Over at CIO.com I found an article about “Why Managers Need People Skills”.
The skills the article finds to be most useful are:
- Assuredness
- Confidence
- Likability
For me, the main people skill missing from this list is feedback. The ability to give and receive positive and constructive feedback is for me one of the most important and challenging aspects of leadership.
Feedback is the key to two other important areas of leadership, i.e. building trust and empowering people.
Building trust takes time. It has to be earned and it is difficult to substitute.
Empowering people means giving them the training, skills, support and trust to let them make their own mistakes and achieve their own successes. If a leader has neglected to build trust between himself and his subordinates, then empowerment becomes at best a sort of a straw man argument.
“To lead, an ability to communicate as well as understand, support and develop people is essential. “
