The interview method is distinguished by strict organization and unequal functions of the interlocutors: the psychologist-interviewer asks questions to the subject-respondent, while he does not conduct an active dialogue with him, does not express his opinion and does not openly reveal his personal assessment of the answers of the subject or the questions asked.
The psychologist’s tasks include minimizing his influence on the content of the respondent’s answers and ensuring a favorable atmosphere of communication. The purpose of the interview from the point of view of a psychologist is to obtain from the respondent answers to questions formulated in accordance with the objectives of the entire study.
2. Interview structure;
1. Establishing contact. The interviewer's task is to create a good impression of the company and give the applicant the opportunity to relax.
2. Brief (5-20 min) conversation about the company.
3. The interview itself: the candidate answers questions and performs a number of situational tasks.
4. The candidate is given the opportunity to ask the interviewer questions that interest him.
5. PR vacancies (this stage may be absent if the candidate is not interesting to the company).
6. Discussion of the algorithm for further interaction
2.2 Difference between an interview and an interview;
3. Types of interviews;
Types of interviews
According to the degree of formalization
· Standardized, or formalized, interview. In such an interview, the wording of the questions and the sequence in which they are asked are predetermined.
· Non-standardized, or free, interview. During such an interview, the psychologist should only overall plan, formulated according to the objectives of the study, asking questions about the situation. Due to its flexibility, it allows for better contact between the psychologist and the respondent compared to a standardized interview.
· Semi-standardized or focused interview. When conducting this type of interview, the psychologist is guided by a list of both strictly necessary and possible questions.
By stage of research
· Preliminary interview. Used at the pilot study stage.
· Main interview. Used at the stage of collecting basic information.
· Control interview. Used to check controversial results and to replenish the data bank.
By number of participants
· Individual interview - an interview in which only a correspondent (psychologist) and a respondent (subject) participate.
· Group interview - an interview in which more than two people participate.
· Mass interview - an interview in which hundreds to thousands of respondents participate. Mainly used in sociology.
Structured interview
For this type of interview, the HR manager first develops special questions in order to obtain information about the employee’s competence, his compliance with the requirements of the position, taking into account the specifics and strategy of the enterprise. During such an interview, the applicant’s stress resistance and leadership qualities are tested. In addition, during the conversation, the interviewer draws conclusions about the person’s personal characteristics, pays attention to his posture, movements, gestures, and facial expressions. Everything is important: how a person constructs his story, how well he speaks, and whether he can quickly switch his attention. The interviewer asks questions that help him determine the interests and motivation of the applicant, his potential as an employee in specific conditions. Thus, in this type of interview, answers play a key role.
Competency interview
The purpose of such an interview is to collect behavioral information about the applicant in situations related to future work. The questions are structured in such a way that they require a detailed answer. The applicant is asked to describe one or two stories on a specific topic from past experience, which for the interviewer will serve as information about the characteristics of a particular quality of a person, for example, the ability to take responsibility. By offering to talk about other situations, say, about behavior in a conflict situation or working in conditions that require endurance, the HR specialist receives information that allows you to predict the candidate’s behavior in similar cases in a new place.
CASE interview
This type of interview involves a series of standard questions-tasks, to which each applicant gives his own answer. In fact, this is a description of some hypothetical situation followed by a question addressed to the applicant. By giving an answer, the candidate can demonstrate his professional suitability, ability to analyze, place the right emphasis, interact with colleagues and subordinates, and find a way out of problematic situations. Depending on the specifics of the open vacancy, “cases” may be given to test for creativity and the ability to think outside the box.
Stress interview
In practice, this type of interview is used very rarely; as a last resort, HR specialists allow themselves several questions of a “provocative” nature. Stress interviews are practiced in cases where the work is expected to be non-standard, associated with increased emotional, physical or intellectual stress. Experts note that in order to conduct a stress interview at a high level, careful preparation is necessary; It is advisable to warn the candidate about the type of interview he will have. In practice, a person’s ability to “take a hit” is often tested by ordinary tactlessness, which has nothing to do with a professionally thought-out method for identifying stress resistance.
In reality, an experienced specialist should evaluate not the applicant’s reaction to rudeness, but his ability to work in a difficult conditions. For example, does a person have the ability to manage people and at the same time monitor the progress of production matters; or, under pressure from a manager, to do quality work, as well as find a compromise in difficult relationships with colleagues and clients. It is usually difficult to simulate a real work situation, so stress resistance is assessed by conducting interviews in a non-standard environment, uncomfortable conditions, inviting several applicants at once, etc.
In general, how the interview is conducted depends on the specifics of the position, the requirements of the company and the skill of the interviewer. The result of the interview depends on the level of compliance of the applicant with the employer's expectations.
There are many various types or research interview styles
- Structured or standardized interview implies that the interview design is controlled by the interviewer. The goal is to present questions to all respondents in the same context. This means that each respondent is exposed to the same incentives as the others.
- Semi-structured interview. The term includes a wide range of examples. It usually refers to a context in which the interviewer has a series of questions that are embedded in general scheme interview, but the sequence of questions may vary. Often the questions are somewhat more generalized than would normally be the case in a structured interview. In addition, the interviewer usually has some freedom to ask further questions that are in response to what the interviewer considers to be important and meaningful answers.
- Unstructured interview. The interviewer usually has a simple list of topics or questions, often called an interview outline or aide-memoire. The style of asking questions is usually informal. The wording and sequence of questions varies from interview to interview.
- Intensive interview. This term is used as an alternative to unstructured interview. The term is also used ethnographic interview to describe a form of interview, which is also more or less synonymous with unstructured interview.
- Qualitative interview. For some theorists, this term refers to an unstructured interview, but more often it is general term, which covers both semi-structured and unstructured interview types.
- In-depth interview. Like the term qualitative interview, this type is sometimes referred to as an unstructured interview, but is more often referred to as both semi-structured and unstructured interviews.
- Focused interview. This term refers to an interview that primarily uses open-ended questions to ask respondents about specific situations or events that are relevant to them or of interest to the researcher.
- Focus group. This is the same as a focused interview, but respondents discuss a specific issue in groups.
- Group interview. Some theorists view the term as synonymous with focus group, but a distinction can be made between a focus group and a situation where group members discuss various issues that may only be partially related to the main topic.
- Oral history interview. This is an unstructured or semi-structured interview in which the respondent is asked to remember events from his past and reflect on them. There is usually a cluster of specific research questions that relate to a particular era or event, so there are some similarities to a focused interview.
- Life story interview(biographical interview). It is similar to an oral history interview, but the purpose of this type of unstructured interview is to thoroughly gather information about each respondent's background.
4. Behavioral interview (or competency interview);
A behavioral interview provides an opportunity to develop a candidate’s future behavior. For this purpose, questions are asked about previous places of work. The focus should be on aspects related to the vacancy. The questions are formulated in such a way that the candidate needs to provide specific examples: “describe a situation when...”, “give examples of how...”, “describe your role in...”, etc.
Examples of questions:
· Tell us about your last (current) job.
· Describe the standard tasks that you had to perform during the working day at your previous job?
· What are your main achievements in your work?
· Describe the most interesting (most successful) project in which you took part?
· Tell us about a time when you found non-standard solution Problems.
· Describe a situation when you made a wrong decision.
· Tell us about a conflict at work and how you resolved it.
· Describe a situation when you disagreed with the opinions of others. What did you do to reach an agreement?
Behavioral interviewing is applicable to candidates from any industry. During the interview, the recruiter collects complete behavioral examples (FBS) from the candidate's experience. From each of these it becomes clear:
· Situation the situation the candidate encountered;
· Task, which stood in front of him (task);
· Actions, taken by the candidate (action);
· Result, the result of the situation (result).
These components are easy to remember by their abbreviations STAR - S situation, T ask A ction R esult.
Key words: behavioral indicator, competencies, competence.
Behavioral indicator
The basis of the description is a behavioral indicator - an observable element of a person’s behavior, indicating that he has certain knowledge, skills, abilities, experience and beliefs (which are also called psychological attitudes). That is, simply put, it is behavior that answers our questions: what a person can do and what he believes.
For example, let’s take the “comes to work on time” indicator. It seems like a simple action. But in fact, in order for it to be implemented, several conditions must be met. A person must know the office address and working hours. Possess a number of skills, including waking up from the alarm. Know how to choose a route. Have experience in passing this route, since it is experience that allows you to identify risks and avoid unforeseen situations. And, what is very important, he must believe that coming to work on time is necessary and useful for him personally. Otherwise the behavior will not appear.
Competence
Naturally, in various organizational situations, any employee exhibits a large number of behavioral indicators. Therefore, in order to create a comprehensive description of desired behavior, we highlight situations effective solution which are beneficial to the organization. These include participation in and leading meetings, decision-making, communication with colleagues, managers and subordinates, etc. Some actions of people in these situations lead to success, some lead to delays and failures. Accordingly, we analyze which actions have an impact and describe them using an indicator approach.
Next, the indicators are combined into groups based on the principle of achieving results in a certain area: communication, thinking and decision-making, people management, etc. Thus, we obtain a description of a complex of behavioral manifestations in one area, which is called competence.
It is important that each competency has its own purpose. That is, its manifestation should be reflected in specific production processes and, as a result, save or earn money for the company.
For example, it is critical for a company's effectiveness that employees exchange information well. Therefore, we bring into the “Communication” competency the behavior that facilitates such an exchange: speaking up, using publicly available terminology, asking questions, answering questions.
Types of competencies
The description of requirements for employee behavior using indicators turned out to be so convenient and objective that the creators are gradually moving to a competency-based method professional standards. Competency models for engineers, lawyers, accountants, etc. are now emerging. Such competencies that are directly related to a particular profession are called “technical” or “professional”.
Another group of competencies is called “corporate”. These competencies set the standard for how employees should behave towards the company, managers, subordinates and each other.
Sometimes in separate group identify “personal” or “core” competencies that describe a person’s way of thinking and how he makes decisions.
The next step is to combine the competencies into a single system, which is called a competency model.
For example, when working on a model of managerial competencies, we sought to describe the aspects that determine the quality of a leader and are reflected in how the system subordinate to him works. As a result, we identified the following competencies:
Communication;
Setting the task and ensuring execution;
Interaction management;
Participation in interaction, implementation of rules and regulations;
Systematicity, structure and flexibility of thinking, quality logical solutions, learning ability;
Business understanding and loyalty;
Planning and forecasting;
Focus, independence and responsibility;
Initiative, innovation and action in conditions of change;
Some of the competencies in this model are professional, some are personal, and some are corporate. Thus, it is a comprehensive description of human behavior that produces results in various domains.
5. Leader competence;
List of optimal leadership competencies
1. Willingness to take responsibility for the team.
2. Willingness to be responsible for the collective result even
in case of failure.
3. Preference for the general result over the personal one.
4. Positive attitude towards people.
5. Learning ability, desire to develop.
6. Not afraid of strong subordinates.
7. Ability and willingness to inspire.
8. The ability to hear others.
9. Willingness and ability to teach others.
10. Expert or excellent manager.
11. Ability to organize others.
12. Own point of view.
13. Willingness to make unpopular decisions.
14. Stress resistance.
15. Lack of desire to assert oneself at the expense of others.
6. Manager's competence;
“The most important quality of a leader is to be recognized as such” Andre Maurois
In personal coaching with executives, the topic of leadership often comes up. These include requests for the development of leadership competencies, the position of the manager in the company, the attitude of subordinates and colleagues towards him, and conflicts with informal leaders in the department. There are also many other topics that managers work on in coaching, relating them to leadership. Are there criteria that distinguish a leader in a company or indicate that a manager has leadership potential? I propose to consider this issue in today's column.
There are many characteristics in the literature that a leader should have. Let's look at some of them, namely charisma, communication skills, competence, focus, initiative, confidence, self-discipline.
1. Charisma
Charisma is charm, the ability to inspire and attract people, inner strength and energy. Energy is the most valuable resource of managers (and indeed of every person). All success is based on someone's high energy level. Therefore, a leader simply needs to be a source of energy for those around him.
1. Plan how you will stay fit?
2. Decide which habits you need to change, which ones to get rid of and how?
3. Think about what time of day is most suitable for a psychological reboot? What methods will help you personally with this?
2. Communication skills also distinguishes a successful leader and accounts for approximately a third of executive coaching requests. As strange as it may sound, most managers are not aware of how their communication skills affect their leadership.
Criteria communicative competence might be something like this:
- ability to establish and maintain contact
- oratory
- presentation skills
- ability to listen and hear
- Feedback
- focus on understanding the interlocutor’s problems
Tasks worth working on today:
1. Measure your current communication skills using the scaling method. To do this, rate the criteria proposed above on a 10-point scale
2. Select 1-2 most relevant (for example, those who received the lowest scores) and plan a set of developmental activities for the next few months.
Examples of developmental activities for the skill “Oratory skills:
- improve your diction daily by doing articulatory gymnastics exercises
- take public speaking training
- identify at least 4 events per month where you can give a master class or report, etc.
3. Set control points for the entire period of skill development
4. Think about who or what will support (motivate) you on the way to achieving your goal
5. Start Implementing Your Action Plan Today
3. Competence
“The secret of a leader lies in the challenges with which
he encountered during his life, and habits of action,
which he developed while coping with these challenges"
Gail Sheehy
Business competence is practically the main parameter of successful relationships. No matter how good your other leadership characteristics are, you must have a certain level of qualifications. A leader's competence demonstrates whether he or she has the resources to meet the needs of the target audience. Such resources may be his knowledge, skills, and experience. Don't stop improving, constantly learning, gaining new experience, developing successful habits.
Tasks worth working on today:
1. Determine what you are most competent at? Are these competencies going to enable you to become a leader in your organization?
2. Are there competencies that, when developed, will help improve your leadership status?
3. What actions can be added to your “Individual Development Plan” for the coming year in order to increase the level of necessary competencies?
4. Focus
"Set a goal for yourself. Get such an education,
whatever you can, but then,
For God's sake, do something!"
Lee Iacocca
An effective leader is a person who demonstrates achievement high results on by example. To become such a leader, you must constantly keep your goals in focus. Priorities and concentration are the main indicators of focus.
You need to learn to prioritize and solve truly important problems; this knowledge will lead to maximum results.
And yet, it is not enough to just know, you need to do. Concentrate as much as possible on what you can do best, and also remember to explore new areas. Eliminate ineffective strategies from your life, fight time wasters, freeing up resources for activities. And do the right thing at the most appropriate time.
Tasks worth working on today:
1. Analyze your today. Were all of your activities categorized as “Important/Urgent” and “Important/Non-Urgent”? Perhaps you wasted time on routine work, the results of which will not in any way affect the achievement of significant goals?
2. Plan tomorrow so that your time of maximum productivity is spent on the most important things.
3. Think about what functionality can be delegated? This will help you be more focused, and will give your subordinates the opportunity to develop their competencies
5. Initiative
Most people are constantly waiting for more suitable life circumstances and hoping for a chance that suddenly arises. Such tactics almost never lead to success, because no active steps are taken. A person who has leadership qualities, will not count on chance. Such people themselves create successful circumstances by taking initiative and taking advantage of all suitable opportunities.
Tasks worth working on today:
1. Test your own level of initiative. How often do you get active and step out of your comfort zone? If life has become a routine, perhaps you should increase your initiative and decide what you ultimately want?
2. Answer the question “What do I want?” for yourself. Write down your answers and re-read them periodically. This information is very valuable to you as it helps you align your goals with the opportunities that present themselves.
6. Self-confidence in the correctness of your actions- here is another quality that distinguishes leaders. When high level a person charges others with confidence and conveys a feeling of security to other people. Confident people They do not limit themselves, their team, or the organization in anything. They are not afraid to surround themselves with successful people who are competent and know more than themselves. When a confident leader's subordinates achieve significant results, he perceives this as confirmation of his leadership skills.
If the “Confidence” criterion is lower than you would like, remember the saying “We are what we think of ourselves.” First you need to change your train of thought and negative perception of reality. And then work on increasing self-confidence.
Tasks worth working on today:
1. Try to study yourself as well as possible. To do this, create a table “Strengths/Weaknesses”
2. If the number of minuses is greater, think about what else you can add to the left column? Ask your acquaintances, friends and colleagues. It is necessary, at a minimum, to equalize both columns. But it’s better if the number of strengths prevails
3. Expand the table by adding the “Implement”/“Develop” columns. Describe in them how you will use your strengths, but how to develop weak ones? Act based on the data in the table and your confidence will increase many times over!
7. Self-discipline
"No man can command another man,
if he doesn’t know how to command himself”
William Penn
Self-discipline is the ability to do what you set out to do no matter what. The ability to follow a set goal despite real and imaginary obstacles, laziness and momentary whims. Increasing the level of self-discipline is more of the proverbial “getting out of the comfort zone”, not hard work, but systematic training. And like training, building self-discipline can be an enjoyable process.
Tasks worth working on today:
1. Test your goals. Are they truly meaningful and desirable to you? Are they really yours or are they a reflection of other people's desires?
2. Analyze how you distribute your energy? Perhaps the lack of self-discipline is simply fatigue from an excess of unnecessary actions?
Or maybe it’s ineffective communication, the inability to say “no” or the struggle with “time sinks”?
3. Think about what or who will support you on the path to developing self-discipline? Who can you turn to for support if your confidence in your abilities weakens at any time? Maybe you should look for support among those who solve problems similar to yours?
All 22 techniques listed above relate to coaching in one way or another. The success of coaching technologies lies in action. Don’t put off what you have planned, take your first steps today after reading this article. Have a successful workout!
This article is published with comments from the website editor
Any business begins with setting goals, guidelines, determining exactly where we will move. After all, if we don’t have “ ideal model”, then we cannot determine the “gap” between what is and what should be.
Therefore, first of all I would like to talk about typical mistakes when identifying a potential leader and the qualities he should have. Let us give several examples from the practice of Russian companies.
- Initiative and leadership are often equated.
These qualities are certainly commendable. Moreover, often the manifestation of initiative is caused not so much by a penchant for creativity, but by the fact that the employee really cares about the cause. However initiative cannot be considered synonymous with leadership twa, after all, when putting forward an idea, a person does not plan to be responsible for its implementation. And vice versa: a leader does not necessarily have to show creativity and initiative; his task is to support the desire for creativity in other team members. It is not without reason that the role of an idea generator is emphasized, which does not necessarily have to coincide with the role of a leader.
For example, an employee of one company often put forward new ideas aimed at improving the work process. Almost all the ideas were reasonable, viable and clearly could have a great economic effect. The company's management almost always accepted and approved them. Everything would be fine if this employee had not been entrusted with leading the group for finalizing and implementing ideas. She quickly lost interest in the idea she had put forward and began to get carried away with something new; besides, she was not a very good organizer, so the work of the project group, to put it mildly, was not pleasing. The girl was sensitive to recognition and negative evaluation. Since the work was not going well, she was very worried, which reduced her motivation to take initiative. And worst of all, management made the wrong conclusions: since the work of the project team did not lead to the expected results, the initiatives were considered incorrect. Thus, the company did not gain a leader, but lost an idea generator, ruining the desire to take initiatives. All this could have been avoided simply by not mixing the two different competencies.
- Activity, desire to prove oneself, desire for success and recognition.
In any company there are people who are quite ambitious, striving for recognition, active and capable of fighting for this recognition. Such employees often speak at meetings, express themselves during trainings and during brainstorming sessions, and they do this completely sincerely. Often they do not want to be responsible for others at all and, as a rule, cannot be leaders - what is more important to them be visible , and not to lead.
- Demonstrative behavior at corporate events and trainings is perceived and assessed as real.
In many companies, especially in Western ones, employees are well aware that they are constantly being assessed, their potential and career growth opportunities are analyzed. Unfortunately, career growth is often perceived as a source of various kinds of benefits (car, salary, status, bonuses, etc.). At the same time, they care little that the leader has greater responsibility, that he has to answer not only for himself, but also for others. Forgetting about the cones and remembering the gingerbread, these people strive make an impression for guidance and thus get what you want. It’s interesting to see how the activity of some participants sometimes increases when someone from management appears at a meeting, during a brainstorming session, or at a training session. They begin to speak out on any occasion and strive to take on the role of organizer. It is clear that the motivation for such actions is the desire to show off. Observe quietly the behavior of people, and you will be able to separate the desire to “be” from the desire to “appear.”
- They equate an excellent professional with a leader.
This is perhaps one of the most common mistakes. Indeed, many qualities that ensure success in individual professional activity, are also necessary for a leader. But it should be remembered that a manager is a profession, exactly the same as a financier, marketer or salesman. And this profession requires not only and not so much the ability to understand the specifics of business processes, but people management skills . Not long ago I talked with the manager finance department one company. She talked about very interesting project related to the implementation of SAP/R 3: “The project is in full swing, I have enormous tasks ahead of me... And they all walk around with their stupid questions and distract me from the task.” Do you understand who they are? Of course, subordinates. Undoubtedly, the heroine of this episode is a very strong professional, but is she a leader?
- Substitution of the concepts of “leader” and “chief expert”.
This situation is similar to the previous one, the difference is that here we are not talking about choosing a candidate for a leadership position, but about his positioning. In some companies, they approve and even require that the head of a department, first of all, not manage and coordinate the work of his subordinates, but ability to perform the duties of its employees . As a result, the manager begins to evaluate himself first of all as a professional based on individual results, and only then based on the results of his subordinates, and sometimes even forgets about them. Sometimes this results in a manager’s competition with his people: he is proud that he does the job better than them, and, wittingly or unwittingly, the motivation for the development of his subordinates decreases.
Leadership Competency Model
Having understood what we need to avoid, let’s look at what we should strive for and how to determine the model of leadership competencies. The components of success in any activity are can + wants . Therefore, it is important to determine what aspects related to a person’s motivation and priorities are required in order to consider him as a future leader.
Main - this is the readiness and desire to become a leader, the desire to lead people. It is very important to separate the motivation to make a career from the desire to receive substitutes (in particular, more income, more interesting tasks, status and much more, which in the eyes of many correlates with a high position). Quite often we came across people who talked about their desire for career growth. But more often a person needs not career growth, not a leadership position, but substitutes. However, there is another category of people who simply do not need career growth, but they are ashamed to admit it. They view giving up their career as the equivalent of admitting that they are not committed to development. In addition, a person’s motivation, priorities and preferences can change over the years, so you shouldn’t give up on a person if he “can, but doesn’t want to” at the moment. You need to return to assessing his motivator map after some time, for example, after six months or a year, but only if he has experienced any significant changes in life or work.
The first condition of motivation: a person must be determined to manage people and truly become a leader. It is very important to ensure that the leadership candidate has a correct understanding of the role and responsibilities of a leader. Often, when analyzing the possibility of promoting employees to leadership positions and interviewing outside candidates who were looking for a higher position, we met people who really aspired to career growth specifically how to manage people, but in fact they misrepresented the balance of pros and cons of this new job. Most saw the advantages, not realizing what disadvantages and pitfalls awaited them in the new place. It is clear that we see what we want to see. In addition, established stereotypes such as “Career is a criterion” also play a role. successful person“If you haven’t made a career, it means you’re worthless” and the like. When analyzing the feasibility of promoting a particular employee, it is very important to make sure that he correctly understands what awaits him and really wants it. If his ideas are erroneous, they should be corrected and the person should be given more complete or accurate information.
Second condition: the candidate is a bearer of corporate values, or at least his beliefs do not conflict with them.
What can be adjusted and developed
There are competencies that can be developed or significantly developed through education, training, mentoring (mostly skills), and there are competencies that can be changed through managerial influence. But we must also be aware that an adult, mature person, who has his own idea of the world, his own abilities, inclinations and beliefs, cannot be changed in many ways, at least by the methods that are applicable in business. Let's consider which leadership competencies fall into the category of easily developed and adjusted, which cannot be changed, and which can be adjusted, but difficult or time-consuming.
- Willingness to take responsibility for the team. In most cases, this competence cannot be developed, although, of course, you can stimulate its manifestation by other factors (external assessment, recognition, money), but then you will have to pay too much attention to this issue and constantly keep the situation under control.
- Willingness to be responsible for the collective result even in the event of failure. It is difficult to develop this factor, but if you have responsibility for personal results as a model of behavior, you can change the paradigm. It will take quite a long period of managerial influence.
- Preference for the general result over the personal one. It can be easily corrected with a competent motivation system and constant reinforcement. To do this, you need to know the motivator map of a particular person.
- Positive attitude towards people. If we are talking about attitude towards people in general, and not towards a specific person, then, in our opinion, this competence in an adult cannot be adjusted.
- Learning ability, desire to develop. It develops quite easily if it does not conflict with natural abilities. It is worth assessing how close the area in which you will need to develop is to a person’s natural inclinations.
- Not afraid of strong subordinates. Largely depends on orientation towards the overall result and self-confidence. In most cases, confidence in own strength can be improved through competent management actions.
- Ability and willingness to inspire. Partly it is a natural gift, partly it can be taught.
- The ability to hear others. It largely depends on the desire to acquire this competence; managerial influence and values play a role corporate culture. The second aspect is a certain set of skills (the ability to separate facts from hypotheses, the ability to hear without guessing a person’s intentions, etc.), which can be taught through mentoring or during training to develop communication skills.
- Willingness and ability to teach others. Competence is difficult to acquire, as it requires a combination of patience, tact, well-delivered speech, the ability to correlate one’s level of knowledge with the level of knowledge of the student, the ability to explain, consolidate, and give feedback. If you have good communication and decent presentation skills, the ability to persuade and influence, you can develop this competency quite easily. In other cases it is difficult or almost impossible.
- An expert or an excellent manager. If you have the necessary competencies and the desire to be a leader and manager, it is relatively easy to develop with the help of mentoring and training.
- Ability to organize others. A skill that can be acquired fairly quickly and effectively. The main thing is the desire to purchase it.
- Own point of view. This skill is almost impossible to develop in a short time. The lack of one’s own point of view is usually associated with a gravitation towards external reference. It is possible to change the reference, but it will take at least a year. It’s worse if the lack of one’s own opinion is caused by unprincipledness - this is not at all suitable for a leader.
- Willingness to make unpopular decisions. It changes at the level of managerial influence, motivation and self-motivation. The exception is a pronounced external reference.
- Stress resistance. It is practically impossible to adjust when it comes to the reaction to stress. But the stressor (source of stress) and post-stress behavior can be corrected.
- Lack of desire to assert oneself at the expense of others. Either there is or there is not. It is impossible to influence and develop.
- 1. Willingness to take responsibility for the team.
- 2. Willingness to be responsible for the collective result even in case of failure.
- 3. Preference for the general result over the personal one.
- 4. Positive attitude towards people.
- 5. Learning ability, desire to develop.
- 6. Not afraid of strong subordinates.
- 7. Ability and willingness to inspire.
- 8. The ability to hear others.
- 9. Willingness and ability to teach others.
- 10. Expert or excellent manager.
- 11. Ability to organize others.
- 12. Own point of view.
- 13. Willingness to make unpopular decisions.
- 14. Stress resistance.
- 15. Lack of desire to assert oneself at the expense of others.
Quite often, during trainings on potential management, certification and personnel management, I ask participants to independently formulate what competencies a leader needs. Usually, many of the requirements that we have just discussed are mentioned by participants, but at the same time they forget about one very important point. I'll try to demonstrate this with examples.
One of the accounting employees, being good professional, quite unexpectedly, at a training that developed communication competencies and teamwork skills, she proved herself to be a bright, charismatic leader. This story was repeated at several more corporate events. As a result, she received an offer to become a section leader. Everything went well, but after a while problems began. She could have handled this role quite successfully, but her family was a priority, so she tried to minimize her efforts and not stay late at work. Unfortunately, the leadership position required much more effort and took much more time, including having to stay late after work... As a result, she returned to her old position with pleasure. Everything ended well, but in most cases, failed leaders are prevented from giving up a high post by ambition, and as a result, the company loses good employee, and he doesn’t make a leader.
In another case, a person himself refused the role of head of a division of a company operating in the telecommunications industry. A manager candidate with almost all of these competencies said, “I am well aware that as a manager I will have to devote all my time and energy to work, as a result I will stop growing as a professional, and I am not happy with that.”
You probably already guessed why I told these two stories. The components of success in any activity are CAN + WANT. We have already discussed the “maybe” topic; now it is important to determine what aspects related to a person’s motivation and priorities are required in order to consider him as a future leader.
The main thing is the readiness and desire to become a leader, the desire to lead people. It is very important to separate the motivation to make a career from the desire to receive substitutes (in particular, more income, more interesting tasks, status and much more, which in the eyes of many correlates with a high position). Quite often I came across people who talked about their desire for career growth. But in about half of the cases (and maybe more often), a person does not need career growth, not a leadership position, but substitutes. But there is another category of people who simply do not need career growth, but they are ashamed to admit it. They view giving up their career as the equivalent of admitting that they are not committed to development. Actually this is not true. But how can one determine whether a person needs a career, its substitutes, or whether he is simply ashamed to refuse the offered position? We will return to this issue when we talk about assessing leadership competencies.
In addition, do not forget that a person’s motivation, priorities and preferences can change over the years, so you should not give up on a person if he “can, but does not want” at the moment. You need to return to assessing his motivator map after some time, for example after six months or a year, but only if he has made any significant changes in his life or work.
The first condition of motivation: a person must be determined to manage people and really become a leader. It is very important to ensure that the leadership candidate has a correct understanding of the role and responsibilities of a leader. Often, when analyzing the possibility of promoting employees to management positions and interviewing candidates from outside who were looking for a higher position, I met people who really strived for career growth specifically as a management of people, but in fact they incorrectly understood the balance of pros and cons of this new position for themselves. work. As you probably guess, most saw the advantages, not realizing what disadvantages and pitfalls await them in the new place. It is clear that we see what we want to see, and besides, established stereotypes like “Career is the criterion of a successful person; if you haven’t made a career, it means you’re worthless,” and the like also play a role. When analyzing the feasibility of promoting a particular employee, it is very important to make sure that he correctly understands what awaits him and really wants it. If his ideas are erroneous, then it is worth correcting them and giving the person more complete or accurate information.
The second condition: the candidate is a bearer of corporate values, or at least his beliefs do not conflict with them. We will consider this issue more specifically when we talk about the specifics of the model of leadership competencies in relation to a specific organization.
What is not said in modern world about leader competencies. Charisma, the right voice, strong energy, the presence of business logic, stress resistance, the ability to take a blow in negotiations and push through your position, the ability to organize people and processes, planning and control, the gift of persuasion, and so on.
But times are changing, and accordingly, the demand for competencies that are in demand in leaders is changing. Leadership ceases to be authoritarian. The format of a leader who carries a flag in front on a white horse, points forward with his hand, makes all decisions himself, leads the column himself - is hopelessly outdated. This leadership takes little account of the potential of the people who follow it. The general trend of humanity is that everyone wants to show their individuality more and more and is less and less ready to blindly follow other people.
A leader of service and support is a new function that today often produces results of a different quality! The result that is ensured by involvement in the process large quantity people – involving the physical, intellectual and mental. It is they, those who directly do the work, create the result, who know best how to improve it. The leader's job is to keep general direction, not to interfere, to clear the way, to accompany, to make sure that each person on the team can express themselves to the maximum.
This is what I offer as a leadership must-have set that is relevant today.
1. Having a vision
This is a core competency in my opinion. The ability to see the image of the final result at the beginning of the journey. Understand what it looks like, what or who it serves, what the benefits are for people, what the main idea is.
This allows you to consistently move towards and achieve results.
It doesn’t matter who we’re talking about, the director junior school, the leader of a tourist group, or a conversation about a large company and its leader. It is important that this person has a clear picture in his head of what he wants to achieve. And it’s not for nothing that I say that this is not a description, but a picture, because it is the visual sequence, the presence of an image that can synchronize understanding most deeply.
2. The ability to use stories to involve others in your vision and charge them with it.
Verbal accompaniment of a visual image, wrapped in a certain story, which has its own beginning, continuation, possibly intrigue and adventure inside, a smooth flow to the denouement - is very important for creating in each person his own motive to join you. When there is something in this story that touches a person personally, this story becomes part of him. Stories are retold, filled with details, even a little mythologized. A company in which the story is retold from employee to employee about how the owner started a business, how he sold an apartment, was left homeless, was on the verge of closure for several years, how he assembled a team, how he balanced on the brink of survival, how gradually great efforts were made towards him success and money come, you will always feel stronger in the turbulence zone.
Its employees will have something to rely on - they know that difficult times have happened, but this will not last forever. Their leader will deal with them.
3. Consistency, commitment to your vision, manifested in actions
“What am I an example of?” You can repeat to people a lot and often what you think is right and what is wrong, how they should behave. But in fact, they will do exactly the same as you do. If you talk a lot about values, but at the same time violate them yourself, you can be sure that people will not believe you in everything else.
By preaching respect for employees as an important value, while discussing maneuvers and manipulative tactics behind their backs, you send a clear message to everyone else: “I am what I do. This doesn't match what I'm saying. You can’t trust me.” You don't have to do anything else. This is quite enough to destroy trust.
4. The ability to see opportunities and not focus on problems and obstacles
An entrepreneurial trait that is characterized by the absence of limiting beliefs. Such leaders often repeat: “Everything is possible!”, “The impossible is possible!”, “Nothing is impossible for a person with intelligence!” These mottos help teams cultivate a spirit where you can bring as many factors as possible into your zone of influence, without succumbing to the temptation to say “Nothing can be done!”
5. Constant active actions
A leader does not stand still. He moves forward. He doesn't just create a vision, he takes steps every day to achieve it. This does not mean that he does everything himself, but he takes action. In the language of Isaac Adizes, this is called “Producing results.”
6. The ability to be in a circle of influence, and not in a circle of worries (according to Stephen Covey). Correct prioritization
From the point of view of working with a team, there may even be your own interpretation. If something goes wrong, the leader moves into the circle of influence. He “takes the temperature,” diagnoses, asks questions, and directs energy to leveling out the situation at the very root of the problem. At the least he works to eliminate the consequences. The focus is on finding and eliminating causes, freeing up resources to achieve results. Correct modern leader sees well the motivational strategies of each team member and works to manifest them. Once you have done everything to ensure that each person has a motive and a resource, they will take care of everything else themselves.
7. Emotional and mental stability
I put this competency in 7th place because I believe that it is not a core leadership competency today, although it remains in demand. But if previously a leader’s stress was associated with great responsibility, the need to make decisions every moment of time, now the quality of a leader is characterized, among other things, by the ability to transfer responsibility to a team, including a global one. It is better to direct the freed resource to all previous points.
8. Ability to build relationships with partners, employees, clients. The ability to empathize
Integration, networking, constant communication, including on a personal level, with all market (or non-market) players - this is what today can give more benefits than weight in business circles, the ability to present oneself, and the representative function.
A suit, a car, a watch - these attributes become less significant. A leader who takes off the crown and communicates on an equal footing with the team, clients, and partners has a greater chance of success and the fact that in times of uncertainty the company will take the lead due to the ability to listen to the interests of clients, partners, employees, and even stakeholders.
9. Systematic thinking is highly desirable
Consistency is one of the classics of management; you can’t live without it. A holistic approach, searching for solutions at the level of value for the client, understanding how this or that situation will manifest itself in the future, understanding the principles of the system and the ability to influence its changes.
10. Ability to be creative, willingness to accept new things
Today, thinking in dogmas is too much of a luxury for a leader. His willingness to absorb innovations, to follow where the world is moving, his willingness to change himself and introduce innovations into the company is an important competency.
Exactly creativity will help you implement change easily, trust your teams, rely on their creativity and their ability to recognize the value of new ideas.
Of course, there is a certain contradiction between systematicity and consistency on the one hand, and constant implementation of changes on the other. It is the ability to harmoniously combine these qualities that will determine the leadership agenda in the near future.
If you hold on tightly to the old, no one will move you or convince you to compete. No. It’s just that at some point you yourself will find yourself on the sidelines as outsiders, while others take steps towards change.
Upgrade yourself, change, develop, become an example for your teams and companies. Leadership is not a reason to rest on your laurels. The leader sets the agenda, engages, arouses interest and motivation.
Do something today to be closer to your successful future tomorrow!
8 Steps to Leadership Development
1. Ask yourself, do you have a picture of the future? If not, start drawing and describing.
2. Go to developmental training. Go for one that is guaranteed to bring new knowledge and skills.
3. Find out the meaning of some new business concept.
4. Ask your people what their opinion is about the development of your common business.
5. Ask yourself the question: “What am I an example for my people?”
Write the answers, look at them, draw conclusions about what you would like.
6. When dealing with a problem in your business, find the root cause and move on to solving it. Determine three steps to start with.
7. Do something for your emotional and mental balance - unload nervous system, go to a coach or psychotherapist. Your business needs you with a clear head and in a resourceful state.
8. Practice your creativity. Music, drawing, the opportunity to dream are good helpers in this direction.
Select at least three items from this list and do them in the next three days. In this way, you will definitely move yourself forward into a new type of leadership.
Irina Kushnir, team coach, business consultant, lead trainer of the program “Agile for system companies - theory and practice of implementation” at the Golden Staff Business Training Center