39 Key Competencies Of Successful Business Leaders

In this post, we will go through 39 critical and key competencies of successful business leaders. These competencies are developed over a period of time and are extremely relevant for leaders in the middle management role. If the middle level managers are able to acquire, adopt and display these traits then they can become very successful in their career and climb the ladder of success with great pace.

Business Orientation

• Constant lookout for avenues for further business generation
• Identify and work towards converting prospective opportunities into big deals
• Regularly monitor key financial metrics and takes step to improve the same
• Analyze the commercial and business value of the proposed ideas
• Implement various operating and pricing models as per the context and need
• Support the branding efforts for organization with industry bodies and analyst organizations

Self Leadership

• Gain sound technical and domain knowledge, do not depend on others
• Adapt effectively to change, develop ability to take quick decisions
• Ability to share a valid point of view in his/her area
• Take charge of the situation, lead from the front
• Self driven and do not need directions from others
• Manage multiple and diverse responsibilities effectively

Partnering with the Customer

• Deliver solutions which have direct and measurable business benefits to the customer
• Act as an advisor to the customer and not just an order taker
• Keep customer's best interest in mind at all times and be genuine
• Propose a compelling business value proposition to the customer
• Recommend and implement different business and operating models as per the needs of the customer
• Deal with customer escalations effectively, focus on problem solving for long term
• Make strategic tradeoffs in the interest of the customer and own organization

Influencing

• Build extensive networks within the organization
• Understand the formal/ informal structures as well as dynamics in own as well as customer organization
• Influence others to gain support for own agenda
• Express own thoughts and ideas in a convincing way
• Negotiate skillfully with internal and external stakeholders
• Anticipate the effect of an action on others and modulates own behavior

Engaging and Developing Others

• Instill confidence amongst team members and motivate them towards achievement of the goals
• Mentor and coach the team members
• Assess the skills levels of the team members and identify development needs
• Ensure that team members get the right support and guidance from relevant sources within the organization
• Be sensitive to the cultural differences amongst team members
• Facilitates a common understanding within the team
• Communicatee the vision and goals of team/organization in a powerful and convincing manner

Critical Thinking

• Keeps revenue generation as the larger goal while making decisions
• Ability to look beyond the obvious
• Ask probing questions to identify the real problem
• Shift effectively between micro and macro perspectives
• Consider the strategic implications of decisions
• Analyze the situation at hand and derives key insights
• Identify innovative solutions for addressing the problem

Note that these skills or competencies cannot be acquired in a single day or in a single training program. These have to be learned and developed over a period of time and most important is that one needs to practice these skills at work on a day to day basis so that they become a part of one's business behaviour.

To conclude, here is a quote 'Leadership is never an avenue to be self-serving but,a platform to render great service to people'

If you read the above, you may also want to read the below mentioned other blog posts of interest:

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Is Digital Revolution Going To Take Away Your Job?

There is a breaking news making rounds these days.

IT sector to lose 6.4 lakh jobs to automation by 2021: HfS Research You can read the full article here.

This obviously has caused a panic in the IT sector specially amongst the folks who perform the so called "low-skill" job.

After reading this lot of questions come to mind: What will be the consequences when this happens? Am I going to lose my job? What will all these jobless people do? etc. 

Before we analyze and attempt to answer these questions, let us first ask ourselves has a similar incident happened in the past? Let us look back in the history...

The Industrial Revolution

During the period of 18th to 19th century the Industrial revolution changed the world, starting from UK then subsequently spreading into rest of Europe and North America. Industrial revolution led to major changes in the sectors of manufacturing, agriculture, transport etc. Specialized machinery took over from the hand made, small basic machines, it resulted in mass production saving both time and engergy. The consequences of industrial revolution were many fold, it impacted social, economic, political and cultural life of people. 

So when this occured what happened to the people who were earning their daily bread by performing manual/ hand made jobs and using basic machines? Did they lose their jobs to the specialized machinery? Answer is Yes. Most of the regular manual jobs were taken over by the specialized machines, but at the same time industrial revolution resulted in variety of new job types. These new job types required the workers to be trained and skilled on the new machines. There was a learning curve but the new job types were exciting because they were backed by technology advancements and eventually the throughput, productivity and output improved a lot as compared to the pre industrial revolution period.

So similar to the industrial revolution we are now on the verge of the next big revolution and that is nothing but The Digital Revolution.

The Digital Revolution

Riding on the technology wave, we are right on the verge of a generation which will thrive on The Internet Of Things. An era where we will have...

• Smart refrigerators that will be able to check inventory and order vegetables automatically
• Smart devices monitoring our critical health parameters and sending alerts to us/ medical help
• Intelligent cars, intelligent homes etc. 

the future is full of imagination turning into reality.

All these changes will come into being only because the technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. This in turn also means that certain very basic level of work done today by humans will  also be taken over by means of technology. For example, consider the IVR, Interactive Voice Response System, earlier when IVR was not developed, companies needed human beings to answer each and every phone call that was received by customer support. But with IVR, all of that is automated and the basic queries of customers are repsonded by IVR and not by humans. So did people lose their jobs because of IVR? Ofcourse they did. But then that was not the last job on the planet. Development of IVR, Support and Maintainence of IVR are the new job types created. These did not exist earlier. So eventually everything got balanced out.

But the real worry some people have is that "IT" is going to automate "IT", that is one day artificial intelligence will be go strong that we will not need humans to write the computer programs. Programs will self learn and improve on their own. Phew! That sounds a bit too long way away as of now!

Having said the above, coming back to the original question, what will happen in 2021 when the Indian IT sector is predicted to lose 6.4 lakh jobs due to automation? What will these people do? or rather what should these people do now so that they are prepared, trained and skilled to take over another job type when the storm hits. Here are some important steps:

• Identify whether the job you do is candidate for automation. If yes, you are at risk.
• Find out what kind of automation is going to take over your job? Is it a third party tool? Is it a IT script based automation or simply a redesign of the system. 
• Now, because you have done some basic analysis in step 1 and step 2 you are better equiped to face the situation. Next logical step is to research and get reskilled. But be aware, reskilling involves lot of efforts and sometimes it requires investment too. However, it is better to be safe than to be sorry, so put that extra dollar and extra hour of effort to avoid a panic situation later.
• Now find out the potential employers. Mere reskilling may not help if you dont know who is going to hire you. So it is wise to find out about the potential employers and understand their hiring process.
• Also, keep yourself acquainted with the latest technological changes around the globe. For example, read this interesting article on Quora: What technological changes will create the most opportunities for new startups over the next 2-3 years? Making yourself aware of the these changes will give you the much required head start over others.

To conclude, whether it is The Industrial Revolution or The Digital Revolution, no one can stop it from changing the world. So all we need to do is to adapt and embrace the change. As mentioned by Charles Darwin in his famous quote: It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. So prepare for the change that is coming your way because change is inevitable.

Note: If you need change management lessons you may want to read the bestseller Who Moved My Cheese by DR SPENCER JOHNSON

If you read the above, you may also want to read the below mentioned other blog posts of interest:

How Much Would IT Professional Save In USA
USA Visa Basics L1A L1B and H1B
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11 Self Appraisal Ideas To Spur Your Career Growth

Purpose of this article is to provide some inputs on the self appraisal or self evaulation process that most people working for corporate organizations need to go through every year. One common issue that people face every year is that they struggle to collect evidences and articulate their achievements to support their performance over the year. Because they are not able to provide the right inputs, they fail to get good ratings and eventually fall on the losing side.

In this post we will share some great self appraisal ideas which will help you in the self appraisal process.

• First things first, understand the KRAs in details. KRAs are the key result areas set for you at the begnning of the year or at the beginning of the project(in case you move to a new project or new deparment). Your performance over the year is measured against the KRAs. It is absolutely necessary to understand the key result areas(KRAs) along with explicit and implicit requirements at the beginning of the year.
• Understand the measures within each KRA, that is, how exactly performance will be measured. For example, if your KRA is to improve customer satisfaction score then you should know the measure in terms of the exact CSAT score that you are suppose to gain, it may be 4 on a scale of 5 or 8 on a scale of 10 depending on your organization process and policy.
• Also understand how will the data be collected for these measures, so in case of the KRA for csat score you need to know how the csat score is calculated and where is it stored and retrieved
• Understand the rating system properly, know exactly what is required to gain a certain rating, for example, on a scale of 5, if 5 is the best, then you should know what exactly should be done to gain a rating of 4/5 or 5/5
• Track your work on a regular basis, create a folder to store relevant emails and documents
• Track the critical incidents, these are occassions when you have done something really extraordinary by going outside the call of your duty. For example, working on a weekend or working late in the night to take care of emergency situations
• Be rational of your own work, don't rate yourself 5/5 just because you think that you have done a great job or because your friend always claims to do so. Always attach the right evidences to support your claim
• Don't worry too much about what your colleagues are filling in their self appraisals. A casual discussion to gain some idea is fine but if you get worried about your peer or start copying him/ her then you lose your originality and fail to highlight the hardwork you have done througout the year
• Quantification of achievements is also a very important aspect. When you provide highlights of your work done in the past don't forget to include the right numbers/ figures. These are facts that will help you build a strong business case for your growth/ promotion
• During the discussion with your supervisor/ manager be sure to put forth your points positively, be ready and open to receive critical feedback and provide inputs/ feedback for the betterment of the project/ organization
• Remember, self appraisal is not only an opportunity for you to showcase/ present the work you have done in the past year but it is also an opportunity for you to identify and grab opportunities for the future.

Having mentioned the above points, the last and most important point is that one should take the self evaulation/ self appraisal process as an opportunity to look within oneself and find out the strenghts and weakness. On some occassions some peers/ colleagues may attempt to discourage others by talking negatively about the process, we should be careful about such people and safely ignore their advice. Self appraisal/ self evaluation is a very importance process just not for work/ employment but also in general for your life. To conclude here is a quote: 'We are accountable for our career and life, so we have to be responsible for our righteous self appraisal - NOT our boss and NOT our company'.

If you read the above, you would definitely want to read 21 Real Reasons Why Some People Get Promoted While Others Don't

Other blog posts of interest:

How Much Would IT Professional Save In USA
USA Visa Basics L1A L1B and H1B
How To Go Onsite?
Most Valuable Skill For Your Life
21 Important Things To Know If You are Traveling To USA For The First Time
How To Hunt For Job After Career Break
5 Secrets of Salary Negotiations