The Ultimate Guide to Leadership Skills: 5 Skills That Strengthen the Bottom Line

Summary: Leadership has taken some nasty hits in the last few years. High-profile leaders are here today and gone tomorrow. Initially holding promise, they disappoint and disappear. Here is what is needed for modern leadership training.

Dear Dr. Sylvia,

We have gone through five, yes five, COO’s in the past three years.

In addition, we are close to burnout, hoping to please all the various leaders.

My question is simple to ask. Not easy to get the right answers.

I want to know what is missing in leadership training these days.

Above all, I see you are one of the top 50 global leaders in management for 2023 by Thinkers 360.

Congrats, and please guide us to keep our new COO and thrive.

Signed,

Ready and Able

Fiscal havoc caused by self-serving executives with tunnel vision affects us all.

Dear Ready and Able,

Thanks for the acknowledgment of the Thinkers 360 award.

Most importantly, let me do my best to give you and your colleagues some ideas. I want to help with your COO dilemma.

It costs great amounts of money to keep changing leaders and employees.

Thus, we need to go under the obvious. You know, the tip of the iceberg is merely just that, the smallest part of the whole.

I am glad you bring up the basis of economics, which is more than merely the bottom line.

Economics, like sex, covers a broad range of behaviors and is basic to human desires.

Often, the two get mixed and muddied.

In short, now there is a movement to stand for a new type of ethics. That means considering the economics of emotions in the workplace.

Every day, we see the emotions of economics played out in boardrooms, courtrooms, and bedrooms.

Leadership trends include personal awareness and economic awareness.

According to a study done by LinkedIn, 27 percent of North American businesses are going to spend more on internal learning programs. Specifically, the research showed that the subjects both small and large companies most want to focus on are 1) management and leadership skills, 2) technical skills and 3) career development. – The Leadership Development Trends by Melissa Lamson

Today’s heroes are tomorrow’s devils. We don’t really believe business leaders or political leaders when we read their lips. The question of ours is “Where have all the leaders gone?”  Today we get the promise; tomorrow, the breach.

Studies have shown that 47 percent of managers don’t receive any training when they take a new leadership role. (globoforce)

Selfishness and ego flooding is causing all of us to be concerned about the global economc future.

Take a moment. Consider leaders who have made a difference in your own life. Take a broad look — history, celebrity, family, community. Can you count a dozen, nine, four? When I have asked this question around the world, most people hold up the fingers of one hand, often with a few fingers left to spare.

I’ve observed the same few well-known names constantly recycled with a sprinkling of personal heroes from family or beloved teachers. So, I looked at commonalities, impact themes, long-term patterns, and longevity.

I asked questions. What traits connect these leaders? Discuss what strategies are most important. What makes them stand out in a crowd?

For example, consider the concept of power. What is the best way to resolve conflict? How do the ends justify the means? How would they behave together on a desert island? What behaviors are the ones for you and me to model?

Leadership at the crossroads as we look to the future.

Leadership is at a crossroads.

The old military model doesn’t work anymore, and the new methods are just starting to come into focus. We are the generation of the in-between.

The good in this is that we can invent and reinvent what modern-day leadership skills are the most valuable.

Gallup data reveal an unsettling pattern in the U.S. workplace. Employees have little belief in their company’s leadership.

We have found that just:

22% of employees strongly agree that their organization’s leadership has a clear direction for the organization. And 15% of employees strongly agree that their organization’s leadership makes them enthusiastic about the future.

13% of employees strongly agree that their organization’s leadership communicates effectively with the rest of the organization. (Gallup)

Leadership charisma is losing ground in today’s world of social media.

One thing I know, charisma is not enough. Often, yesterday’s easy answers become today’s platitudes. Leadership styles are clashing.

In fact, we face polarization and hierarchy along with globalization and consensus.

Do you yearn for clarity? Do you wish there were simple and direct answers on who would be the right ones to follow? What are the new rules? Who can you trust?

All in all, looking at past decades of excess is essential.

Subsequently, the rich and famous in all walks of life are failing and falling. The icons of the past few decades are now on the ‘corrupt list.’ This concerns how they used power, money, and sex to get their way. The #metoo movement is forcing an adjustment to the system. Change is in the air.

When work is to engage the whole person, and leaders are the example, we are on a healthy path.

The bottom line world of red ink and black is (always was) cloudy.  Accounting and statistics can lie.

As can be seen, more information about neuropsychology is available.

Thus, we know that emotions and behavior patterns determine the perceptions through which spreadsheets, statistics, and stock values are analyzed.

Guess we’re finally realizing you can’t think without feeling. No matter how hard we want to compartmentalize, emotions push their way to couple with logic.

Three of the best books that fuse emotions and economics are:

1. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
2. Judgment in Managerial Decision Making by Max Bazerman. 
3. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.

It’s time to reevaluate the rational and emotional aspects of leadership convergence. There is now more bandwidth and a broader perspective to discuss leadership skills. We must look at what will sustain and help leaders develop more effective strategies.

It’s time to have long-lasting strategies that go beyond the quarterly report for positive and sustainable impact.

Today’s essential leadership questions.

• How much leadership capacity is inborn?
• How much is learned?
• What role does family background play in developing leaders?
• How important is the prevailing philosophy of a given culture?
• What impact do personal crises have on a leader’s ability to make decisions?
• When should leadership training begin, and what should be taught?

I began a series of challenging dialogues with leaders and teams.. Speaking with hundreds of leaders and emerging executives about the key leadership skills at this time in history was eye-opening.

I considered how revered leaders and those who are reviled make bottom-line decisions. In fact, I looked at how personal values impact economic choices. I had discussions with individuals from the United States, South America, Canada, Europe, and Asia. I took cultural as well as individual differences into consideration.

People cannot be changed, yet they can be awakened to new ways of thinking.

I decided to separate the specific skills of remarkable leaders. It was a challenge to set them against those used by leaders who crash and burn. I wanted to see if I could develop a cluster of behaviors and skills to be taught, practiced, and mastered.

My core idea focused on the construct that while people’s minds cannot be changed easily, they can be awakened. In my work, I found 5 interlocking skills that remarkable leaders have in common.

Firstly, the skills I came up with address communication. This includes character and confidence, which I discuss in detail in my Total Leadership Connections online program. I also consider the four other vital areas: orchestration, conflict resolution, diversity engagement, and motivation.

These skills are essential for all life areas; they work as well in families and businesses. If used properly, they have the capacity to help you make wiser economic decisions. These 5 skills impact health, wealth, and the legacy you leave for the future.

Leadership Skills: 5 Roles That Strengthen the Bottom Line

The 5 skills to follow are linked together to create a total leader. In my lexicon, a total leader is one who can focus on wholeness. That means creating connections and seeking sustainable results. Total leaders base their economic principles on fiscal thinking, including the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profits.

These 5 leadership skills are game changers.

They cannot merely be practiced as you would a golf swing. They are mindset changes you practice by observing yourself differently, especially your reaction patterns. Y

You spend time addressing what triggers you to be upset. Then, what makes you soar to new heights of creativity, and what really makes a difference? These skills take time and dedication to master. They’re worth the investment for the underlying transformation that will complete your life.

Some will come easily to you — and others will require more attention. Together, they create a platform from which your leadership abilities can impact and transform. That means not just you personally. It also is about those with whom you share your life journey. Both at work and those with whom you share the journey of home.

Skill #1: The orchestrator is a master of systems thinking.

The 5 skills of remarkable leaders begin with The Orchestrator. This is the leader who strategizes to achieve the desired overall effect. This is one of leadership’s most commonly discussed, misunderstood, and vital action components.

The Orchestrator considers the purpose, the form, and the flow of what needs to be done. Like any first-class conductor, all parts are considered. Rather than just content, context is critical to successful long-term strategies.

The Orchestrator is a searcher for those patterns that connect. Much like Sherlock Holmes, The Orchestrator is a detective probing for deeper meaning, looking beneath the obvious.

What If the Captain of the Titanic had, upon seeing the tip of the iceberg, asked, “What, if anything, is underneath the surface of the ocean? ” The consequences could have been incredibly different.

Freud asked, Jung asked. They opened us to a world of mystery and curiosity. This is a world of inner space as vast and important as the world of outer space, a world that exists under the glass floor of the obvious.

Today, . They lead us to new possibilities for our collective future.

A key skill for leaders as Orchestrators is to help others learn to think for themselves

A manager tells, a leader asks.

Orchestra leaders go beyond political correctness and point to the future, even if it’s controversial or uncomfortable. The more difficult questions are often the ones that open the floodgates to innovation and smarter strategies. They are not, however, meant to divide and conquer. Those days are wasteful and cause useless disruption. Rather, the conductor of positive strategy helps people see more effective ways of collaborating. This creates long-term good for future generations.

The fairy tale about King Midas is a good way to think about leaders and their frailties.

He was the big honcho, the orchestrator. However, he was flawed, like so many who are being called upon to look at the consequences of their actions in the present time.

Midas wanted riches. He got his wishes. Everything he touched turned to gold. Initially, he was plenty happy — a strong investment portfolio feared by other kingdoms. He was large and in charge. Yet, the beautiful little princess ran toward him, calling out “Daddy, Daddy,” and touched him before he could stop her.

A loving relationship became frozen into gold.

The desire for the unlimited King Midas style of wealth at the expense of relationships is often called lawsuits, divorce, prison, or alienation. This type of greed has had an economic effect for years.

How many present-day King Midas’ can you count? What destruction have they caused to the family, employees, stockholders, or others they never met?

The hardest part of being an Orchestrator is thinking through how the system you lead is connected at so many points. Understanding systems thinking is critical to increasing your organization’s chance to survive and thrive in these times of constant change.

Peter Drucker, one of the deans of business thinkers, states that “the post-industrial society is based upon knowledge, information, and ideas. The visionary (orchestrator) plays a key role, for it is in the wondering of “what if” that the new is synthesized from the old.”

Skill #2:  The Communicator who helps us look at new perspectives wins.

The next leadership skill that is vital for strong leaders is the Communicator. The ability to express humor, compassion, and commitment are core to the skill of communicating effectively. Skilled communicators uplift, encourage, and hold the space for outmoded patterns of conversing to die, giving room for more useful ways of interacting to be born. 

Often, the skilled communicator works by indirection, talking about someone else or using a story from ages past that is directly pertinent to you in the present moment. Often, the quality of the presentation is so sublime you don’t even realize you are being asked to rethink what is happening in your work setting. The skilled communicator will use a personal story or something from literature or film to make a point. 

Lin Manuel Miranda is a great example of a communicator. In his Broadway success, Hamilton: An American Musical, he lights up the stage with the history of how the United States was born into a modern-day rap story. Using hip-hop, rhythm and blues, pop music, soul music, and traditional style show tunes, he tackles all 5 skills needed for leadership: Orchestration, communication, conflict resolution, diversity, and the ability to motivate. 

High-level communication skills require time to be spent to craft sentences that will encourage and enhance relationships. The big question is: Who do you want to persuade, and what do you want as an outcome from your communication?

“To be an effective coach, most managers need to adjust the content of their conversations and their approach to employee communication. Gone are the days when most managers tell employees what to do and how to do it without much of a response. Instead, great managers rely on two-way conversations and collaboration to set expectations and goals.”(Gallup)

A skilled communicator takes people to places they would not ordinarily go alone. 

They use language and presence to help others catch the dream. What separates this skill from great presenters, great jokesters, and great storytellers is the intention and the capacity to tell the truth. There is an important aspect of communication that is aligned with discipline. Truth-telling is a disciplined art form.

Please remember, telling the truth is NOT the same as spilling your guts! 

Did you ever hear one of Hitler’s speeches? You don’t have to understand German to get the feeling of the power of persuasion and hate. On the other hand, Martin Luther King could move huge gatherings to think about and take action toward a world free from racism—two sides of the same persuasion coin. On the world stage, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela, among others, were clear and powerful communicators.

Their common themes addressed the ‘better angels of our nature,’ the human desire for freedom and equality. Compare this to the communicators whose dark visions caused devastation. Stalin, Saddam Hussein, and now, Bashar al-Assad, who built empires of wealth and fame only to be extinguished in bursts of pain and shame. 

What can happen in a world of work if more leaders spend their time crafting their communication to uplift people rather than tear them down or cause the rifts that lead to the fear and violence that make humans constrict and hide behind walls?

Skill #3: The Conflict Resolver saves time, money, and relationships.

When you think of someone with the skill to resolve conflict, think electrician, architect, and weaver. Those who can find the “pearls in the manure pile” can see the patterns that connect people to each other, people to ideas, people to places.

Conflict resolvers can see, hear, and feel how today’s adversities grew out of yesterday’s disappointments and how tomorrow’s successes will come from today’s conflict resolution.

This skill requires living with complexities in a multi-layered world past simplicities and superficialities. This requires you to become a cross-pollinator. You learn to take from the worlds of business, art, psychology, and spiritual traditions and explore the trends — the threads of how the old fits into what is developing and is new.

“Most employment matters don’t end up in court, but for those that do, the damages can be substantial. The median judgment is approximately $200,000, which is in addition to the cost of defense. About 25% of cases result in a judgment of $500,000 or more. (Hiscox)”

The skill of being a conflict resolver will, in the future, be called a synthesizer.

Chris Anderson, Chairman of the TED conferences who hosts a myriad of divergent thinkers, put it wisely, “True innovators and strategic value are going to be found more and more in the synthesizers — the people who draw together stuff from multiple fields and use that to create an understanding of what a company should do.”

Pavarotti, an icon of the opera world, helped develop a series of concerts called “War Child” to raise money for kids suffering from the abuses of living in war-torn countries. This is a synergistic blend of talents that shows the healing force of music.

With his classical skills and years of experience, it would have been easy for Pavarotti to see himself way above a recently anointed pop star. Yet, there he sang rock or country western with many multi-generational, multi-cultural individuals as he wove together a tapestry of goodwill. Conflict resolvers know-how is to be inclusive, not exclusive.

The conflict resolver requires a shift in mindset that is often radical in nature.

Often, to resolve conflict, you must give up long-held beliefs and leave the prescribed path to begin an unexpected journey in a new way.

Frequently, I work with people who stay firm in their desire to win any discussion. Everything is a debate. Somehow, I want to help them see they are stuck —Stuck with the proposition that it’s better to be “right than happy.”

Joseph Campbell, in his book Hero of a Thousand Faces, explains the role of the Conflict Resolver. Usually, life goes on relatively comfortably, and then suddenly, someone says something that gets your goat.

Just a point of interest, the expression ‘got your goat’ means to anger or upset someone — throwing someone off his game. The phrase originated when goats were companions to calm high-strung racehorses).

Circumstances require a decisive, even heroic intervention

It’s a time to speak out and not choose sides. It’s a time to see what can be done to offer a salve for the slings and arrows being flung around.

That’s what Ken did. He was already a highly successful entrepreneur. He sold his company for a large profit and was ready for fun in the sun. And then someone said something and ‘got his goat.’

He was no longer willing to let the community he lived in fight about gay rights with all the ugly and nasty comments and signs everywhere he looked.

Knowing since childhood he was gay, yet coming from a strict family in a community that has little appreciation for difference, he had remained silent. When he finally, after selling his business, said the truth, he entered a world of alienation.

Now divorced with two teenage daughters, he decided he would not shy away from conflict. In fact, he would engage.

Therefore, he took on the naysayers on both sides of the equation using the skills he had honed from his days as a leader in a powerful company.

He developed a program to help people learn new ways of coping with anger. They no longer fear compromise or are seen as weak or wrong. He also developed study guides to examine the triggers of conflict that come early in life when youngsters learn to become bullies, avoiders, or deniers.

He shared his story at a community meeting. Then, talked about his first-hand knowledge of how the waste of energy translates into economic waste. While some still want to beat others down, there has been a shift in the community, and more people are joining his group to look at alternative ways to handle anger triggers. This is a great step to a better community future.

Skill #4: The Diversity Engager is most important at this time.

What comes to your mind when you think about diversity in the workplace? Most of us consider gender, race, cultural background, age,  and disabilities. Yet, there is so much more to think about, starting with you. Different learning styles can cause conflict. Some people need to steep themselves in details, while others grab what comes along to make decisions. Concrete learners often clash with abstract learners. And yet, this is rarely considered when discussing diversity. 

And there is unconscious bias. 

This considers automatic patterns of thinking and feeling as the brain makes quick judgements based on past experience or cultural prejudices. These thought patterns keep us fearful of others who are from different backgrounds. Decisions are then made about the stereotype rather than the person in front of you. This creates economic difficulties over time and can cause class action suits and poor quality of production at work. 

What research indicates is that hiring people with different personality traits and at various stages of their careers helps to foster creativity and new ways of thinking through old problems. It has been shown to increase the bottom line by getting people out of their comfort zones and being asked to look at the discomfort of unconscious bias. Most important, leaders who become diversity engagers take a deep look inside their own lives to see how family, culture, and crises have impacted the way they respond to others. 

There is strength in viewing diversity from an internal perspective. 

Charles, the head of a business unit of a global company, knew he needed to communicate more effectively with his 30-member team. He knew there was an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with his . 

With several coaching sessions, he became aware of what was holding him and the rest of his team back. He tapped at the glass ceiling of cultural bias,  of being proper and polite at the annual sales off-site. First, he tapped lightly, then with more courage, he broke through to a new level of authenticity and openness. Come with me to the offsite, where diversity engagement made a world of difference. 

Charles started by talking about his learning style. Acknowledging that his concrete method of checking off each box and looking at his colleagues’ reports with a red pen in hand, like a teacher grading a paper, drove many of his talented colleagues nuts. He said he knew that his style made him seem cold and uncaring. And yes, that was true. He did care, yet had difficulty showing it. 

Then, he took a deep dive into his own personal story. He talked about growing up in China and Taiwan and coming to America when he was twelve years old. In addition, he shared that he learned English by watching television and took his English name after Chuck Norris, the martial artist and actor.

He decided Chuck was too informal, so he became Charles. He told the group that during coaching sessions, when I, his coach, asked him how he felt, he would get nervous, not knowing how to respond. “For you see,” he said, “in the Chinese culture, feelings are rarely discussed, and in my biological family, never.” 

His business unit sat in rapt attention. He asked them to help him with the “F” word, stating that he wanted to be more in touch with and express his “feelings.”  He smiled, surprisingly relieved that he had told his diversity story. Until so recently, he had put up a shield and protected his Chinese heritage, not realizing it did make a difference in how he led his team. 

Then, back at work, something happened. There was more openness, more sharing of cultural histories, more safety to express what it felt like to be black or Asian or older or gay. The results of this openness was underlined at the end of the fiscal year when the unit Charles led was the top producer in sales.  Economic advantage came through the power of engaged diversity.

Skill #5: The Motivator is the skill that interfaces with all the others at the deepest conscious level.

A motivator is an individual who has moved beyond the ego needs for recognition, power, or a drive to acquire excessive material possessions. While you can certainly lead from a place of fulfilling ego needs, the difference is that the true motivator leads from maturity and long-range perspective.

A motivator is an individual who wants to be sure that people’s highest priorities are being met, who considers the welfare of those around him or her when making all decisions. This is someone who is able to praise employees and give recognition for a job well done.

The motivator understands that the world of work is essential for psychological and spiritual growth, and to that end offers employees opportunities to participate in internal and external learning seminars.

Motivators are not pie in the sky idealists. They can say ‘no’ when necessary and be brutally frank if need be. Their essential mandate is to help those in their employ grow and develop high-level skills of their own. Then there is a stronger chance in both the short and long terms for greater business success.

Motivators know that “Work is not a rehab facility.” They do not coddle, they assist.

“Showing up and staying. Engaged employees make it a point to show up to work and do more work — highly engaged business units realize a 41% reduction in absenteeism and a 17% increase in productivity.

Engaged workers also are more likely to stay with their employers. In high-turnover organizations, highly engaged business units achieve 24% lower turnover. In low-turnover organizations, the gains are even more dramatic: Highly engaged business units achieve 59% lower turnover.

High-turnover organizations are those with more than 40% annualized turnover, and low-turnover organizations are those with 40% or lower annualized turnover.”(Gallup)

Motivators have learned to look at situations from their perspectives, step out of their personal space, and look from the eyes of others. They ask great questions and help those in their charge develop into orchestrators. This is how they create clear visions that can be implemented.

Interestingly, they are not in competition for being the best. They encourage the best in everyone around them.

High-level motivators can save the company from a costly and wasteful hostile workplace lawsuit

Shirley, a disgruntled employee, claimed her situation at work was causing her emotional stress and physical distress. Her new boss, Kevin, was tasked with cleaning up the legal mess.

Kevin met with Shirley and listened to the emotional content and the facts she presented. He was looking for a way to create a new reality for her at work. There was a desire to keep her filled with creative energy rather than constant stress.

He listened. In the course of minutes, Shirley used the word ‘isolated’ four times. Here is how his leadership skill learning about communication paid dividends. He learned to listen for context, not just content. There was also a new understanding of thesystem, not just the presenting problem.

He told me the word “isolated” seems curious since she worked in an open setting with nine other individuals. He always saw her go to the cafeteria for lunch with several teammates.

Kevin, her boss, did not want to invade the private world of his direct report.

Yet, he wanted to help if he could.

Her answer was the clue to averting a lawsuit.

Initially, she hesitated and sat looking at Kevin as if to decide how safe it was to talk openly. Finally, she said, “Kevin, I don’t know why I’m telling you this, however, you truly seem interested in helping me, so I will give it a go.”

Shirley continues,” You see, I grew up in foster care and I always felt very alone, as if no one really cared.”

Kevin didn’t probe into her personal life. Instead, he asked, “What in your present job causes you to have similar feelings now?” Shirley responded, “It was John, your predecessor. He treated us like objects, pawns on a chess table. We were simply computers. Computers that could walk and talk.

Self-serving leaders often consider employees to be human robots who bleed when cut.

Kevin listened. He was motivating her to find her own solution and was willing to help her grow past her stress. She continued, “I swore after the awfulness of foster care I would always stand up for myself when I felt ignored or, well, isolated. I could never go to him for help, he just brushed me off saying he was busy and to figure it out myself.”

Kevin continued to encourage, to motivate Shirley to come to a new and more productive solution than going the legal route. Of course, her sense of isolation was emotional, not physical and had started long before this job.

He helped to develop a strategy where Shirley could come to talk with him when she felt overwhelmed or sidelined. At first, he worried that she would take up too much bandwidth and yet, decided to give this open door policy an opportunity. He motivated her to learn more about old, ingrained behavior patterns and she was able to go to some workshops for emerging leaders to get her ready for next level success.

Within a month, Shirley dropped the lawsuit.

In fact, Shirley did not need constant counsel from Kevin. Her work flourished.

In addition, Kevin gained recognition from senior management for his ability to tackle the ugly world of a harassment lawsuit with poise and grace.

In conclusion, the idea that we can practice becoming more like the leaders we admire and want to emulate is powerful.

This is beyond imitation; you practice the skills and make them yours in your own personal, unique way. The idea that there are mindsets, not just concepts, that we can change to develop leadership mastery is a whole new ball game. You are not parroting others; you are implementing core behaviors to enhance your ways of relating to others.

These five leadership skills strengthen the ability to lead and impact the bottom line in powerful, positive ways.

For example, leaders who are able to look at the whole system, how all aspects of the organization, of the community, connect can have long-term impact.

I believe businesses are searching for the type of leaders who exemplify the 5 skills discussed here: individuals who want to leave a legacy of health, hope, and creative possibilities. This is an exemplary route to fiscal success and relationship fulfillment.

“The rulebook is being rewritten. Leaders must decide what role they want to play in their organization — now in the midst of change and in the future. They can be passive bystanders or active participants in creating and guiding an exceptional workplace.”(Gallup)

I respectfully dedicate this blog to those who will be the role models for the future, the total leaders our world deeply requires.

To your success,

Sylvia Lafiar

PS. Contact us for more information about our programs and coaching availalbe for you and your team.