#17 - Understanding Humans!
26 Jun 24
People are the most important asset in any organisation.
A sound knowledge of human behaviour is essential in creating the right environment for their performance to reach the optimum level.
To do this, there are a number of skills which are traditionally overlooked within leadership courses.
Practical leadership requires mastery of these skills to be able to make a success of any leadership position.
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#17 - Understanding Humans!
What?
Understanding people is a key leadership skill.
It is impossible to get complex tasks done, unless you know how to leverage the capability inherent within your team.
Consequently, the effectiveness and assessment of how successful a leader is, will be primarily based upon their accomplishment with people.
Why?
People are the most important (and expensive) resource in any organisation.
Therefore it makes sense to really understand how to get the most out of these expensive assets. This involves learning how to create the conditions which will encourage them to operate at their optimum level.
There are a number of unique skills which are often overlooked in traditional leadership courses/training which are essentials in practical, everyday scenarios.
How?
Identifying the unique skills is the first step for a leader to begin to set themselves up for success.
These are as follows:
Emotional Intelligence (EI) - This is the number one skill that most leaders appear to lack. EI consists of the following sub-skills:
- Reflection/Self-Awareness - This is the ability to understand the impact you may be having on others. Also, striving to learn how to get better at what you do every day.
- Empathy - Simply placing yourself in the shoes of another individual in order to understand the issue from their perspective.
- Effective Communications - It goes without saying that communications should be frequent and unambiguous to ensure the message is received as intended.
- Self-Regulation - Being able to take charge of yourself in every dimension. This is particularly important in terms of your ability to control emotions.
- Motivation - Understanding what motivates each individual within your team.
Building rapport and trust - Mastery of these two traits will ensure each building block within the team is held together by a sound cement-like bond.
Delivering and Receiving feedback - Feedback in any form is priceless. Delivering feedback to a team in a constructive manner will yield positive results. Equally, the ability to take on board feedback, reflect and implement will enable the your performance to be enhanced.
Having difficult conversations - Whether it covers a disciplinary matter, or involves holding people to account, or simply means having the moral courage to highlight poor performance, these conversations must be deftly handled.
Managing conflict - The key here is always to diffuse the situation before it gets out of hand.
Negotiating - Looking for win-win solutions is always the best strategy. Understanding what motivates the other side is key, as well as deducing the room both sides have to negotiate to reach a mutually satisfactory conclusion.
Growth mindset - Embracing life-long learning will ensure that you are always honing your skills to stay at the top of your game.
Resilience/Stress Management - Being able to manage stress and maintaining resilience will safeguard your health and well-being when the going gets tough.
Problem-solving/Critical Thinking/Healthy Challenge - Critical analysis of issues is allied to the formation of judgement. This takes time to accrue.
Influencing - An essential skill which becomes more valuable as you become more senior. Leaders tend to move away from the 'General' towards the 'Diplomat' in terms of leadership style.
In Summary
I hope that you enjoyed reading this newsletter and that it has given you food for thought.
Leaders are judged on their accomplishment with people, their most important and expensive resource. Nothing can be achieved unless the leader is able to capitalise on the skills inherent within their teams. Mastery of these key skills will unlock potential and allow team performance to be taken to a new level.
Have a great week!
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