Page 203 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

192 HBR Leader’s Handbook

TABLE 6-1
Sample knowledge and skills for your leadership practices

Practice Knowledge Skill

Building a unifying vision Your company’s aspirations, Creative thinking, storytelling, ef-
competitive position, and fective use of analogies and visual
sources of strength from which thinking, ability to synthesize ideas
to create a future picture of and manage conflicts or disagree-
success ments in developing a consensus

Developing a strategy Customer needs, structures of Intelligence gathering, analysis,
markets, industry trends, com- problem solving, creative thinking,
petitive landscape decision making

Getting great people on Talent markets, recruiting and Salesmanship, coaching, giving
board development practices, top feedback, negotiating incentives
team management, compensa-
tion models

Focusing on results Performance management sys- Negotiation skills to invest people
tems and approaches, relevant with accountability, giving tough
metrics needed by strategy, feedback, resolving conflicts, mo-
best practices fostering collab- tivating individuals and groups,
oration, how to link strategy to decision making
operations

Innovating for the future Current business models and Managing change, managing con-

customer segments, competitive flict, both/and thinking, analyzing
threats and innovation trends, trade-offs, learning from failure,
emerging new-business models, experimentation
markets, technologies

Leading yourself General knowledge of business, Emotional intelligence, communi-
your industry, and company’s cating for influence and motivation,
history; broader trends in the building trust, time management
operating environment and prioritization

Getting the outside perspective

Even more than for your character and personal style, soliciting regular
outside feedback is a critical step in gaining self-awareness about where
you need to build your skills and knowledge. Whereas informal sugges-
tions about adjusting your style are often brief and nonthreatening (“It
would be helpful to be more patient when listening to objections from sub-
ordinates”), comments about your knowledge and skills might seem to cut
directly to your competence as a leader (“You really need to improve your