I’ve identified 8 essential leadership skills for engineers and technical professionals, and in this post I’ll describe the 3 that can be grouped under Leadership Identity, including lots of synonyms and components that fall under them. The broader framework is discussed in a prior post, wherein I define the 3 major groups to be Leadership Identity, Empowering the Team, and Strategic Leadership.
What is Leadership Identity?
First, what is Leadership Identity? It is how you identify yourself to others and how they identify you. What you think about yourself and what others think about you. The identification is both explicit and implicit. Both obvious and subtle. Both intentional and not. Unfortunately, it is more about how you’re perceived than it is about what you intend.
Defining and managing your Leadership Identity can be a quagmire. But I promised to break it down, and here we go. I break it into 3 major elements: Learning, Integrity, and Presence.
Learning
I think of learning as foundational to being a full professional. Some will say that having the necessary skills for a job, knowing when to use them, and getting paid for it defines a professional role. But given that most (probably all) fields are constantly evolving, a true professional must continue learning.
For a leader, continual learning is not optional. There is always more to learn about ourselves and our colleagues. Psychology, and all that. Yes, my engineering colleagues, we have entered the realm of social sciences. Leadership isn’t only about the technical details.
Why did that person react in that manner then? How can I elicit a better reaction? How to rectify the ramifications of the reaction? How to prevent unexpected reactions in the future? That’s just one example.
How about this: why do I feel this way about something? Is it because I’m unprepared (which I can fix) or because I deeply don’t want to do it (which is harder to overcome or sidestep)?
Humans are deeply confusing to many technical professionals. Our areas of expertise keep evolving. The workplace political landscape changes. These are all things driving the need for continual learning. Learning skills include listening, openness, studying, analyzing, and evaluating. The first two are typically the bigger challenges for technical folk and therefore a great place to put some effort.
Integrity
If your integrity is questioned, then your leadership is on shaky ground. At the most basic level, are you dependable? Do you deliver on the commitments that you make? Do you follow through and walk your talk? That might be easier if you don’t commit, but then you may appear to be too soft or indecisive.
Integrity encompasses your morals and ethics. Do you have your company’s interests at the fore? What about your employees’ interests? Yours? Are those in competition? They shouldn’t be, but sometimes they are. How do you resolve that? Are you open and honest about it? Consistently, across audiences?
Maintaining integrity is tough. Shape-shifting and code-talking are common, perhaps necessary. Sometimes there are big gray areas to work within, but sometimes the margins are razor thin. Are openness and honesty variables? On sliding scales? This may be the most squishy of all leadership components, and yet also perhaps the most critical.
Presence
This is how you show up. It could be perceived to be the most superficial of the elements, because it includes physical appearance, speaking style, posture, and gestures. Dress for success, which is of course not a constant: it changes with roles, organizations, locations, and time. Speak clearly and carefully choose words. Back straight, shoulders back, eye contact, smile, handshakes, and all that. Use your hands expressively when speaking, but not too much. All that … charm school schtuff. It matters, but shouldn’t be your top concern.
Those were the easily perceptible parts of Presence. Let’s step it up a bit. Are you enthusiastic, optimistic, and confident? Consider other leaders you know, aren’t they among the most optimistic, enthusiastic, and confident people in your workplace? I’d be very surprised if not.
Let’s add in some courage and humility. Difficult decisions must be made, bold actions are called for at times, uncomfortable messages must be communicated. Mistakes are made and they must be owned. Yep, leader, these are yours.
And now on to the most difficult parts of Presence: self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Do others think of you similarly to how you think of you? If there’s a disconnect, there’s a problem. If you don’t know, ask. Yes, that’s hard and there are tools to help.
How do you react to unexpected situations? How do you react to bad news? Do you understand the reactions of others? Can you help others with their reactions? These questions scratch the surface of emotional intelligence; I’m no expert, but I have experience and resources (like this highly worthwhile TED Talk).
Where are You?
If you’re at all like me, just reading through this write-up caused evaluation and reflection. That’s good. Do more of that. That’ll help you become a better leader. The soft skills matter.