CoachSource® Leadership Competencies

Leadership Competencies

Definition

Accountability

Creating accountability within others; leading to outcomes; holding people accountable

Agility

Shifting from one thing to the next with ease; flexibility and flow with the work; change priorities, direction, and work for self and others

Business Acumen

Knowledge of the various factors that determine how companies make profit and meet other success metrics.  Understanding of how various functional departments contribute to a company’s profitability.
Awareness of how the company’s strategy, actions, market dynamics, customer situations, and actions by competitors determine the success outcomes of the company.
Keenness and quickness in understanding and dealing with a “business situation” (risks and opportunities) in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome.

Career Development

Identification of your long-term career aspirations.
Understanding and developing of your leadership “brand” (what differentiates you from your peers).
Evaluation of your short-term career options, how to position yourself, and mapping the steps you should take to get there.

Change Management

Driving changes at an organizational, team and/or individual level, ranging from a simple process change to an enterprise-wide cultural transformation.
Creating a vision, clarifying the big picture, establishing a direction, setting strategies for followers, communicating goals, seeking commitment, and selling the business case for change.

Collaboration

Coworking towards a common outcome; sharing the work to achieve a greater result; creating relationships that support collaboration

Communication Skills

Articulating intended messages clearly and concisely, both in ad hoc settings and in meetings. Adapting your communication style to various personalities so that they “hear” you. Answering questions directly, without first sharing your detailed rationale, logic, or data, unless asked for more detail. Confidently speaking up in meetings to share your viewpoints.

Confidence

Self awareness; skills to be confident in challenging situations

Conflict Management

Moving opposing positions to a common resolution; creating crucial conversations; how to have difficult conversations with others

Creativity / Innovation

Developing and introducing fresh new ways of solving a problem or doing business. Generating and promoting new ideas. Implementing these ideas into different processes and demonstrating originality in the work.

Critical Thinking

Objectively analyzing the facts and evaluating all sides of an issue in order to form judgments, rather than leaping to conclusions.

Customer Focus

The ability to understand customers’ situations, perceptions, and expectations. Keeping the customer in mind when developing a strategy and when making business decisions.
Adapting the organizational structure to market requirements and openly exchanging information about customers with team members.

Decision-Making

How to decide without complete information; shifting from ambiguity to clarity; communicating difficult decisions; after action reviews and learning from decisions.

Developing Others / Coaching & Mentoring Others

Focusing your time and attention on the professional development of your team members by coaching and mentoring them, helping them to become more self-directed, productive, and to achieve their career goals.
Listening and responding to team members or direct reports’ concerns and needs and providing them with the resources and support they need.

Diversity and Inclusion

Actively promoting the heterogeneity of the demographic composition and skill sets of team members. Being open to learning about others who are different and showing cultural awareness, cultural understanding, and respect for values. Focusing on employee involvement and the integration of diversity into organizational systems, processes, and policies. Creating a workplace environment where everyone expresses respect and appreciation to each other and where people feel they belong. Fostering a workplace culture that draws upon otherness and uniqueness as assets that help move an organization forward.

Emotional Intelligence

Being able to monitor one’s own and others’ emotions, discriminate among them, and use the information to guide thinking and actions. Monitoring how group members are feeling and taking the appropriate action according to these observations.
Being flexible and adaptable to different situations. The ability to withstand adverse events and stressful situations, without “falling apart” by actively and positively coping with stress. Also, being able to control impulsive behaviors.

Empowering Others / Delegation

Giving subordinates the authority and freedom to perform their responsibilities, make decisions on their own, and be accountable for achieving intended results without close supervision. Distributing power throughout the organization and relying on decision-making from those who are closest to the action. Supporting employees who are taking risks and building confidence in team members’ own capacities.

Executive Leadership

Leading at higher levels in the organization; leading and influencing across multiple business units; leading at a broader scope and scale

Executive Presence

Displaying confidence and gravitas through steady eye contact, grounded body language, executive voice, energizing tone and language. Being assertive, yet warm and authentic. Being fearlessly decisive, yet thoughtful.

Focus on what matters/Prioritization

Prioritizing work and attention

Fostering Teamwork

Creating greater outcomes from existing teams

Global Mindset / Intercultural Effectiveness

Developing and interpreting criteria for personal and business performance that are independent of the assumptions of a single country, culture, or context. Implementing those criteria appropriately in different countries, cultures, and contexts.
Knowing the various ways of conducting business in different parts of the world by connecting, communicating, and collaborating with people from other countries. Showing the ability to digest, interpret, and leverage a large amount of information embedded in global business savvy and cosmopolitan outlook.
Expressing willingness to deal with risks of unfamiliarity, having the energy and confidence to take on global roles and responsibilities.

Imposter Syndrome

Dampening fears; creating clarity around strengths; fulfilling needs that increase confidence; managing and overcoming limited beliefs

Influencing/Inspiring Others

Creating relationships with peers and others who are not direct reports; getting results through others; creating a compelling vision our outcome that motivates others to achieve the outcome

Influencing Others

Understanding your stakeholders, developing mutual trust, and changing their thinking and behaviors for improved outcomes. Engaging and motivating people outside your span of control to take actions aligned with your goals.

Integrity

Adhering to moral principles and capturing the essence of ethical values in personal actions and interpersonal relationships. Promoting ethical conduct within your team through two- way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making. Being able to walk the talk and act in the best interest of employees and customers.

Interpersonal Awareness

The ability to perceive and understand the emotions, behaviors, and motivations of others in social interactions. It involves being attuned to both verbal and non-verbal cues, recognizing the impact of your own actions on others, and adapting your behavior to enhance communication and relationships. This skill helps build empathy, trust, and effective collaboration by fostering better understanding and connection in personal and professional settings.

Leading at the Enterprise Level

Scaling up from leading a function to leading at the enterprise; creating alignment across the enterprise; representing the enterprise to internal and external stakeholders

Managing Conflict

Developing the ability to recognize, address, and resolve disagreements or differences in a constructive manner. It involves guiding leaders to navigate difficult conversations, understand different perspectives, and find common ground. Effective conflict management focuses on fostering open communication, reducing tension, and creating solutions that maintain relationships while achieving desired outcomes. The goal is to turn conflict into an opportunity for growth, collaboration, and improved team dynamics.

Managing Up

Understanding the needs/concerns of upper management, developing relationships with them, providing value to them, and managing their perceptions of you.

Mindfulness

Using reflection to improve thinking; focusing on thought processes instead of the problem; generating physiological and mental states of calm.

Performance Management

Using a multi-step process in organizations to manage employee performance. These steps include clear goal setting, effective feedback, and fair and objective performance appraisals. Addressing poor performers in an objective and direct, yet compassionate manner.

Political Savvy

The ability to exhibit confidence and professional diplomacy, while effectively accounting for differences in power, status, and interests of stakeholders and relating to people at all levels internally and externally.
Transcending gamesmanship and engaging stakeholders in efforts to advance organizational vision. Discerning and navigating different perspectives and ultimately influencing the organizational landscape.

Presentation Skills / Public Speaking

Crafting key messages and preparing and delivering formal presentations effectively to small and large audiences, either in-person or virtually.
Using eye contact, gestures, vocal tones, and storytelling techniques for maximum impact. This also includes the ability to adjust your communication style and approach to align with your target audience.

Relationship-Building / Networking

Developing and maintaining relationships with all key stakeholders. Improving working relationships with peers by understanding their needs and viewpoints and collaborating.
Reaching out to develop new, strategic relationships across the company to expand your visibility and sphere of influence.

Resilience

Responding constructively to setbacks; recover quickly from difficulties; toughness in the midst of stress; decompressing and learning from challenges

Risk Taking

Have a tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity, leaning into new challenges and negotiations. Demonstrating the ability to make bold decisions, even with incomplete data. Being innovative and growth oriented.

Self-Development / Self-Insight

Developing a higher level of self-awareness of one’s strengths, development needs, and psychological obstacles that get in the way of one’s goals.

Self motivation

Finding meaning to spark motivation; aligning strengths to accomplish results; initiating action

Social Intelligence

Reading the room; meeting people where they are

Strategic Leadership

Leadership focused on outcomes that are five to ten years out; leading direction instead of functionality; influencing others to shift from the current approach to a different approach

Strategic Thinking

The ability to guide an organization or team toward long-term goals by making informed decisions that align with its mission, vision, and values. It involves anticipating future challenges and opportunities, setting a clear direction, and creating actionable plans to achieve sustainable success. Strategic leaders are forward-thinking, adaptable, and skilled at motivating others to execute on high-level objectives while balancing immediate needs with long-term outcomes. They foster innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement to ensure the organization remains competitive and resilient in changing environments.

Teambuilding

Using the formal and informal team-level practices and focusing on improving interpersonal dynamics within the team. Setting goals with team members, clarifying roles, resolving interpersonal problems and developing a high performance, results-focused team.

Time Management / Work-Life Balance

Prioritizing your workload, organizing your systems/workspace/calendar, and managing your time accordingly.  Focusing on the essential and important, rather than trying to do it all.  Delegating, delaying, or declining tasks as appropriate.
Valuing the relationship between work and non-work aspects of your life. Supporting employees to have an equal distribution of time, energy, and commitment to their work and non-work roles.

Transition Management / “First 90 Days”

Accelerating your learning curve and effectiveness in a new role or a new organization by following a “First 90 Days” or similar framework and building relationships with new team members and stakeholders.

Treating People with Respect

Respecting and valuing the ideas, opinions, differences, and worldviews that others have. Being trustworthy is the foundation of respect, so telling the truth and being open and thoughtful in your relationships within the organization.

Vision and Strategy

Using direction-setting skills and cognitive skills such as big-picture thinking to create common ground in the company. Through clear and consistent communication aligning employees and stakeholders and setting a direction for them with planning. Tying where the enterprise is headed to and what the firm values in a way that the organization can understand, grasp, and support.

Wellness/Well-Being

Aligning work and life needs; building capabilities for general health and happiness; connecting meaning and purpose with work and life; creating sustainable behaviors to prevent burnout.

Women in Leadership

Understanding and navigating the context and barriers women face when pursuing and/or are in positions of leadership.  This includes, but is not limited to, unconscious bias and enlisting the support of both women and men in developing solutions.