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What Leaders Do
What Leaders Do
What Leaders Do
Ask most managers about their daily leadership activities, and I bet
they’d snarl back at you: “I make money.” That’s certainly one
aspect of leadership, although we know from research that
about 21.4 million middle managers add absolutely no value back to
their firm. So, there’s that! The other response you’d likely get to
“What leadership activities are you chasing this week?” is Buzzword
Boulevard: “I’m working on organic feedback in a mission-driven way.” Both of these answers
mean absolutely nothing, and would not help someone become a better leader or manager down
the road.
So, what are the leadership activities people need to focus on? I’d argue most of them are
probably soft skills, which terrifies a lot of executives. Why? Executives are about execution —
not about fluffy stuff like “communicating better.” They want to run their business via The
Spreadsheet Mentality, and not run it via “I need to give Johnny his precious feedback.” It’s a
real issue. We often gloss it over.
We’ve also got research on eight crucially effective leadership skills, and research on
what leadership skills lists should look like for executives. But those are lists of skills — they’re
not actions and activities, per se. What do we know about leadership activities?
Leadership Activities: Newer research
Here’s a new article called “The Most Important Leadership Competencies According To Leaders
Around The World.” Seems noble. It’s 195 leaders from 15 countries and 30
organizations/industries. Not a huge sample size, but what can we learn about leadership
activities? The author groups the key competency findings into themes, seen visually here: