Recently, I reviewed a number of leadership competency lists in order to make a recommendation for a company that was interested in updating their competency mandate for leaders. There are a number of good lists out there, including one that I wrote about last fall - Michael Lombardo and Robert Eichinger’s list of 67 competencies (The Leadership Machine, 2001). As I said then, leadership may be a complex animal, but it certainly has been well examined and classified.
Anyway, all of these competencies lists got me to thinking about what a list of “leadership behaviors” might look like. You see, most competency lists include a collection of traits like courage, compassion, technical skills, intelligence, etc. Critical terms, to be sure – but they read as a list of characteristics leaders need as opposed to a list of what leaders actually do. If you take all of the traits and characteristics and bundle them together, you could potentially generate a list of what leaders do on the job, not just what it takes to be a leader. So naturally, I had to take a stab at it…here’s what I came up with:
The 25 Most Important Leadership Behaviors
1. Being a Role Model for Integrity & Ethics
2. Demonstrating Optimism & Positive Energy
3. Learning the Business
4. Establishing a Vision & Mission
5. Setting Strategy & Priorities
6. Hiring Great Talent
7. Creating a Culture of Customer Focus
8. Building High Performance Teams
9. Motivating & Inspiring Others
10. Delegating & Empowering
11. Listening
12. Communicating
13. Driving for Results
14. Managing & Evaluating Performance
15. Coaching & Developing Talent
16. Managing Complexity & Ambiguity
17. Managing Your Time
18. Evaluating Risk
19. Resolving Conflict
20. Driving Innovation
21. Influencing Others
22. Collaborating Across the Organization
23. Demonstrating Passion for Your Work
24. Being a Champion for Work/Life Balance
25. Keeping Things in Perspective (Humility & Gratitude)
I could have added 1 more – Managing Your Boss - but I like lists of 25 (Top 26 doesn’t have the same ring to it). Let me know what you think – what did I miss? What would you add or remove? And do you think this way of representing the leader’s skill set will ever replace the standard competency list?
Comments
I think this list is a great start. One competency I'd love to see on there is “Perseverance”. Especially in today's economy, our leaders must be able to persevere. An individual, who possesses the competency of perseverance, is someone who has the drive and energy to follow through even when obstacles seem insurmountable.
I would not get hung up on the numbers and I believe "managing your boss" needs to be changed to "managing your key stakeholder". If you want to stick to 25 then combine 2 of the behaviors that you listed to "hiring, developing and coaching great talent". Another suggestion is "listening and meeting with key customers"
There's a need for honest/genuine on a list such as this. Space can be gained by combining items such as optimism and positive energy with passion. Sometimes, it is important for people to say, "these are tough times"; "the future is uncertain," etc...ideally followed by something more positive in terms of what you can do or what we can accomplish together. That duality of realism and optimism may be intended under the more positive entry, but it's too easy to get lost or misinterpreted as being inappropriate or unimportant if it's not mentioned explicitly.
We look for and follow leaders who we see as genuine. If the news is bad and we sugarcoat it or skirt it, we lose the credibility and thus our ability to be as effective as leaders as we need to be - especially in those moments.
I absolutely love the fact that you listed *Behaviors* rather than the standard "traits" or "characteristics."
Traits and characteristics are useless unless applied – i.e., unless they become behaviors. Someone may have charisma, high integrity, passion, empathy, good judgment, and whatever else populates the competency lists.
Unless those traits are applied toward achieving results, though, they are not effective leaders.
I need help. I'm on a 4 person team that is tasked to come up with a 45 min. presentation to discuss " What behavior change (s) drive business results ? I personally am tasked to identify the actual behaviors for my part of the presentation. Any ideas where to begin ? I work for a lottery.
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