3 Aspects of Developing Leadership Skills

Everyone knows that great leaders are made, not born. However good that statement sounds, we still want to know how we "make" or turn people effective leaders. And other questions need to be answered about the process of leadership development.

So how DO you boost your leadership skills? If you want to improve your ability to lead, where should you focus your attention? Why are certain leadership talents more important than others?

To Boost or not to - that's a good question

Would you want to be a leader with more skills? Yes, especially when you consider the opportunities "more" skills offer you. You would want to effectively plan a strategy or generate purposeful agenda to meet the challenges of your daily situations.

You could employ different skills to encourage your team to perform beyond their ordinary level, bridge the gaps causing low morale in your followers or coach and counsel people who face difficult circumstances.

With more skills, you would be better prepared to take action with greater confidence, and you would act more decisively.

Having more skills means you have:

=> More options, styles and capabilities to choose from,

=> More approaches to evaluating or solving your "problems",

=> More opportunities to innovate.

In the world of leaders, you must agree that "more is definitely better!"

Quo Vadis? Whither doth thou goest? Where should you focus your attention?

Taking a journey involves having an intent and a destination in your mind. Your leadership training, development and educational efforts demand the same kind of purposeful mind-set.

Your reasons for improving your leadership abilities will depend upon your working conditions, operating environment and other organizational factors.

For instance, what types of situations do you face, how will your leadership skills be applied?

- Will you lead a special or critical one-time project?

- Will you lead others who directly report to you or are under your direct influence?

- Will you lead people who are outside your sphere of control [such as, your clients, partners from other companies, or members of your community]?

You must focus your attention on providing service through your leadership. To look at leadership in this light, you will need to know what types of leadership service are required:

=> Should your style be dictating or nurturing;

=> Should more of your time be spent listening and observing;

=> Should your behavior be motivating or modeling;

=> Should your role be instructing or supervising and so on.

Leadership is not a "wondering-about" activity - when leaders are aimless. their followers are clueless, and everyone's efforts are worthless.

Show and Tell or tell and show - it depends on your talents

Because you do have strengths and weaknesses, you owe it to yourself to investigate your talents honestly and deeply. Are you a strong communicator, do you usually think about or see things in a positive light, can you easily adapt yourself to deal with changes, are you flexible?

Your strengths will empower your effectiveness and your weaknesses will betray you and disgust, disappoint or discourage others. The trick you need to turn is found in using your strengths to analyze and overcome your weaknesses.

Let me explain myself -

I have a fairly strong ability to react to and perceive the subtleties of my surroundings - but there are times when I realize that my understanding of someone's behavior is wrong. When I'm incorrect in my assessment, it would be wise for me to acknowledge my error and apologize for being insensitive to that person's plight or burden.

Another way to overcome your weakness is to delegate your authority to and share your power with someone who has a greater strength, more time or a stronger relationship than your do. But you should always be aware of your skills, knowledge and connections to others.

In a word, you want to maintain a constant inventory of your attributes, tendencies and shortfalls.

Your portfolio of strengths will affect your decisions to embark on prudent courses of action, with knowledge of your weaknesses you can defend the threats to your mission by developing alternative plans or assign tasks to other people.

Once you have determined the state of your strengths, you can use your skills-inventory

=> To act in innovative or more creative ways;

=> To establish appropriate and effective patterns, structures or solutions;

=> To support and propel the momentum of your leadership power.

So then the questions remain: will you step-up to the challenge, are you willing to awaken the great leader that slumbers inside you?

If so, you can be "made" into a leader of great promise. There are leadership training courses, workshops and programs available to all sizes of budget and ambition.

I believe you were born to bless the world with your God-given greatness. Please don't deny us the energy of your unique, meaningful and worthy contributions.

Copyright © 2003-2005, Mustard Seed Investments, Inc., All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bill Thomas is publisher of leadership skills training materials. courses & programs. "Your Leadership-UltraNet!" is the Web's only ULTRA-Performance Empowerment System That Shows You How-To Think-like, Act-like, Behave-like, Believe-like and then Manage-like a Creative, Confident, Persuasive, Highly Effective Leader, Each & Every Day!

http://www.leadership-toolkit.com/skills.html

In The News:

---

Google News Updated : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:50:00 GMT Wells Fargo may get lion's share of Wachovia deposits: report - MarketWatch Sify Wells Fargo may get lion's share of Wachovia deposits: report MarketWatch - 32 minutes ago By John Spence, MarketWatch BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Wells Fargo & Co. may get as much as 80% of Wachovia Corp.'s deposits, with the remainder likely going to Citigroup Inc., according to a published report Tuesday. Citi, Wachovia, Wells temporarily halt litigation Bizjournals.com Wachovia shares waver as Citi, Wells Fargo wrangle Forbes BloggingStocks - Washington Post - New York Times - CNNMoney.com all 7,781 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:17:51 GMT Thai Army Sends Troops to Help Police Keep Peace - Washington Post Voice of America Thai Army Sends Troops to Help Police Keep Peace Washington Post - 4 hours ago Thailand's military agreed Tuesday to deploy hundreds of unarmed soldiers to the streets of Bangkok to help police restore order after violent clashes between police and protesters that left at least 1 person dead. Video: Raw Video: Tear Gas Fired at Thai Protestors AssociatedPress Troops deployed as one dead, hundreds hurt in Thai protests AFP Reuters UK - Hindu - eTaiwan News - The Standard all 1,327 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:12:03 GMT Cough, Cold Drugs Not for Kids Under 4 - WebMD CBS News Cough, Cold Drugs Not for Kids Under 4 WebMD - 2 hours ago By Miranda Hitti Oct. 7, 2008 -- Don't use over-the-counter pediatric cough and cold drugs in kids younger than 4. Leading makers of over-the-counter pediatric cough and cold drugs are putting that message on the products' labels, according to the ... Cold, Cough Medicines for Children Get Added Warnings (Update3) Bloomberg Drug Companies Say No Cold Meds for Kids Under 4 Washington Post Chicago Tribune - New York Times - Bizjournals.com - The Associated Press all 1,485 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:48:20 GMT AIG's ex-CEOs blamed for crisis - CNNMoney.com Los Angeles Times AIG's ex-CEOs blamed for crisis CNNMoney.com - 1 hour ago House panel chairman says executives got undeserved riches, while ex-CEOs blame accounting rules and market conditions for leading to $85B bailout. Joe Cassano: The Man Who Brought Down AIG? Washington Post AIG CEOs Blame Each Other, Accounting for Insurer's Downfall Bloomberg Wall Street Journal - Financial Times - New York Times - Forbes all 768 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:11:18 GMT Sleuth's Presidential Debate Watch Game - Washington Post Sleuth's Presidential Debate Watch Game Washington Post - 41 minutes ago Tonight's debate watch games probably won't be as much fun as last week's Palin Bingo. But don't fret, there are still games to be played during this second presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. 'Aggressive' debate expected between McCain, Obama CNN * McCain looks for way to stop Obama's momentum Reuters The Associated Press - MSNBC - U.S. News & World Report - TIME all 1,199 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:08:21 GMT Bernanke hints at possible interest rate cut - MarketWatch The Associated Press Bernanke hints at possible interest rate cut MarketWatch - 31 minutes ago By Greg Robb, MarketWatch WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke opened the door on Tuesday for a possible interest rate cut to help rescue the economy from a severe downturn, admitting that the global panic in the financial ... Video: Bernanke signals possible rate cut ReutersVideo Bernanke: Economic outlook weaker CNNMoney.com New York Times - Forbes - Reuters - MSN Money all 988 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:18:10 GMT Qantas Involved in Another Air Incident - New York Times NEWS.com.au Qantas Involved in Another Air Incident New York Times - 25 minutes ago By Liz Robbins It has been 20 years since Dustin Hoffman’s character Raymond Babbitt in “Rain Manâ€� made Qantas synonymous with air safety, claiming he would only fly the Australian airline because it had never crashed. Qantas passengers arrive in Perth after mid-air ordeal ABC Online Fifteen badly hurt as Qantas jet drops Sydney Morning Herald The Standard - Taipei Times - United Press International - NEWS.com.au all 366 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:24:06 GMT Add RSS Feeds To My Web Pages Increase Online Traffic

PARLOT::Ebooks, Scripts, Websites, and more...

Adsense websites

Leadership for the Successful Entrepreneur!