If leaders are born and intuitively behave as such, what can we learn from them as we look to develop our own leadership skills? This is the question that Louis Mobley, Founder of the IBM Executive School asked himself as he developed the curriculum for the new school. After much thought and consideration, he discovered what he called the 10 most valued leadership skills, which as you will see in this article published by Forbes.com, aren’t so much leadership skills as they are attitudes and values.
The 10 Most Valued Leadership Skills
1) Great Leaders Thrive on Ambiguity. Great leaders are able to hold apparent contradictions in tension. They use the tension these paradoxes produce to come up with innovative ideas.
2) Great Leaders Love Blank Sheets of Paper…leaders create the blanks that managers fill in. Like some business Einstein intent on reinventing the universe, every great leader relishes the opportunity to “think things through” from scratch.
3) Great Leaders are Secure People. Great leaders crave challenges, and this means hiring the most challenging people they can find with no regard for whether today’s challenger might be tomorrow’s rival.
4) Great Leaders Want Options. Long before it became fashionable, Mobley was a huge proponent of diversity. However his definition meant a diversity of opinion rather than the kind we usually associate with political correctness.
5) Great Leaders are Tough Enough to Face Facts. Successful executives face facts, and this means being open to the truth even when it is not what we want to hear.
6) Great Leaders Stick Their Necks Out. Great leaders want to be measured and evaluated. The old adage that success has a 1000 fathers while failure is an orphan does not apply to great leadership.
7) Great Leaders Believe in Themselves. While great leaders crave advice, options, and strong colleagues, they all share a profound belief in themselves and their judgment.
8) Great Leaders are Deep Thinkers. Though very difficult to quantify, great leaders are deep thinkers. They constantly dive below surface “facts” searching for new ways to knit those facts together.
9) Great Leaders are Ruthlessly Honest with Themselves. Self-knowledge is perhaps the most critical trait that all great leaders share. If you are not clear about the purpose of your own life how can you provide a sense of organizational purpose for others?
10) Great Leaders are Passionate. They may be loudly charismatic or quietly intense, but all great leaders care deeply about what they are doing and why they are doing it.
Of the 10 most valued leadership skills discussed in this article, there was one additional skill or you might say “attitude” that was discussed more than any other. Perhaps it didn’t make the official list because it is so obvious that it wasn’t necessary. When it comes to leaders and leadership skills, failure is never an option.
