What are you best at?

A skillset is your ability as a leader to carry out tasks effectively, find solutions and inspire those around you. It’s vital that your actions and decision-making extract the best from your each aspect of business.

As your company matures, your role within it will also evolve. This can be understandably challenging, to adopt new responsibilities and potentially alter the dynamic between you and your colleagues. It might be the case that you have assumed a position you were not intending to take. If this is the case, I can assure you…

Leadership is learned on the job.

A limiting mindset – Technician

Having a valuable skillset earns a more senior position. Your indispensable knowledge in a certain area means you had the answers to the right questions and therefore, rose to the top.

However, knowing a subject inside-out is admirable, but to lead an organisation, you will need a wider range of skills in a number of areas. You must focus on your colleagues and employees, a complexity of tasks, as well as the present and future aspirations of the business. It’s not simple.

During my coaching, I find that an important part of taking new responsibilities is moving away from being a ‘technician.’ By this I mean a person who is incredibly proficient in a specific area, with great practical value and operational know-how. Every company needs technicians, but to dedicate sufficient attention to a greater diversity of elements, you will have to step back from the nitty-gritty and look at the wider picture.

Your new focuses are as follows…

A missing element – ‘What’s next...?’

As a technician, you functioned in the here and now. In contrast, you must have a sense of direction and where each action is ultimately taking your business to lead effectively. Putting out fires and meeting short-term goals can seem productive, but a more considered, strategic approach will be less scattergun and ensure more successful outcomes.

It can be tempting to dip back into old ways of working; however, this will not equip your employees in the long-run. Your specific skills won’t be wasted; they’ll be invaluable as you supervise. This is a time for guidance, rather than action.

Strategy can sound daunting, but fundamentally it comes down to reviewing the past and present performance of your company and deciding how this can be improved. No one expects you to be able to see into the future.

Beyond thinking ahead from an organisational perspective, you should also assess what skills you might need to develop. Leaders can never understand everything; in fact, you will probably need to expand your knowledge at a faster rate than others. With a more holistic focus, changes in the market, alongside external factors to keep an eye on, the learning never stops.

A different perspective – What about them?

The key skill any leader possesses is the impacting those around them.

To get the best out of your colleagues and employees, you will need to regard these things:

Performance: Are they meeting targets? What are they best at? Do they need training?

Development: Do they have the potential for promotion? How they better their proficiencies?

Emotion: Are they happy at work? Is their home life impacting their job? How can you support them professionally?

These are a lot of concerns to keep in mind, but it’s very unlikely you will have to make all these decisions at once. As with other more academic and practical skills, emotional intelligence is a project, which we tend to improve upon as we become older and more experienced. Leaders who make a genuine connection with their staff tend to enjoy greater retention rates, increased dedication and consequently, better results. If you can make it a priority to manage the people as well as the processes and figures, this can be you.

Your personal skillset is just one of a number of factors that will decide the success of your business. Despite this, it’s also one of the most controllable. Perfection isn’t possible. Know what your company needs and work from there; be open-minded and the rest will follow…