We spent last month swimming in the pool of self-awareness and learning how to better understand ourselves and those around us in more profound ways. This month, we’re turning our attention to leadership fundamentals – those core leadership skills that either we need to refresh ourselves with or maybe be exposed to for the first time. Let’s start with a question.

What do Dwight Eisenhower, Martin Luther King Jr., Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Gates all have in common?

According to Stanford’s David Dodson in The Manager’s Handbook, after studying exceptional leaders across industries, he found these leaders, as well as many others, all mastered the same five skills: Building Teams, Managing Time, Using Advisors, Sticking to Priorities, and Obsessing Over Quality.

I’ll summarize the salient parts of the book for you below, but the key takeaway I want you to remember is: 

These are learnable skills, not attributes doled out at birth. They are universal skills that require practice, focus, and intention.
Since we’re bringing it back to basics, grab a pen and paper for this next activity. As you read the five skills and examples below, take a minute to assess your skills on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest), to determine where you feel you are strong and where you feel your opportunities lie. If you have a coach of your own, or you’re already working with me, share your scores with them to ensure you’re on the right track. If you want to work with me, you can find me here. Let’s go! 


1. COMMITMENT TO BUILDING A TEAM
This is about systematic execution; no one is hiring on their “gut feeling”. 

  • Do you use a hiring scorecard that focuses on outcomes, not just credentials? Have you defined exactly what success looks like before you interview anyone?
  • Do your teams interview systematically using structured questions? Is hiring a team sport, or is it a solo decision?
  • Do you apply Radical Candor by giving instant information on performance? Do you care personally and challenge directly, not allowing issues to fester?


2. FANATICAL CUSTODIAN OF TIME
Great leaders and managers protect their time like it’s their most valuable asset, because it is.

  • Are you using  Eisenhower’s Matrix to distinguish urgent from important? Are you falling into the trap of confusing activity with progress? (Click the link for a downloadable activity from my website)
  • Are you tackling your hardest priority before anything else can derail you?
  • Are you running meetings with ruthless discipline: requiring a purpose, sending background in advance, and always summarizing decisions, accountability holders, and next steps.


3. WILLINGNESS TO SEEK AND TAKE ADVICE
Great leaders and managers know they don’t have all the answers, and they don’t need them.

  • Have you built a personal board of trusted advisors who bring objectivity and pattern recognition from their own battles, or who can at least provide you with objective insight?
  • Have you “walked behind the tractor”, getting direct, unfiltered feedback from employees, customers, or suppliers by asking them what you’re missing?
  • Have you hired an executive coach who can call out your blind spots and push you past your comfort zone? The “Silence Gap” leaders experience is real; having an unencumbered person in your corner whose only agenda is your betterment is a GIFT. If you’re not giving it to yourself, question why. 


4. SETTING AND ADHERING TO PRIORITIES
Most leaders and managers fail not because they choose the wrong priorities, but because they try to do all the priorities. 

  • How many key priorities are you focused on? Keep that list to 3-5 key priorities maximum. 
  • How is your compensation aligned with your KPIs and priorities? If it matters, make sure you’re paying people to achieve it.
  • How are you protecting your focus? Saying “no” to good ideas that don’t serve your top priorities is your competitive advantage. No is a complete sentence. (A favorite Stacyism many of you will recognize.) 


5. AN OBSESSION WITH QUALITY
Sam Walton obsessed over quality in hiring, customer experience, and operations, and he crushed competitors who’d been in business 50 years longer.

  • What “moments of truth” are you tracking for data? Every customer touchpoint is where quality is defined. Quality isn’t just the final product; it’s the entire customer experience. 
  • What customer feedback are you receiving? Are these verbatim responses or satisfaction scores? Numbers tell you what, verbatims tell you why.
  • What are the systems in place that make your process quality? Build systems that produce excellence consistently, not heroic one-time efforts.

Success is about execution. It’s the daily discipline of doing these five things well, over and over again.

These five skills are interrelated: you can’t set and adhere to priorities if you’re not good at managing your time, and you can’t achieve maximum quality without a good team.

Look at your scores for each of the five skills.

What skills are you mastering? (Scores of 4/5)
What skills need attention and intention? (Scores of 1/2/3)

Which of these five skills do you actively need to work to master right now?

I’m here when you’re ready for support.