Leadership Skills

How do you teach leadership?

Beats me.  Perhaps it is learned, coached, directed, but unteachable. 

There are skills, however, that good leaders call upon to lead others.  The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) identifies seven leadership skills that participants have an opportunity to learn in thier programs:

1.  Expedition Behavior:  Cooperation and conflict resolution, teamwork, keeping yourself and others motivated, and getting along with a very diverse group of people.  Under pressure.  NOLS trainer Andy Cline told me that Expedition Behavior (EB)is what they try to teach astronauts who are heading to the International Space Station.  EB is keeping your cool and focusing on resolving the problem without burning bridges. 

2.  Competence:  Knowledge and skills, organization and management skills, technical ability, and confidence in your competence.  Competence is a basic ingredient of Trust.  In law firms, competence goes beyond legal skills to one's ability to manage a team.

3.  Communication:  Using timely, specific and clear feedback.  Listening actively.  Having the courage to state what you think, feel and want.  Trying to put yourself in other people's shoes during conflicts.  Ouch.  That's a tough one for lawyers.   Good communication means being able to both give and receive feedback.  Passive aggressiveness doesn't work.  Listen first. 

4.  Judgement and Decision Making:  Situationally-appropriate decision-making, using your experience to develop good judgement and harnessing the strength and knowledge of other group members to solve problems.   Lawyers pride themselves on having good judgement, but struggle with connecting with others to call upon their experience and insight to solve problems.  We need to develop a second sense to know when to make decisions individually or in a team setting.

5.  Tolerance for Adversity & Uncertainty:  Learning to endure, even enjoy, hard work and challenge.  Adapting to changes and unknowns.  Turning challenges into opportunities.  Using humor to keep things in perspective.  Making focused decisions under stress.  Choosing your attitude.  There are big differences in how different generations of people approach life and work.  A 45 year old partner may view hard work, challenge and adversity very differently from a 29 year old associate.  Life is tough sometimes.  We don't always get to choose the situation, but we do get to choose our attitude.

6.  Self Awareness:  Knowing yourself and your strenghts and weaknesses.  Learning from experience.  Being aware of your own leadership style and how you influence others.  Realizing how your words and actions impact others.    How we view ourselves is not always (in fact, rarely) how others view us.  "Know thyself" through soliciting feedback from others and understanding the connection between our actions and how we interact with others is a critical skill.

7.  Vision and Action:  Seeing the possibility in any situation and finding creative ways to move the group forward.  Motivating and initiating action.  Using group goals to guide your actions.  Your vision vs. the firm's vision. 

For more information on NOLS, go to http://www.nols.edu.

p.s. - NOLS instructor Andy Cline told me about the concept Expedition Behavior.  Having been on several long-term backcountry trips, the phrase resonated with me.  It's also the same attitude one needs to have in the stressful environment/matrix organization of a law firm.  Here's one article and another about how Andy teaches EB to astronauts.  I've used Andy for leadership retreats.  He's great.