culminating in other-management. It is not a linear but an interactive effect among all
four factors.
Some leaders are conscious of themselves, their personalities, idiosyncrasies, motivations, and
competencies but they cannot manage themselves, especially their emotions and weaknesses. They
lack self-control, lose their cool, become unusually critical, behave inappropriately, want to do
everything, and are unable to keep their pride in check.

Why is self-leadership so important?

Appreciating others

When you truly know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, you will appreciate others.
Lowney points out that because leaders are anchored by an appreciation of their own dignity,
they develop an appreciation of the aspirations, potential and dignity of others. This is how they
transform the way they look at others.
Preventing derailment

Many hotshot, rising stars self-destruct, never achieve their early potential because of the lack of
self-leadership. Daniel Goleman, in his extensive study on leadership derailment, points out,
“When I compared star performers with average ones in senior leadership positions, nearly 90
per cent of the difference in their profiles was attributable to emotional intelligence factors rather
than cognitive abilities.”

Ensuring long-term success

Great leaders have a long-term perspective for life and success. They are not here for the short-
term but for the long haul. Only leaders who practice consistent self-leadership can ensure long-
term success. The temptation to push for quarterly profits at all costs can derail the leader. Unless
leaders have a keen sense of self-leadership, they cannot stay focused on what’s important.

Leaving a legacy

All leaders leave legacies, whether good or bad. They leave their imprint on the organization
through their beliefs, values and attitudes. Hence, effective self-leadership is essentially about
leaving a great legacy for the people we are leading.

Let me conclude by making two pertinent observations in self- leadership.

First, self-leadership is an ongoing process of self-reflection. As Lowney writes, “Self awareness

is no one-time project. No less essential than the initial assessment of one’s strengths,
weaknesses, values, and world view is the ongoing, everyday habit of self-reflection, the
examine. It’s an opportunity to measure life — a little bit at a time — against principles and
goals.”

Second, continual self-leadership is a mark of leadership maturation. Personal leadership is a

never-ending work in progress that draws on continually maturing self-understanding. Some
people never mature as leaders — they remain insecure, self-defeating, juvenile or worse still,
delinquent in their leadership development.

Hence, self-leadership is imperative if we want to be great leaders.

• Self Leadership Competencies

1. Social Intelligence (SI). This is not only one of the best predictors of effective leadership, but
it is poorly understood and under-researched. Social intelligence is quite broad, but can best be
seen in terms of understanding of social situations and dynamics, and ability to operate
effectively in a variety of social situations. Our research suggests that social intelligence, which
we define as a constellation of social performance, sensitivity to social situations, and role-
playing skill are critically important for effective leadership.
2. Interpersonal Skills. Interpersonal skills could be seen as a subset of social intelligence, but
these are the more relationship-oriented aspects of social effectiveness. We often talk about the
“soft skills” of the leader, and these are best represented by interpersonal skills.

How to develop interpersonal skills? Become an active listener, work on conversational and
speaking skills, (join toastmasters; networking groups), and work on your personal relationships
with friends, relatives, and your significant other. These skills will generalize to workplace
relationships.

3. Emotional Skills/Intelligence (EI). A complement to social intelligence, emotional intelligence

is our ability to communicate at the emotional level, understand emotions and emotional situations,
and be in tune with our own emotions. These are particularly related to leadership “charisma.”

How to develop EI? Practice “reading” others’ nonverbal cues, particularly cues of emotion. Learn
to regulate and control your emotions and your emotional outbursts. Practice expressing feelings
and become an effective emotional “actor” – learning how to express emotions appropriately.

4. Prudence. Prudence is one of Aristotle’s cardinal virtues. A synonym is “wisdom,” but it comes
from being able to see others’ perspectives and through being open to and considering others’
points of view.

How to develop Prudence? Listen to others. Work to be more open and more broad minded.
Learn to ask for others’ opinions and consider them as you choose a course of action.

5. Courage. A second cardinal virtue is “Fortitude,” or courage. This is having the courage to
take calculated risks and the courage to: (a) stand up for what you believe; (b) do the right thing.

How to develop Courage? This takes some effort, but is rooted in developing and holding onto
strong personal values. If you truly value something or someone you will have the courage to
stand by your principles (and your people).

6. Conflict Management. This is a “higher order” interpersonal skill that involves helping
colleagues to avoid or resolve interpersonal conflicts. Leaders are often called upon to adjudicate
when members are in conflict, but it also involves having the ability to either avoid or resolve
your own conflict situations.

How to develop Conflict Management Skills. There are courses and workshops available to help
you understand and learn conflict management strategies. A big part of conflict management is
helping conflicting parties to collaborate (a win-win outcome) or to compromise (each party
needs to be flexible and give up something).

7. Decision Making. One of the core competencies for leaders is the ability to make good decisions
or lead a good decision making process. There are better and worse ways to make decisions, and
a good leader understands when to make a decision, when to consult subordinates or peers and
bring them into the decision making process, and when it’s time to step back and let others decide.
How to develop Decision Making Skills. Experience and studying when decisions have gone
wrong and gone right is the best way to hone these skills. We often learn more from our mistakes
than from our successes.

8. Political Skills. Let’s face it. Every group or organization is, at its core, full of politicking.
People will try to bend rules, gain allies, push their personal agenda, etc., in order to try to get
ahead. An effective leader is a good political player, who knows how the game is played, but can
also manage political behavior so that it does not lead to group or organizational dysfunction.

How to develop Political Skills. Similar to many of the more highly-developed leadership
competencies, political skills are learned through experience and learning about people and social
dynamics.

9. Influence Skills. At its core, leadership is about influencing others, so a great leader is a master
of social influence, and able to wield power effectively and fairly. Calling on your interpersonal
("soft") skills can make you much more influential in a leadership role.

How to develop Influence Skills. Training in debate helps with making reasoned, well-thought-
out arguments. Seeing things from another's perspective can help you understand what they want
from a negotiation, and allow you to focus on win-win situations.

10. Area Expertise/Competence. Many people might list this first, but in today’s world,
knowledge of all aspects of the job is not as important as it used to be. In high-tech industries, or
creative firms, team members may have more relevant knowledge and expertise than leaders. Still,
it is important that leaders develop their expertise in the particular situation, organization, or
industry in which they lead.

How to develop Area Expertise. Like all of these competencies, development is a lifelong process.
Effective leaders gain expertise and competence and try to learn as much as they can about their
product, their organization, and their team members. Study the organization. Study competitors.