Leadership skills

1. Leadership is a skill that can be learned by anyone. Nobody knows how to drive, cook or build a house when they are born; these are skills that are learned over time. In the same way, leadership is a skill that you learn, not something that you are born with.
2. Leadership is relevant in all areas of Human activity, from family to community to business, politics and education. If there are people who need to work together to achieve a common goal and cope with challenging change then leaders are needed. One of the key challenges of today is the way that leaders lead needs to change. Leaders need to move away from the traditional ideas of reductionism, linear processes and hierarchy and move towards systems thinking, coping with uncertainty and using networks to organize people.
3. 21st Century leaders can “sustain the creation of excellent outcomes and influence people to cope with complex change”. 21st Century leaders succeed by ensuring their team or organizations can effectively optimize, innovate and adapt in the complex and changing world.
4. Above all, leaders make effective decisions. Wisdom is the ability to make effective long-term decisions; wise leaders can select the right behaviours to achieve the right outcomes. As a leader, the way you build wisdom is by constantly asking ‘why’, a practical way of building this skill is to ask ‘why?’ 5 times for any situation you encounter. You will rapidly see that this approach significantly improves your awareness and understanding of the overall situation.
5. 21st Century leaders are important as they can lead our communities, countries, cultures, cities and companies to cope with today’s accelerating complexity, uncertainty and volatility. create the innovation, sustainable growth and positive impact that are needed to succeed in the modern world. Further, the scarcest resource on the planet today is not oil, water or gold, it is highly effective 21st Century leaders. According to a 2012 PwC study, only 30% of CEOs believe they can get the leadership talent they need for their organizations to succeed. Investing in your ability to lead by mastering the 21 principles and actively practicing them in your environment is a powerful way of improving your future prospects! This section is about self-assessment, there are no right answers. It is designed to develop your learning by challenging you to think about how you can become a better 21st Century leader. You should write your answers to the questions in your learning diary as this will help you develop and track your learning! Introduction to leadership
1. Write an example of when you were a leader (remember you don’t have to be the formal leader to be leading the situation, leadership is about taking responsibility, describing what should be and exerting influence to achieve it, not job titles!)
2. Who is the most influential leader in your life? Who do you admire and respect?
3. What is the difference between leadership, management & entrepreneurship? The 21st Century leader
1. Why do you want to become a 21st Century leader?
2. How effective are you at enabling your team to Adapt to change?Optimise performance?Innovate new solutions?
3. How wise do you think you are? How wise do you need to be to be an effective leader?