Leadership Development News Roundup: Becoming a Better Leader Edition

Being a good leader is not something you arrive at after a certain amount of training or after attaining a certain level of authority within an organization. Being a good leader requires constant growth and evolution to remain relevant, competitive and on the same page as your team.In this week’s Leadership Development News Roundup, I’ve assembled a collection of articles and blog posts with information and advice on becoming a better leader.

• To Be a Better Leader, Become a Better Listener. Inc: “When you start a business, you don't need to know how to do absolutely everything. For example, if you are opening an event planning company, you don't freak out because you don't know graphic design. You just need to know what looks good and then hire a talented specialist to design all of your invitations. Your role as the boss is to oversee a bunch of specialists who are the best in their niche. And one of the most crucial ways of getting the most out of your specialists is by listening to them.”

• The Skills Leaders Need at Every Level Harvard Business Review: “The skills people reported needing depended not only on their level in the organization but also on the job they held and their particular circumstances. But even so, there was a remarkable consistency in the data about which skills were perceived as most important in all four levels of the organization we measured.  The same competencies were selected as most important for the supervisors, middle managers, and senior managers alike, and six out of the seven topped the list for top executives. Executives at every organizational level, our respondents reported, need a balance of these competencies. The other nine competencies included in the study were chosen only half as frequently as the top seven.”

• 8 Smart Leadership Strategies Most CEOs Forget to Use Entrepreneur: “Do not freak out when there is troubling news. While your team might, set the tone by remaining calm and staying on course instead of panicking and reacting to the situation irrationally. Long term, it simply isn’t worth overreacting and the best bosses keep their cool even when faced with a major crisis. Jill Geisle shared timeless advice for Poynter on how leaders can weather the storm, drawing on the experience of Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, who famously landed a plane in the Hudson River in 2009.”

• 5 Steps For Leading Through Adaptive Change. Forbes: “Great leaders that guide a company through necessary changes don’t do it all by themselves. They bring all team members together and leverage their talent pool in a collaborative manner. This creates buy-in at all levels which is critical. They identify stakeholders and place the responsibility on them for rolling out new processes. Change doesn’t have to be stressful. Face it head on and keep the company moving forward.”

• 6 Ways Leaders Can Earn and Keep Trust. Switch and Shift: “If it’s common to ask for trust, why isn’t it common that trust is given – or assumed? The watch what I do, not what I say adage applies here. Instead of telling someone to ‘trust me’ you need to show them that you are trustworthy. The problem is that trust is personal. You may trust a colleague because they came through for you on an important issue, but the person sitting next to you doesn’t trust that same colleague because they overheard them speaking negatively about another colleague. You may be an intrinsically more trusting person – behaviorally some see the glass more full than others – or you may be someone who takes a long time to trust and has to see evidence of it.”

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