I think it is fair to say that all leaders have a limited set of skills for doing business and leading an organization.  The skills they generally possess are those that they have relied upon and been successful with throughout their careers.  As with any other such asset, they have come to lean on those skills as their primary skills for leading a business.     

If their leadership role is a limited one with a defined short term outcome, such as leading an integration, divesting specific assets, or downsizing, those skill limitations may not pose a problem.  However, if the role is to be long term, leaders must have the ability to recognize the changing needs of the organization and utilize the appropriate skills to respond to them. 

Leaders must also recognize that as they address one set of problems, others WILL emerge.  Chances are that these new problems will be problems with which they are not accustomed.   This is true because problems are less likely to arise in a leader’s area of strength simply because they tend to be more attentive to issues in those areas.  As a result, new problems are likely to arise in areas in which the leaders are less familiar and for which they may not have the appropriate skill set.  It is at this critical juncture that leaders must have access to new skills.  How do they do that?

There are many answers to that question…many ways to adapt to change.  But, one that is readily available, and easy to implement on short notice, is inclusion.  In this case, inclusion means involving other members of the team.  By doing so, leaders supplement their own set of skills and abilities.  They use the insights of their team members to understand all aspects of the problems they are facing, and they draw on the strengths of their team members to find the best solutions.  As a result, those solutions represent a broad array of perspectives which gain commitment and yield better results.

Inclusion enables a leader to adapt to new situations by drawing on different skills – the skills of their team members.  No doubt you have heard the maxim that great leaders surround themselves with a great team.  This does not mean that great leaders are lazy and find a group of experts to do the job for them.  It simply means that they cannot be expert at everything.  Therefore, they must have a strong team working with them.   Inclusion is a process through which to gain information, expertise and skill in as many areas as possible in handling your widely varied leadership responsibilities. 

As a leader, this requires you to put your EGO aside and recognize that being an effective leader does NOT mean making all the decisions, but rather it means enabling the organization to arrive at the correct solutions by involving the right people at the right time.  It requires you to develop a culture which fosters participation.  It requires you to establish the appropriate mechanisms to enable that participation to take place.  It requires you to systematically put the important issues on the table for discussion.  However, be sure to note, it does NOT require you to make decisions based on consensus.  As the leader, you ALWAYS maintain the right and the responsibility to make the final decisions. 

Next post will look at Delegation as another way to “Broaden Your Skill Set” as a participative leader.