Leadership Fundamentals Understanding Your Role – Module 1

Leadership Fundamentals Understanding Your Role is a topic that covers the essential skills and behaviors that leaders need to perform their roles effectively and achieve their goals. According to some sources, some of the core leadership skills that leaders need in every role are:

• Self-awareness: Leaders need to know and lead themselves before they can lead others. They need to assess their strengths, weaknesses, values, biases and perspectives, and seek feedback and improvement opportunities.
• Communication: Leaders need to communicate clearly, concisely and persuasively with different audiences and in different situations. They need to write, speak and listen well, and use appropriate channels and tools for communication.
• Influence: Leaders need to inspire, motivate and persuade others to follow their vision, direction and guidance. They need to build trust, credibility and rapport, and use various influence tactics and strategies.
• Learning agility: Leaders need to adapt to changing environments, learn from new experiences, and apply their learning to new challenges. They need to be curious, open-minded and flexible, and seek diverse perspectives and feedback.

Understanding your role as a leader also involves being clear about your purpose, your responsibilities, your expectations, your challenges,  and your opportunities. It involves aligning your personal purpose with the purpose of your team and your organization, and communicating it effectively. It involves fulfilling your responsibilities in a manner that meets or exceeds the expectations of your stakeholders, such as your boss, your peers, your direct reports, your customers and your shareholders. It involves recognizing and overcoming the challenges that you face as a leader at different levels of the organization, such as leading yourself, leading others, leading teams or leading change. It involves seizing the opportunities that you have as a leader to grow yourself, develop others, improve performance and make a positive impact.