There Is No Such Thing as Leadership Skills

“Leadership Skills! Come buy your leadership skills here! AI-proof/ML-enabled/McK-sanctioned/visionary-du-jour-inspired packaged for insta-leadership right here!”

Let’s face it, you can’t walk the corridors of Canary Wharf or the trendy Barbados new ad-hoc WeWorks without being lured by some skills-seller and their hypnotizing promises of a safe and gainfully employed feature if you only do X.

That X will improve your leadership by granting you the very special skills you need in today’s work environment. I should be the first to agree as I’ve written the book on TechLedCultures (literally:) and I’ve been on and on about how humans at work need to humanize and therefore they need to be consistent and rewarded for it hence they need to have more goodwill, more heart, more purpose, view of impact, more joy and flow and EQ to remain competitive. All those are skills, right?!?

Attitude. (More about my new seemingly unPC stance below and in the weeks to come on all newsletters so prepare to hate me)

Ok, I “hear” you roll your eyes and think this is probably click-bait, (which, I assure you, it is not!) Then what are the skills that leadership needs today?