RunningHead:LEADERSHIPCOMPETENCIES

Leadership Competencies
Kelly Chambers
Siena Heights University
February 5, 2016

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Leadership Competencies
Every position within an organization has a set of skills that are required to complete
needed tasks and help the organization move forward toward meeting its goals and stated
mission. Every position, from the entry-level clerk to the organization president has work they
must accomplish and skills they need to have in order to do so effectively. Some positions are
comprised mainly of hard skills or specific knowledge and abilities for the completion of tasks.
But, while there is a need for hard skills desired in leaders, there is also an increased focus on
personal attributes, communication, and emotional intelligence that assist them in managing
projects, people, and relationships most often defined as leadership competencies.
Competencies for Leadership Levels
Many believe that there are different competencies that are needed for success at different
leadership levels, or that what is needed of the daily manager and organization president can
differ. As Dai, Tang, and De Meuse (2010) state, there is a rich tradition in the study of
management that recognizes changing managerial functions and competencies across
organizational levels (p. 367). For example many believe that more interpersonal and
conceptual skills are needed by organizational and strategic leadership levels whereas functional
leaders need to have higher technical or hard skills to manage the daily operations. The ideas are
that at different points in their leadership development, leaders need to focus on excelling at
different skills.
However there is increased focus on identifying the competencies that are important in all
levels of leadership; so that organizations can look for these skills when hiring and internally

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promoting individuals into leadership roles. Competencies can be groups into categories such as
task-related, self-related, and people-related.
Competencies Needed for Success
Task-related competencies are those that allow a leader to effectively manage the work
and tasks that are needed to be completed to meet strategic initiatives such as; setting objectives,
forecasting, planning, organization, understanding and analyzing information, and problemsolving. People-related competencies are those related to how well a leader can inspire, motivate
and influences others, build relationships, handle conflict, and develop those they lead. Selfrelated competencies are the individuals knowledge, values, fairness, integrity, and flexibility.
And while all these competencies are important to leadership success, Vaculik, Prochazka, and
Smutny (2014) found that task-related competencies were shown to be the best predictor of
leadership effectiveness, a strong predictor of leadership emergence, a strong predictor of
leadership self-efficacy and perceived leadership effectiveness (p. 337).
While task-related competencies are known to be good predictors of success, this does
not mean that leaders should not balance and focus on the development and use of all leadership
competencies, especially if they wish to have a lasting competitive advantage. As Dai et al.
(2010) also states, strengths become weaknesses when relied on too heavily or applied where
they do not belong (p. 368). This shows that to be truly effective, a leader needs to draw on the
correct competencies for the situation at hand and are willing to learn and develop new skills
when needed.
Conclusion

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Ultimately, mastering all core leadership competencies creates a balanced leader that is
able to create a truly inclusive culture that thrives. These leaders can build on the various insights
and talents of themselves, their employees, and other stakeholders to build sustainable solutions
that meet the organizational goals and objectives. They have the competencies to make decisions
while retaining their integrity and values. They know what they want and what and how to
motivate everyone to work towards it, without sacrificing who they are. As organizations seek to
identify and hire leadership within their organization they should look to hire balanced leaders
that show not only current mastery of leadership competencies, but also have a willingness to
learn and grow. Doing so will ultimately result in effective leaders creating an organizational
culture of success.

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References
Dai, G., King, Y. T., & De Meuse, K.P. (2011). Leadership competencies across organizational
levels: A test of the pipeline model. The Journal of Management Development, 30(4),
366-380. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621711111126837
Vaculik, M., Prochazka, J., & Smutny, P. (2014). Competencies and leadership effectiveness:
Which skills predict effective leadership? Paper presented at the 337-344. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1674836199?accountid=28644