Four Stages of Learning Essential for Leadership Excellence

"You are not born a leader, you become one."

A proverb of the Bamileke people in West Africa

If you want to be a great golfer, natural ability takes you only half way there. At that stage you need to learn to do nine or ten things that seem both unnatural and awkward at first. You are unlearning your natural game and having to put the pieces together again in a new, creative configuration. When these new skills become unconsciously habitual, then you are on the final ascent to the summit of excellence.

Learning to play golf is a parable for learning to become an excellent leader. There are four broad stages:

Level I. Unconscious Incompetence:

Without being aware of the facts, you are falling well short of fulfilling the role and functions of a leader. You are not unsuitable, just inadequate.

Level II. Conscious Incompetence:

You become aware that in some areas you are not well qualified or able to perform as a leader.

Level III. Conscious Competence:

Like the golfer trying new grips and swings, you start to make a conscious effort to improve your skills, measuring yourself against the key functions of leadership. You listen to feedback, and—undeterred by frequent failures—you consciously proceed to develop your ability to meet the task, team and individual needs of your group.

Level IV. Unconscious Competence:

Eventually, without your being aware of it, excellence in the practice of leadership at team, operational or strategic level begins to shine through. It becomes second nature to you. You don’t have to think about it—you are a leader. People will then say about you, ‘He (or she) is a born leader.’ Little did they know!

In our experience, the state of unconscious competence seldom lasts very long, otherwise it degenerates into complacency. You need to keep learning!

Remember the word competence, strictly speaking, only implies adequate performance in your role. What you are seeking is not to be adequate, good or even very good—you want be excellent in your field. And excellence is really always just beyond your grasp.

With luck, you will continually encounter leaders and managers who embody excellence in some particular aspect, function or quality. Learn from them.

?      Am I a born leader yet?

Where do you start? To become an effective leader you make it your first priority to develop in three areas:

1.   Awareness—Becoming sensitive to what is happening in groups or organizations, and why it is happening—the group dynamics of the situation

2.   Understanding—knowing what leadership functions or act is required at any given time.

3.   Skill—Having the skill to undertake the function effectively in order to achieve the desired result.

Leadership attracts us because it is such an inexhaustible subject. As you go deeper into it you will see that skill and technique are not enough by themselves.

As author Joseph Conrad said:

“Efficiency of a practical flawless kind of may be achieved naturally in the struggle for bread. But there is something beyond—a higher point, a subtle and unmistakable touch of love and pride beyond mere skill; almost an inspiration which gives to all work that finish which is almost art—which is art.”

All the Success!

PM in the AM

P.S. Want to check the leadership effectiveness of yourself, someone on your team, or your organizational as a whole?

Request our free individual and/or organizational leadership effective assessment by emailing us at petermclees@aol.com