Leadership at a Glance

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from publications by John Baldoni, J Edward Russo and Paul Schoemaker, Paul Nutt, Pamela Harper

The Three Essential Leadership Skills: Communication Skills, Decision-Making Skills, Execution Skills

Leadership is an ancient discipline, and from China’s Book of Emperors in the 8th century A.D. to On Becoming a Leader in 1989 (which established Warren Bennis as the father of leadership studies), discussion of this subject has continued unabated. What is leadership? While the mental images held by many experts, scholars and business leaders may vary, in terms of concrete abilities, leadership is expressed in three areas: communication, decision-making and execution.

Leaders who can’t communicate effectively are unable to truly lead people. This is because the people who follow them receive no leadership message, and are thus unsure which direction to head in, what to do and why to do it; creating consensus and establishing trust are of course out of the question. Decision-making lies at the core of leadership, and functions like the central nervous system, sending out signals to the peripheral nerves to create coordinated movements. And as decision-making is a centralized function where one command can affect an entire organization, how can we allow decisions to be made on the basis of individual instincts or common knowledge?

Once leaders have become proficient at communication and decision-making, they must pass their final and most difficult test — execution. Even when communication is good and the right decision has been made, if gridlock occurs in the execution process, all efforts will come to naught. Strategic gridlock is a leader’s worst nightmare, and in order to break through the mist, the U-N-L-O-C-K theory must be applied to get things back on track, fully execute strategy and achieve the final goal.

While these leadership principles may not be easy to learn, they are extremely useful. From now on, leaders need not fear a constantly shifting environment. These three keys to leadership are the best guarantee of excellent results.