The Fundamentals of Leadership – five "constants" that have passed the test of time

Here in London, home to people from every corner of the football (“soccer” to some) world, the city is buzzing with World Cup activities. I just listened to four commentators, all retired world-class footballers themselves, talk about the importance of mastering the fundamentals of the game and how, even at the World Cup level, lack of attention to the basics often leads to failure. This lesson is also true in organizational leadership.

In the past eight weeks I’ve attended three major conferences, in three different European capitals, on corporate learning and development. Senior leaders from both large private companies and business schools shared opinions on a common set of topics: disruption, the IoT (Internet of Things), Virtual Reality (or AVR), big data, SoMe trapdoors, digitization, and what these new technological advances mean for modern-day leaders.

Listening to these conversations reminded me that confronting these 2018 challenges also requires mastery of fundamentals, similar to football, that have changed little in the past three decades. Mannaz has been designing and delivering custom leadership development programmes to MNCs for many years. Over the past few months we have identified the common development themes from dozens of recent programmes. We've packaged these into a series of half and one-day Leadership Workshops. Below are five themes that we have distilled from our clients.

Five "Constants" of Leadership

1. Self-awareness

Good leaders need self-awareness: the basic who am I? You need to be in touch with their own moral compass and values to be genuine and authentic in your leadership role. This requires deep reflection and constant, honest feedback from the world around you: What values are at the core of my style of leadership? Are they flexible enough to accommodate diverse contexts, yet at the same time firm enough to provide a consistent guiding light to others?

2. Personal Impact

Effective leaders must know how to make an impact on people around them so that they will be taken seriously, listened to, and followed. This means developing confidence, learning to be constructively assertive, and knowing how to be noticed (“executive presence”). Effective leaders understand how to inspire and motivate others, to spot and develop talent, to engage in meaningful dialogues, to offer constructive feedback and be able to have challenging conversations with colleagues at all levels. Having good judgment and strong strategic acumen is only useful if others are willing to listen to your ideas.

3. Self-Management and Resilience

Throughout history leaders have needed to learn to manage stress. This is especially true today when people expect to communicate and receive information 24/7. A critical leadership skill, then and now, is knowing how to create boundaries that allow the mental space for clear-headed thinking. Effective leaders build their own filtering processes and develop the resilience and discipline to make it through the good days as well as through times of crisis.

4. Organisational Navigation

To be effective, leaders need strong organisational savvy. They to know how to influence others, to develop a broad network to use for accomplishing goals. Every organisation has unique dynamics and nuances to consider. As leaders, we need to be able to successfully navigate in complex, competitive, and rapidly changing environments.

5. Global Perspective

Effective leadership in New York, Mumbai, Sao Paolo, or Shanghai requires different styles. Cultural contexts vary from country to country, from business to business, even from department to department. In a world where most top leaders need a global perspective, ask yourself: How do I lead in a way that makes sense for the people in front of me, next to me, and above me? How can I adjust my style to accommodate their needs?

Over the coming weeks, after the distractions from work provided by the World Cup have faded, my colleagues at Mannaz and I will be writing a series of short articles addressing these leadership fundamentals one topic at a time, with key take-aways on each. Watch this space!