Developing leadership skills

Of the courses I followed at the Wharton University of Pennsylvania, I found the one of leadership particularly stimulating. It was all incredibly interesting, from observing the behavior of indisputable world business leaders at the level of Travis Kalanick, Uber co-founder, Jack Ma, co-founder and executive chairman of the Alibaba Group, Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, or Liu Chuanzhi, founder of Lenovo, to analyzing various types of leadership that vary based on culture.

By examining the holistic leadership approach of Indians as well as its Chinese counterpart, where optimism, patience, and persistence are used to focus on the end result, it is possible to deduce a series of actions which a leader should adopt to be successful with his team, or rather, in order to create a successful team. It’s a given that a leader needs to have a vision, but what’s taken less for granted is his ability to transform said vision from a thought into a strategic action while understanding that focusing on both the long and short term is fundamental to leading change and improving performance in a top team.

Another important aspect is also learning to embrace the front line. And while building our own leadership we must simultaneously develop the leadership qualities of our team members so that they can then apply them to their own teams, thereby building connectivity, assuring accountability, and prioritizing purposes. To do this job well we must be good guides, especially in risky and uncertain environments and periods. This requires the use of all personal abilities, on top of them the ability to drive the team along the right path to achieve the strategic vision, while balancing at all times the pessimism and the optimism that are unavoidable during the journey. Only in this way we can positively serve our teams and really make the difference. It is widely accepted today that leadership capabilities make the greatest difference in company performance and value creation.

I believe that there is no one way to lead a team or a company and while learning from case studies, following best practices, and improving capabilities at the best business schools, we must still customize the leadership style around our company and the specific challenges that surround it while also constantly adapting our behaviors to evolving environments. Now what do you think? What is your style of leadership?