Increase your leadership effectiveness

Businessweek has a great short piece by Marshall Goldsmith describing the five steps you need to take to become an effective leader.

Often this kind of material is more about the writer’s prejudices than evidence-based advice. Goldsmith drew on a study of 86,000 people working in major corporations before devising his list – so I suppose this might be better titled “increase your corporate leadership effectiveness”.

Goldsmith says the jury is out on whether great leaders are born that way (in fact he asks his readers for their opinions on this). However, he argues the essential skills are not hard to learn.

One tip I particularly like is:

Periodically ask co-workers for suggestions on how you can do an even better job in your selected behaviors for change.

I may not always like what I hear when I get feedback, but good or bad it is always welcome.

How to Increase Your Leadership Effectiveness – BusinessWeek.

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