I frequently talk about the four competencies that leaders need to think about and work on.
Four Competencies:
- Technical Competency
- Management Competency
- Technological Competency
- Leadership Competency
Technical competency will be the easiest for most people. We go to school to learn a subject or skill, we then go into the workplace and and have an opportunity to practice what we have learned. Experience helps us to become more and more competent. We attend seminar, read the right materials and attend the right trade shows and conferences. With practice we all become better technically.
Management competency is the one thing I worry about a lot. It is incredible to me how disorganized most people are or at the least a lot more disorganized than they could be. Management is the act of controlling. This simply means that everyone should have a structured, organized rountine system for planning and carrying out their goals and getting their daily tasks accomplished. If you have not attended a time management seminar to learn how to organize yourself, do so now. Most people plan their vacation a whole lot better than they plan their lives. When you are doing planning time in the morning before you start your day ask yourself these questions.
- How well did I do yesterday? What things could I have done better and need to go back to day and correct? What did I do really well that I want to continue to do?
- Which of the responsibilities that I have signed up for should I work on today? Responsibilities include your health, your development, your family, your community, your place of worship, your direct reports, etc.
- What should I work on today which will not pay off for 5, 10, 20 or even 40 years from now. Your retirement and your children’s education should be on that list. How many regrets do you want to have a few years down the road when people begin to say,” I wish I had done this or that?”
Technological competency is vital because technology is changing at lighting speed and is responsible for improving service and improving productivity. You need to be aware of the technological solutions which will strengthen your business. If this is not a strong area for you at least have someone that guides and advises you in this area or your organizaition will quickly fall behind.
Leadership competency is really about our ability to inspire others by creating a healthy respectful environement where employeess wake up in the morning committed to the organziation and want to come into work to do their best. Leaders must create an environment where everyone matters and they know they matter. Most companies have a pretty good product and services strategy. Most do not have a good leadership and people strategy.
How would you rate yourself on each of these four competencies? What are you doing now or planning to do to become more competent? Your career and your life is your responsibility to keep under control. Think every day about these four areas of competency every day. The act of thinking about them will help you start to make the necessary changes to become more competent in each area, which will pay off in all parts of your life.
Thanks, Lee. This blog is bound to become a treasure trove of wisdom. I look forward to reading it daily.
Lee, I’ll have a couple of posts for this one. I think a possible change for the blog would be to increase the amount of writing space available. Currently it’s limited to only 500 characters so that inherently puts a limit on a discussion’s potential. Just a thought…Now to talk about your post. To get people to realize their leadership potential you have to break up the subject. Breaking it up into logical chunks is a good way to do that. *To be continued in another post)
Let’s take a look at what you called compitencies: Technical, Management, Technological, & Leadership. Let’s start with Technical. People’s leadership will generally extend from a rooting in some form professional/technical skills. It’s these skills that will give them the motivation to be leaders in their respective professions.
The Technological compitency is fairly self explanitory, but I believe that it sould be encompassed in the other two compitencies. *To be continued in another post.*
The other two compitencies need to be delved into further. I look at leadership as the art of making decisions. That is what leaders are there to do is make decisions. Now, making a decision is easy, it’s making the right decision and understanding why that’s the correct decision is hard. How do you make a decision, what’s the right way? These are the subjects that need to delved into; we can’t just assume people know these things. Now, let’s move onto after we make the decision. *Next post.*
How we carry out decisions is just as important as the decisions themselves. This is where your management compitency comes in. One thing that people have to learn is the relationship between leadership and management. You can be a good manager but a poor leader; on the other side you cannot be a good leader and be a poor manager. A lot of people (and subsequent teachings) leave this relationship out. As for the management compitency, *To be continued in next post.*
I think it would be beneficial to break out your management compitency as to how you should manage decisions properly and them you may find that your management and leadership compitencies meld together in a nice neat fashion. That’s all I have for the moment. I would love to exchange ideas, and a blog is a great way to start, and find new ideas. Thanks for creating this.
Young professional’s can achieve direction from your
Leadership Thoughts to help them develope the needed Four Competencies. Can’t wait to read your book. Waldo Cecil