Is Leadership A Soft Skill?

Leadership is often thought of as soft. There is the belief that leadership implies tolerance, compromising standards, and we can't measure the results of our leadership. These limiting attitudes have a far-reaching effect on performance.

In this article I will discuss an alternative view. Leadership is the single most important factor in determining your success and the level of your results.

Results Are Difficult To Achieve

“All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they are now getting.
If we want different results, we must change the way we do things.”

Think about that for a moment. Whether a supervisor, manager, president, CEO or owner, you have expectations and goals for your future. Personally you want to provide for your employees, be recognized in your community and industry - you want to build your personal value. Professionally you want growth, sustainable revenue and profitability, build “unfair competitive advantage” – in short reach your vision.

You know that for your organization to grow and increase in value, you must do more than maintain status quo. You must adopt a strategic mind set, transform your business, change the way you do things.

All organizations have two things in common: a present and a future. In the present we program the future. If the future you envision is different from your present, you must implement change starting today. Otherwise you will fall into the insanity trap: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Today managing is much more challenging than even a couple of decades ago. The ever changing pace of technology and a greatly shrinking world can quickly impact our performance. Add the current political uncertainty and economic malaise and managing today is definitely more stressful and difficult.

How To Achieve Change

To react to the world we live in we must strategically transform. We must develop change in the culture of our organization. Change is going to happen – we might as well be proactive.

People cause change, but people resist change, so leadership becomes extremely important.

Change is always carried out by people in the organization. We all work at our current capability. To achieve different results we need to improve our effectiveness. People development becomes important and the rewards can be significant. A slight improvement in effectiveness of key staff can have a much greater effect on the bottom line.

Organizational transformation is really about the growth of your people. Effective leadership is the necessary catalyst for the development of people and implementing change.

People want to be appreciated. Observe your employees. You will notice that all of them have the letters "MMFA" emblazoned on their foreheads: “Make Me Feel Appreciated.” People follow a leader for what the leader can do for them.

Research determines that the way people feel about working at a company can account for up to 20 to 30 percent of actual performance. And 50 to 70 percent of how employees perceive the company can be traced directly to the leadership culture.

Leaders create the conditions that determine the desire to work effectively. People who look forward to coming to work and want to do their best regularly outperform those with less positive attitudes. An effective leader builds a culture that empowers people.

And the personal factor. Effective leaders understand the adage of leadership; the more success their people have the more success they have.

There are many leadership styles. Two common ones are the driver and the developer.

The driver focuses on winning with little time for praise or encouragement. Employees find him difficult. They fear being put down and do only what is necessary. They have a feeling of helplessness, disinterest and maybe even resentment.

The developer collaborates and encourages employees to participate in forming plans and strategy. He develops a culture of mutual trust, respect and self-expression. He takes active interest in people development and team welfare.

Both have similar expectations. Their method of achieving them is very different.

The developer leader is the best model of the outstanding leader. He has a dual approach: high expectations for strong results and an understanding of the importance of people and their development.

The outstanding leader works to build a results based culture of enthusiastic, motivated, confident employees working together to achieve the vision of the organization.

The developer leader has a strong impact. He becomes significant in the lives of others. He challenges to develop their capabilities and helps them meet their goals as they help the organization meet its goals.

The accomplishments of this leader are lasting, public and beneficial to all the stakeholders of the business. He makes a positive and indelible difference on the value of the organization. And he feels really good about this.

Summary

For continued success we need to strategically transform our organizations from the present to a desired future. Transformation is carried out by people. As people grow and develop transformation is enhanced. Organizational transformation is people transformation.

Effective leadership is the catalyst for people development and strategic transformation. Leadership is directly related to results, results that can be measured. Leadership culture is the single most important factor in determining the level of organizational productivity, achievement – your results.

Tom Northup, founder of Leadership Management Group, is an executive coach, speaker and author of "The Five Hidden Mistakes CEOs Make". In his first career he spent over 30 years running companies. He is an expert at how to lead and develop people to produce impressive results. He gives clients expert insight and proven methods to innovate, build sustainable growth and develop “unfair competitive advantage.”

You may follow Tom through his leadership blog Building Stronger Leaders.

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