The Art of Leadership

By: Gina Kellogg-Gardner, MAOL

Art is infinite. An artist never reaches a point of complete mastery. The skill of an artist is in constant development; evolving and transforming, adapting to the moment and becoming fluently versatile in order to experience or achieve a brilliantly authentic outcome.

Leadership is art. Leadership, like all arts, takes patience, practice and persistence. The art of leadership is exhibited by modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, fostering an environment of innovation, guiding others toward their own excellence and encouraging the celebration of success. To new leaders these artful behaviors can seem daunting and vague. However, the art of leadership can be taught to new leaders by helping them build five key fundamental skills early in their careers that will allow them to successfully adapt and become versatile amongst any given challenge. Take time now to teach new leaders foundational skills, and watch them achieve and succeed beyond unthinkable limits.

Five Foundational Leadership Skills:

1. Determine values: Help new leaders identify what they stand for personally and professionally. Facilitate them through a discussion that will guide them toward articulating their top three values. New leaders need to first understand who they are, and what they personal stand for, before they can effectively model the way.
   
   
2. Articulate vision: Teach new leaders how to describe the future. A new leader needs to learn first how to identify where they are headed, and secondly be able to describe their vision clearly and with conviction in
   order to inspire other
   
   
3. Seek ways to foster personal growth: Encourage new leaders to seek out ways to personally grow. Hold them accountable to following through on continuous learning opportunities. Advancing their education or reading the latest leadership books, choices are limitless.
   
   
4. Learn to partner: Teach new leaders how to identify the strengths of others, and how to align themselves with those who have talents they themselves may not have. Learning to partner fosters collaboration and respect, and diminishes the desire for silos.
   
   
5. Share wins: Ask new leaders to frequently share their successes with others. Meetings, emails or networking sites are great avenues new leaders can use to communicate personal or team wins. Professionally sharing wins helps to highlight the strengths of new leaders and builds confidence!