The Leadership Skills Gap

Joe Phillips, Chief Information Officer at Broward County Public Schools

Joe Phillips, Chief Information Officer at Broward County Public Schools

Simply put, the skills that got you the job are not the same skills you need in the job. To elaborate, many in leadership spent years honing a craft, specialty, niche, etc. Whether it was technology, human resources, engineering, marketing, or any other specialty, as more complicated skill sets were mastered, folks moved up the ranks.

Then one day, they found themselves in a leadership position. The good news is that they were trusted to lead. The bad news is that job skills do not tend to transfer directly into leadership skills.

Leadership is much more than being in charge and telling others what to do. The “ship” part of the word leadership gives us a hint that relationships and people will be involved in this endeavor. I once had one of my new junior leaders tell me that his people “act like broken machines”. This occurred when he was asking for advice on how to handle a dispute between employees regarding the inequality of 12 men having to share a single-stall men’s restroom while the women’s restroom was only shared among four women.

This new leader, and former IT engineer, had never imagined that mediating employee disputes of this type was a skill that he needed to master to be an effective leader. He thought leadership consisted of becoming a supervisor, telling people what to do, and then they would do it. Simple, but incorrect.

“Team members look for a leader they believe in, a team and culture they align with, work that they want to do, and the ability to see a future for themselves with the organization”

After this encounter, I created a Leadership Academy for my leaders. Lesson 1 was that the skills that got you to a leadership position are not the same skills that you need once you are in the position. Lesson 2 was the difference between management and leadership.

As leaders, we must both manage and lead. Management is the breakdown, assignment, and accountability of work. While Leadership is the relationship that a leader has with their people. A leader does not “manage” people. A leader “leads” people and “manages” work. I have not found anyone who explains this better than Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. In their book, The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes& Posner explain that the five main principles of leadership are to model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage the heart.

I have found these principles to be the core and essential skills in IT leadership. While a solid technical knowledge base is helpful. It is not enough to keep morale and productivity high, to keep your people from leaving, attract new talent, or reach organizational goals. Our team members look for a leader they believe in, a team and culture they align with, work that they want to do, and the ability to see a future for themselves with the organization. When these four things are out of sync, the relationship is broken and they begin to look for other options.