5 Steps to Developing Your Leadership Potential
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Co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory
Leadership development is often described as the process of improving an individual's ability to lead. But what does it actually mean to become a more effective leader? The answer depends largely on how we define leadership and the skills we believe effective leaders need to develop.
What Does Effective Leadership Really Mean?
We define leadership as follows:
Leadership occurs when one person determines, undertakes, and sustains a favorable and/or productive direction and others follow. It’s not the nature of the direction that determines leadership; it’s the presence of a direction and the existence of a reciprocal relationship between leader and follower.
From this perspective, the two primary things that one must develop in order to become a leader are the ability to “determine, undertake, and sustain” a direction and the ability to attract and hold followers. That these are the two main factors in leadership development is nothing new. What is new is our belief that the way one perceives the world determines a great deal of how and in what types of directions one chooses to lead, and how one attracts and holds followers.
How Perceptual Style Shapes Leadership Potential
While most leadership development focuses on commonly accepted definitions and characteristics of effective leadership, Perceptual Style Theory™ (PST) takes a different approach. PST identifies six distinct Leadership Strength Profiles (LSPs), each arising from one of the six Perceptual Styles. A Leadership Strength Profile describes the natural leadership tendencies, strengths, and potential blind spots associated with a particular Perceptual Style. Just as each Perceptual Style supports a broad but finite range of natural skill potentials, each Leadership Strength Profile supports a distinctive set of natural leadership skill potentials.
Developing leadership skills is a process that at the macro level is the same for any of the six leadership profiles described by PST. But while the process is the same, the specific content – what skills and behaviors are to be developed – changes depending on the LSP being developed. In addition, the type of activities used to develop the skills chosen with each person must be customized based on their specific circumstances. This is true even for people who share the same LSP and who need to develop the same skill. This is because no two people will be in the same place in terms of their development nor will their life circumstances be identical.
PST states that everyone has the innate potential to lead, but obviously not everyone undertakes the efforts necessary to turn potential into behavioral skills. While each LSP describes a distinctly different type of leadership that varies in approach, values, focus, communication, strengths, and blind spots, each represents an expansion of an individual’s skill that has gone beyond the scope of personal development.
Why Leadership Development Goes Beyond Self-Awareness
To be a leader requires that an individual step beyond an understanding of themselves and a claiming of their own natural skill base. Development beyond the individual level is what leadership development is about. As such, people who aspire to leadership or who represent themselves to others as leaders are held to a “higher standard” than those who do not seek leadership. For this reason, the five skills that all highly effective leaders must develop require more from an individual than other types of personal development. An effective leader must not only understand themselves, but must understand others as well. They must know the skills and blind spots of others, not just their own, and they must be able to adjust and accommodate their behavior to the multitude of differences between themselves and their followers while not losing the distinct LSP that makes them effective.
Five Essential Skills for Effective Leadership
Within Perceptual Style Theory, leadership development is guided by five universal skills. Each builds upon the skills that precede it, providing a foundation for increasingly effective leadership.
- Build on natural strengths. Effective leaders recognize their natural abilities and develop them into practical leadership skills.
- Recognize personal limitations. They understand their blind spots and actively seek input from people who see the world differently.
- Communicate across differences. They recognize that followers have different perspectives and adapt their communication to reach them effectively.
- Build complementary teams. They recognize the talents of others and bring together people whose skills and perspectives strengthen one another.
- Manage natural limitations. They accept responsibility for their limitations and develop practical techniques to minimize their impact.
These five universal leadership skills provide a foundation for developing your unique leadership potential. Throughout this five-part series, we explore each skill individually and discuss how understanding Perceptual Style can help you apply it more effectively.
Developing leadership potential is not about adopting a single model of what an effective leader should look like. It begins with understanding your natural strengths, recognizing your limitations, and learning how to work effectively with people whose perspectives differ from your own.
These five universal leadership skills provide a foundation for developing your unique leadership potential. In the next five articles, we will explore each skill individually and discuss how understanding Perceptual Style can help you apply it more effectively.
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About Dr. Gary M. Jordan, Ph.D.
Gary Jordan, Ph.D., has over 35 years of experience in clinical psychology, behavioral assessment, individual development, and coaching. He earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology – Berkeley. He is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. He’s a partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., a consulting firm that specializes in helping people discover their true skills and talents.
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