Imagine a leader you would look at as “political” in your group. What words and phrases to illustrate this leader? What comes into mind? I think that you thought of adjectives like “selfish”, “tricky”, “deceitful” or “not trustworthy”. Perhaps this query has caused you to visualize pictures of top-secret deals that are shut behind sealed doors.
So how do you figure out which of your political candidates have these skills? While it’s not possible to perform analytical interview questions to assess each political candidate, the alternative is to find these five characteristics in each of your chosen candidates. Read further below.
Essential Qualities of All Great Leaders
On the other hand, you could have imagined more positive adjectives like “powerful”, “very well connected”, “imaginative” or “socially smart”. Although the phrase “political skill” generally evokes negative perceptions rather than the opposite, it is not naturally a bad matter.
Indeed, leaders can use their political skills to achieve positive results. It enables them to successfully manage their company’s leadership issues and strengthen the overall performance and efficiency of their team. Leaders could very well use these abilities to improve their own and possibly their direct career prospects.
If a leader wants to be more politically experienced, experts have shown that they have to master four skills. Furthermore, experts have recently added a fifth skill to this typology.
Five political skills Explained
Social acumen – the skill to observe and understand others. Socially smart leaders are good at reading nonverbal behavior and can without effort sense the motives of others.
Social (Interpersonal) Influence – the skill to influence others with a convincing interpersonal style. Executives with strong interpersonal skills are good at building relationships, they connect well with others, and they are therefore good at getting people to appreciate them. If others like them, they can impact other folks even more conveniently.
Networking skill – the skill to build relationships. People who has high networking skills have close relationships with many people, this includes powerful people at work. These leaders can use their networks particularly well to get the necessary strategies for special and organizational responsibilities.
Obvious sincerity – means being transparent, open, straight and honest with people. Executives with obvious sincerity believe that their word is their very own connection – they do what precisely they claim they will.
Image management – the skill to naturally comprehend what words to say to positively impact others, and knows the best way to create a good impression.
Of the Five political abilities, image management, as well as interpersonal skills, are the most crucial for supporting a leader to obtain even more influence at work.