Chapter 12
Effective Leader Skills
This session will cover an opening profile, effective global leaders’ tasks, attributes of global
context and associated clusters of skills, other leadership characteristics, blue ocean leadership,
and a scenario.
Opening Profile: Skillful Leadership in the Coffee Industry - Howard Schultz
Howard Schultz is famous for his transformation and evolution of the coffee industry via
Starbucks. Starting as a sales director in the declining coffee industry in California in the 1980s,
he was largely responsible for creating a coffee-drinking resurgence in the US by increasing the
quality, variety of coffee products, and the prestige of “gourmet” coffee. He also increased the
price in order to pay for high-quality ingredients, better labor (now called baristas) and access
(choice locations), and high profit margins. Thus, he shaped the company by his strong
leadership style and personal skill set.
As noted in the opening profile of CEOs at Apple and Starbucks, effective global leadership
needs to be skillful. Global leaders are responsible for a range of tasks that call for several skills.
A study of global leadership identified these tasks as follows:
1. working with colleagues from other nations
2. interacting with external clients from other nations
3. interacting with internal clients from other nations
4. speaking in a non-native language at work
5. supervising employees from different nations and nationalities
6. negotiating with partners from other nations and nationalities
7. managing foreign vendors
8. developing strategic business plan on a worldwide basis
9. managing budget on a worldwide basis
10. managing risks on a worldwide basis.
Attributes of Global Context and Associated Clusters of Skills
Two attributes of the global context and two associated clusters of knowledge and skills are
required for the global leadership of tomorrow:
1. Change and complexity
Global leaders need to understand the changing business context, and factor into their strategic
goal-setting the complexities of business risks and opportunities. They also need to know how
their sector and other actors (competitors, partners, customers, suppliers, investors,
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nongovernment organizations, etc.) are responding. The cluster of skills required to manage
change and complexity is referred to as organization-oriented skills.
2. Connectedness and plurality
Effective dialogue and partnership requires proficient communication and influence skills for
bringing about change in attitudes of both internal and external constituents. The cluster of skills
required to manage connectedness and plurality is referred to as people-oriented skills.
Organization-oriented category is comprised of the following skills:
1. goal-setting skills
2. responsibility skills
3. continual learning
4. technical skills
People-oriented category includes these skills:
1. intercultural skills
2. communication skills
3. social skills
4. influence skills
Below is the brief overview of the eight leadership skills:
1. Goal setting is the ability to select and priorities objectives. This skill has two subelements: the ability to get the facts and analyze the data; the ability to handle
uniqueness, integrate creativity, and evolve with problem resolution. In order to improve
goal setting, one might follow certain recommendations:
1) Be sensitive to organizational needs.
2) Balance competing values.
3) Develop cognitive complexity.
4) Harness ideas but do so with vision and inclusiveness.
2. Responsibility is taking of positions requiring broader decision-making duties and
greater authority. This skill has two sub-elements: acceptance of different
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responsibilities, willingness to use power in acceptable ways. In order to improve
responsibility skills, one might follow certain recommendations:
1) Understand different types of responsibility.
2) Develop a socialized power orientation.
3) Learn to use influence strategies.
3. Continual learning is responsibility for acquiring new information, looking at old
information in new ways, and finding ways to use new and old information creatively.
This skill has two sub-elements: the ability to glean and use new information to solve
problems, the ability to expand knowledge. In order to improve continual learning, one
might follow certain recommendations:
1) Focus on benefits of learning.
2) Learn from surprises and problems.
3) Find ways to challenge assumptions and mental models.
4) Invest in learning despite turbulent or difficult times.
4. A technical skill is the basic professional and organizational knowledge and practice
associated with an area of work. This skill has several sub-elements: technical
information and skills of the profession, information about the organization, basic
knowledge/skills. In order to improve technical skills, one might follow certain
recommendations:
1) Assess your level of technical skills and the skills actually necessary for the position.
2) Develop a plan to improve selected technical skills.
5. An intercultural skill is a set of skills for interacting with people from diverse cultural
and global communities. This skill has several sub-elements: cultural intelligence,
cultural sensitivity, multiculturalism, cross-cultural adaptation. In order to improve
intercultural skills, one might follow certain recommendations:
1) Learn about other cultures.
2) Appreciate other cultures’ views on the world.
3) Find ways to allow different cultures to coexist.
4) Learn to adapt to other cultures rather than always staying in your own.
6. A communication skill is the ability to effectively exchange information through active
and passive means. This skill has several sub-elements: oral skills, writing skills,
listening skills, nonverbal skills. In order to improve communication skills, one might
follow certain recommendations:
1) Assess communication skills to identify strengths and weaknesses.
2) Develop a plan to address weaknesses.
7. A social skill is the ability to interact effectively in social settings and to understand and
productively harness one’s own and others’ personality structures. This skill has several
sub-elements: personality likability, expressiveness, social perceptiveness. In order to
improve social skills, one might follow certain recommendations:
1) Take a critical look at your social skills and identify those that are weak.
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2) Develop a plan to address social weaknesses that are critical.
8. An influence skill is the actual use of sources of power through concrete behavior
strategies. This skill has two sub-elements: the effectiveness with which one uses
influence strategies, the range of influence strategies that one has to use. In order to
improve influence skills, one might follow certain recommendations:
1) Assess sources of power and ability to use influence tactics.
2) Develop the discipline to augment power.
3) Understand and cultivate influence strategies.
4) Guard against the corrosive effects of power.
Beyond Skills: Other Leadership Characteristics
Although this session covers the major traits and skills identified as most important, it is not
comprehensive. There are other leader characteristics frequently mentioned in the leadership
literature:
1. Energy of the leader. To have energy is to have the physical and psychological ability to
perform. It is a better indicator of long-term leadership success (at least in terms of
advancement to leadership positions) than many traits (Howard & Bray 1988).
2. Physical appearance. Individuals with a good appearance based on grooming,
comportment, health, height, or attractiveness have been found to have a distinct edge;
however, it seems that the nature of the appearance that makes a difference is situationspecific.
3. Connection between social background and leadership. Greater wealth tends to mean
more education attained at better universities in general. Economic and social
connections also play a role, albeit not as prominent a role as they once did.
Blue Ocean Leadership
Kim and Mauborgne’s (2014) blue ocean leadership is a useful approach for leadership
development that focuses on the development of a compelling leadership skill profile grounded
in actions that are easy to observe, measure, and are directly linked to performance. Members
who face market realities are asked for their direct input regarding what acts and activities their
leaders do that hold them back and what they need from their leaders but aren’t currently
receiving. Blue ocean leadership focuses on distributed leadership, i.e. leadership distributed at
the senior, middle, and frontline levels.
Blue ocean leadership emphasizes that many of the acts and activities that take up leaders’ time
actually work against them being effective. By releasing their time from these activities, the
leaders can be reenergized to focus more on strategic acts and activities.
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In order to achieve high impact and low cost, Blue ocean leadership offers three analytical tools:
the leadership canvas, the leadership profile, and the blue ocean leadership grid. These tools are
grounded in acts and activities, easy to understand and communicate, and engage more people in
an organization. They are based on a four-step process:
1. See your leadership reality
The first step for managing changes in leadership is to achieve a common understanding of
where leadership stands today and where the shortfalls are. Blue ocean leadership offers the
leadership canvas as an analytic visual to show the acts and activities leaders currently undertake
and invest their time and intelligence in. Except in smaller or flat organizations, the canvas is
prepared for each level of leadership—frontline, middle, and senior.
2. Develop alternative to-be leadership profiles
Once a shared understanding of the current leadership reality is built in the organization, the next
step is to develop alternative leadership profiles. Users and customers of each level are tasked
with thinking of an exemplary or effective leadership prototype, based on their experiences
outside the organization and/or at other leadership levels inside the organization. In relation to
this prototype, each team identifies cold spots—actions that absorb leaders’ time and intelligence
but add little or negative value—and hot spots actions that are likely to have a high positive
impact on releasing employee energy and talents but currently are under-invested in by leaders or
not undertaken at all. Using the blue ocean leadership grid (see Exhibit 12.11), the teams sort the
cold spot actions into the “eliminate and reduce” quadrants, and the hot spot actions into the
“raise and create” quadrants.
3. Select the desired to-be leadership profile
Once three alternative leadership profiles have been prepared, the next step is to hold a
leadership fair where users and customers of each level are given three Post-it Notes, and tasked
to put one next to their desired to-be leadership canvas based on this leadership profile, the
senior leadership team then decides on a to-be leadership profile at each level, along with the
rationale for the decision.
4. Institutionalize your new leadership profiles
Once the desired to-be leadership profile is selected for each level, the next step is to validate the
profiles by consulting with all the users and customers. The validation ensures that the new
leadership profile resonates with everybody, and overcomes residual cognitive, motivational, and
political hurdles that might block the implementation of change. It also allows leaders at each
level to easily understand and act with speed and clarity on what needs to be eliminated, reduced,
raised, and created to achieve the new leadership profile.
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Scenario: Focusing on Skills in Development
Leah Rubenstein is a regional assistant director. Most of her direct reports are men, who are
critical of women leaders. She gives terse verbal orders that she has carefully thought about in
advance. She keeps personal interactions to a minimum so that the work setting can be as
“professional” as possible. Her influence tactics are position-based strategies with some rational
persuasion in writing. She rarely uses consultation or person-based influence strategies.
Generally, she likes to do things “by the book,” which is a strength in terms of consistency but a
weakness in terms of fresh ideas. Most of her subordinates respect her but do not like her.
After analyzing the case, the following questions are to be answered:
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•
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Use a skills approach to discuss how she is overcompensating. What does she need to
work on?
How would you suggest that she change her developmental plan for the upcoming year to
better broaden her leadership abilities?
How could you model the behavior that she needs to emulate?
© Taylor & Francis 2015