The last set of leadership competencies in Marshall Goldsmith’s global study is about Continuous Change. This set comprises of the following three competencies:

  1. Achieving Personal Mastery
  2. Anticipating Opportunities
  3. Leading Change

Most of the time I reflect the leadership competencies towards Alliance Leadership, and every time I see more connection points. It is clear that alliance professionals are true leaders.

As an example, Achieving Personal Mastery includes elements like “Heightened self-awareness around behaviors, motivators, personal preferences” and “Management of emotions and behaviors”. Now look at those within the context of Alliance Management, a profession where it is all about collaboration with other people and organizations. Collaboration without self-awareness and management of emotions will be kindergarten collaboration. It will work as long as you like, but can change instantly. In other words, without proper mastery of this competency, grown-up collaboration will be virtually impossible.

The same applies to the other two competencies in this group: Alliance Professionals are on a constant lookout for new opportunities. The dynamics of alliances, where two or more organizations are working together, is one where change is a given.

We, Alliance Leaders, generally have well developed senses for these three competencies. We know ourselves, we look for opportunities and we know how to handle change. That is what part of our profession entails. Does that mean that we can not improve in these areas? No. As good as we are, I believe that there is always room for improvement.

Read over the previous articles about leadership competencies again and think about it: How well are you doing on these leadership competencies? Where is your room for improvement?

 
 

PS: Want to learn how you are doing compared to the norm group of 2800 international leaders? Consider a self assessment and identify the areas for your leadership improvement.