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The Three Essentials of Effective Leadership
Some leaders wonder why no one is following them. Often, the reason is a deficiency in one of the three essentials of effective leadership: Character, Commitment, and Competence.
- Character: Leaders must be honest and ethical at their core for people to trust and follow them.
- Commitment: Leaders must show a clear commitment to developing themselves and others. If team members doubt a leader's dedication to their growth, they will not be motivated to support the leader's vision.
- Competence: A leader must be perceived as capable and effective. But what does competence truly entail?
A Framework for Leadership Competencies
Leadership competence is not a single skill but a collection of observable behaviors. In collaboration with the Merck Leadership Center, BPI co-founder Louis Carter developed the Leadership Lexicon to map the vast landscape of leadership skills. This work identified over 100 potential competencies, which were then organized into a practical 3x4 framework.
This model proposes that all leadership competencies fall into one of three core actions applied across four key domains:
Core Actions:
- Identify: Seeing opportunities and threats.
- Build: Developing the teams and capabilities to address challenges.
- Drive: Executing programs to achieve results.
Key Domains:
- Know and Grow Yourself
- Know and Grow Your Team
- Know and Grow Your Organization
- Know and Grow Your Customers
The 12 Most Important Competencies
From this model, we can identify the most critical competency for each intersection. These 12 competencies form a lexicon for modern leadership:
-
Identify
- Strategic Thinking (Yourself)
- Acquiring the Right Talent (Your Team)
- Identifying Business Trends and Possibilities (Your Organization)
- Visioning and Positioning (Your Customers)
-
Build
- Personal Development (Yourself)
- Building High Performing Teams (Your Team)
- Building Organizational Capabilities (Your Organization)
- Building Customer Partnerships (Your Customers)
-
Drive
- Problem Solving (Yourself)
- Delegating (Your Team)
- Aligning the Culture (Your Organization)
- Navigating Complexity (Your Customers)
Guiding Principles for Leadership Development
Understanding these competencies is most effective when placed in the proper context. The following principles are essential for any leader's development.
1. Leadership Is a Skill, Not Charisma
The enduring legacy of a successful leader is a collaborative culture where desired behaviors and results emerge naturally. This is achieved through skill, not personality.
2. Skills Require Deliberate Practice and Development
Just as a professional golfer continually hones their skills, a leader must practice leadership behaviors. Knowledge gives you an understanding, but only practice builds the capability to perform new skills effectively.
3. Continuous Improvement Requires Feedback
Experts in all fields rely on coaching and mentoring to gain perspective on their performance. Receiving accurate, consistent feedback is the fastest way to accelerate your leadership development and increase your impact.
4. Leadership Is an Action, Not a Position
We often speak of "the leadership" as a static group, but leadership is a verb. It is the response any employee makes when faced with a challenge or opportunity. It is not defined by a title or a place on an organizational chart.
5. Leaders Stand Out and Face Resistance
Leaders create the conditions for change, which means asking others to do things differently and establishing new criteria for success. By definition, leaders are a threat to the status quo and will be confronted by opposing forces. The experience of leadership involves navigating this resistance. '''