The Secret Skills Needed for Leadership

Dhoni, Harmanpreet Kaur, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, even Hitler are some of the names that come to mind when we think of leadership. However, it is important to note that leadership is not the same as owning a title of authority. All of those mentioned above are known and revered, not because they held leadership positions, but because they inspired.

This is a fundamental premise, which is also a fact to remember and register before we try and understand leadership any further. Being a manager or a director or a VP and having several employees reporting to one, does not default a person to be a leader.

A true leader is someone who exudes influence whether consciously, i.e. through learning or sub consciously. A true leader carries with them a certain sense of purpose to make a difference and is passionate to get the buy in of those around to fulfill their vision.

In the current era of instruction downloading from Ai platforms, the only functionality where we humans add value at the workplace, apart from implementation, is by being and owning what truly makes us human, i.e. our emotional intelligence.

Leaders are placed in the best possible position today to make a difference to the lives of those they work, plus the organization. Leaders today, will stand out emphatically when they can rightfully merge their human centric skills along with the technical skills needed. Here is a list of these fundamental skills needed in leadership today.

• Listening: There is not enough that can be said about the importance of listening, in general, and more so, in leadership. A famous quote says that the most effective form of persuasion is through our ears. Being able to imbibe the quality of being patient and willfully comprehending what is being said is the core to trust building and at a very basic level, being respectful. As far as numbers go, listening is the most needed skill at work and only 2% of our foundational learning comprises it; in comparison to writing, reading and speaking. Active listening is so vital that it would be fair to say, read further, only if you are willing to master it.
• Empathy: Irrespective of the style of leadership one may have, if we are not willing to make the effort to dig deep and relate to those around, by putting ourselves in their shoes, then, we might as well be bots. Empathy is a super power that has not received its due in our world. There exists, literally, no other form of being – artificial or organic, that has the ability to empathize the way a human does. It would be an absolute waste to let this power go as leaders and focus solely on process, code, framework and deliverables.
• Curiosity: With information being available at our fingertips, do we even know what to be curious about anymore? We could be spoilt by choice, however, the right way to look, is in the opposite direction of our system screens. Hit search to understand the people around you. Show genuine curiosity in understanding where those around you, come from. Ask questions to delve deeper into the life experiences and learnings of your team members. Trust building and growing together can only happen if there is clarity about what we can learn from each other. Ask questions, ask follow up questions and ask even more questions.
• Adaptability: A fairly easy term to understand. Let us dig deeper though. An interesting question to ponder about is, if it makes more sense for team members to adapt to the style of working of the leader, as it is just one person to adapt towards, opposed to a leader adapting to the working and personalities of multiple team members. While the above sounds logical, do note that a leader is recognized and given the role of a leader, because he/she/they have or should have the ability to work with different kinds of people. People with different strengths, temperaments, cultural background, experiences and life learnings.

It is invariable that we delve deeper into ourselves and bring out the nature of our true human selves and skills to do a job that machines can easily accomplish in far lesser time. Our strength lies in our being and our connections, lest we ever forget it. Our roots give us all that is needed to succeed and leaders today are in the best place to enhance the humanness of the framework within which we work.