The room called skills is different from the room called characteristics.

We know that people bring to the workplace a variety of technical skills like keyboarding, operating a forklift, bookkeeping, and even closing sales.  Yet in this room called skills we want to examine leadership skills, not technical skills. 

Delegating is perhaps the easiest leadership skill to identify.  And once a leader “gets-it” that delegating is a skill then it becomes easier to identify other leadership skills like visioning, coaching, strategic planning, resolving conflict, etc.

Why is keyboarding a skill?  Why is delegating a skill? 

The short answer is that any skill has, at least, two things in common: 

1. A body of knowledge that can be learned and/or taught, and
2. Practice

Just imagine paying a tutor to teach you the body of knowledge about keyboarding but never practicing it.  What would you get?  Probably two finger typing

Just imagine an executive coach teaching you the body of knowledge about delegating but never practicing it.  What would you get?  Probably micromanagement.  And that, by the way, is a characteristic!

How many rooms in the house of leadership?

In a previous post we observed that there are at least six rooms.  Today we want to reference at least eight rooms in the house of leadership.  What are the rooms in the house of leadership?  Skill (s) is just one of the rooms in the house of leadership.  Characteristic (s) is another room in the house of leadership.  Two contrasting rooms in the house of leadership:  models vs. tools.  Insight is one room in the house of leadership.  Another room in the house of leadership:  Values. Two more contrasting rooms in the house of leadership:  practice vs. knowledge.  Talent, one of the rooms in the house of leadership, is the peak.

Grant writing is a technical skill; visioning is a leadership skill.  Visioning is a strategic leadership skill; delegating is tactical.  Informal coaching is a tactical leadership skill; mediating values differences is strategic.  Another strategic leadership skill is remaining highly visible.  Tactical leadership skills are for those working directly with team members.  Strategic leadership skills are for those working broadly across the organization.

Delegating is a skill; micromanaging is a characteristic.  Mediating values differences is a skill because it works across the organization.  Mediating values differences differs from another skill, resolving conflict.  Integrity is a characteristic; respect for the individual is a value.  Overcome the buddy syndrome is an insight; documenting is a skill.  Title VII is part of the Civil Rights Act – that’s knowledge, not a skill.  Cutting people out of the organization who choose not to perform is a best practice.

The leadership pipeline is a model; the needs triangle is a tool.  The house of leadership is a model; the performance appraisal is a tool.  Growing superstars with performance feedback is a best practice.  Candor is a characteristic, scripting is a skill.  Honesty, something we want in leaders, is not a skill.  There’s room for debate here:  integrity and honesty are not the same.  Transparency is a value, honesty is a characteristic.  Public relations is a skill while being forthright is a characteristic.

Want to recommend a room in the house of leadership?  Please comment. 

How many rooms are in the House of Leadership?  There are at least six.

So what are those rooms?  Come on in.  Let’s list them by contrasting them.

Skills versus Characteristics:  Delegating is a leadership skill.  Candor, something we appreciate in all leaders, is a characteristic but it is not a skill.  Honesty - is that a skill?  Nope, characteristic.  Charisma - is that a skill?  Nope, characteristic.  Visioning?  Yep, you got it.  That’s a skill.

Tools versus Models.  Performance appraisals are tools for developing talent.  The leadership pipeline is a good model to understand how to develop leadership talent.  A poorly completed performance evaluation is a bad model for demonstrating what not to do in developing talent.  The House of Leadership is a model.

Values versus Insight.  Most organizations have a list of values (e.g. we learn from our customers, respect for people, etc.) that they expect leaders to demonstrate.  That’s different from leadership insight that helps leaders change their perspective about moving people and the organization forward to new results.  For example, many first-time or first-level leaders need to “overcome the buddy syndrome” - that’s an insight.

Six rooms.  Are there more?  Sure. 

Consider just one of your leaders - which room might they step into for further development?