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Guest post by: Rita B. Allen Become an Author

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Leadership skills and competencies are a requirement for most professionals in this competitive marketplace.  The ability to bring out capabilities in others and realizing their utmost potential is one sure way of measuring your leadership capabilities. 

Every organization differs on the specific skill sets and competencies needed for success but there are many leadership competencies that are relevant in all cases. 

Following are the Top 10 Competencies of Leadership

Listening Skills - ability to conduct and initiate dialogic communications; active and reflective listening; strong communications and interpersonal skills

Emotional Intelligence - self awareness, self management, social awareness, and relationship management according to Daniel Goleman, psychologist and best selling author

Action-Oriented - leading by example; results-oriented actions; value driven with focus on learning; "walking the talk"

Diversity Awareness - understanding importance of diversity for success; embracing cultural, social, and economical needs and differences within this diversity; providing positive influences and role modeling; as well as promoting value-add for everyone

Enthusiasm, Eagerness and Energy - generating positive attitudes and positive thinking resulting in high impact and motivation! 

Responsiveness to individual and corporate needs - anticipating the unexpected, taking a big picture perspective, thinking "outside the box", and being pro-active problem solver taking into consideration needs of peers, staff, superiors, team and organization as a whole with appropriate level of urgency

Sense of Humor - keeping things in perspective, maintaining grounded and balanced outlook at all times; laughter can be stress releaser as well as team builder more often than not

High Standards of Excellence - setting the tone for high standards of excellence; displaying behaviors that create trust and credibility; maintaining highest level of integrity, honesty and sincerity; holding a high bar for acceptable standards

Influencing - ability to be catalyst for change and impact results; understanding needs of all stakeholders; rallying involvement and participation; and communicating in a way that engages responsiveness

Pro-active - strategic visionary; envisioning and anticipating future needs; looking ahead and translating goals and objectives into strategies, both short-term and long-term; seeing all possibilities and following through to execution

 

This article was published in the November 2007 issue of Boston Women's Business Journal, Boston, MA

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