Leadership: The eight essential skills

Being a visionary? 
Having a strong personality? 
Possessing business acumen?
Actually, none of the above are judged especially important by the men and women who know best – I interviewed many participants in my training and during senior management retreats out of the 46 chief executives and business leaders i came up with a definitive list of attributes.
Instead, they rated strategic thinking as the single most critical skill for a chief executive, followed by customer focus and the ability to communicate clearly.
The ability to bring the customer into the boardroom is seen as one of the top leadership skills today, according to the report. Organisations need to work harder to understand customer needs and deliver on brand promise, chief executives said, as “surprisingly” not all companies are customer-centric.
“It’s almost as if you need a parrot sitting on your shoulder repeating the mantra about let’s not forget the customer,” “On a listed company board, this is where non-execs can be so helpful.”
I urged business leaders to grasp the power of social media, where consumers can rate a company’s products or services online and companies cannot control what is said about them. “If you want to win your customers’ faith, you’ve got to go onto Facebook and Twitter and say, 'sorry, we’ve made a mistake’,” she said.
Other leadership attributes highlighted by the executives include being “flexible not floppy”, with successful bosses needing to know when to be resolute and pragmatic.
Alan Brown, chief executive of Rentokil, said: “Being flexible is vital and the only way for a business to succeed, but sometimes a little rigidity and inertia can stop an organisation lurching off on a short-lived fad.”
I strongly believe that partnerships with appropriate companies offer a better way of being more customer-centric. We have now reversed the cycle, we used to outsource anything that moved, now we are developing strategic partnerships so we can bring back the customer interface under our control, we need to carefully measure metrics and work with some people both in partnership whilst at the same time being in competition with them.
Surrounding yourself with great people is seen as an essential skill too, rather than having to be a dominant “personality”, the report shows. Just a third of bosses felt their role was to be “visionary”.
Bosses should form a clear view of the future and make sure they have “the right resources and the right talent” to help get there. Julian Metcalfe, founder of Pret A Manger and itsu, said: “The only essential skill of any entrepreneur is to know who’s got fire in their belly and who hasn’t, [who’s got] a shared goal to build businesses.”
Building a sense of trust and credibility is also key for chief executives operating in a transparent world.
Sir Paul Judge, chairman of various organisations, said: “[Leaders] must understand and foster positive engagement with employees, customers, suppliers, financiers, government and local communities, as if these are not supportive then it is very unlikely that the key objectives will be achieved.”
Leadership: The eight essential skills
1. Give a clear sense of direction
2. Bring the customer into the boardroom
3. Communicate clearly - inside and out
4. Be flexible but not floppy
5. Take risks but don’t bet the company
6. Build the team around you
7. Listen with humility, act with courage
8. Earn your reward through building trust
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