Competent Leadership - Part One

For the next three days I will share a list of assessment tools that you can use to evaluate your leadership and develop an action plan to improve it. Today, I will be dealing with communication, supervision, and teaching and counseling. Here is part one of my summary of the nine topics I will present here from the FM 22-100.

Communications

Communication is the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs. This is not the first time I will deal with this topic or the last. Communication is very important for effectively presenting your message to others and their complete understanding of that message.

Communicating has been one of the areas of my own leadership development that I have had to build up. Communication is very important in marriage. If you do not communicate, then you find that you both are traveling two very different paths in your marriage. Communication helps you understand each others needs and then collaborate on how to effectively meet those needs for each other. It takes work. The same goes for sharing your message with your peers or those in authority or your staff. It takes work.

To asses your communication skills ask yourself:

• Are my directions being understood?
• How influential am I when I present my message or thoughts? Are people “buying in”?
• Does the way I communicate allow me to coordinate all measures of the task at hand? Am I keeping everyone in the loop that needs to be in the loop?
• Am I encouraging when I communicate? Does my critique leave a person feeling as if they can do better or are they demoralized?
• Does my communication style allow for supervision, training, and teaching moments?
• Is the way I communicate a good measure of how well I coach and counsel those I influence?
• Am I clear, concise, and measured when I communicate?
• Is my message, easy to understand, serving the purpose, and appropriate for my audience?

Supervision

The FM 22-100 says, “You must control, direct, evaluate, coordinate, and plan the efforts of subordinates so that you can ensure the task is accomplished.” Ask yourself the following:

• Am I ensuring the efficient use of material and equipment to complete the task?
• Have I evaluated and revisited the operational procedures to measure their effectiveness?
• Am I sure that my orders or instructions are understood?
• Am I showing the appropriate interest in those I lead as a means to maintain their efficiency? Do I care enough for them and show it?
• Am I causing resentment by micromanaging every detail and not showing enough trust in letting my people succeed?
• Am I causing frustration my macro managing (letting it all happen and seeing what results) and giving so much room to my team that they feel at a loss?
• Am I balanced in the way I am leading or supervising projects or my organization?
• For pastors, are my goals still in line with my vision and do those around me see it?
• Have I thoroughly examined the competence, motivation, and commitment of my team for the task at hand? Have I misjudged the amount of supervision necessary to make sure the organization runs smoothly?

Teaching and Counseling

By teaching and counseling those you lead, you can improve everyday achievement of the mission and vision of your organization. This is necessary if you want to overcome problems, increase knowledge, and gain new perspectives and skills. Again, here are some questions for you to consider:

• Am I preparing my people to succeed and to “survive” in my organization?
• How much time do I devote to developing my staff or those around me?
• Am I concerned with the entire scope of the lives and of the well-being of those I serve and lead?
• When I am counseling, am I just giving advice, or am I teaching my people problem-solving skills?
• Am I able to discern when a counseling or teaching moment is above my skill set? Do I refer people to the proper care facility? Did I follow up to see if this course of action was taken?
• Am I sticking to performance counseling in order to ascertain the behavior of my staff or team towards their task performance?

Recommended reading: Developing the Leader Within You by John Maxwell