The_Essential_Manager_s_Handbook

112 / TAKING UP YOUR LEADERSHIP ROLE

Using competencies

Emulating the greats

Bookstores are lined with the biographies of famous

leaders that tell us how they acted and dealt with

adversity. A lesson that emerges from their life

stories is that you lead from who you are. To lead

effectively, you must be comfortable in your own

skin and live a life according to your own principles.

So, as much as you may admire Gandhi or Che

Guevara, you can’t copy them—this will give rise

to inconsistent behaviors that will be interpreted

as indecisiveness or insincerity.

Setting objective targets

A more realistic way to shape your aims as a leader

is through competencies. These short describers

set out the behaviors we would like to see in

ourselves as leaders. Competencies define what

effective performance as a leader looks like and—

through self-assessment and feedback—help

leaders to identify their development needs. You

can refer to and use a standard set of leadership

competencies to review your current performance

and set objectives, or devise your own after carrying

out suitable research and consultation.

How can you define what you need to become an effective leader? You

may get some inspiration from the lives of great business, political, and

military leaders of the past. However, a more reliable way of shaping

your objectives is to use competencies—descriptions of performance

outputs that characterize leadership in your organization.

Competencies define

what effective

performance as

a leader looks like

and help leaders

identify their

development needs

US_112-113_Using_competences.indd 112 31/05/16 5:28 pm