Distinguishing Yourself
by Ron Venckus

Leadership

Leadership is an interesting competency and one which all or at least, most executives feel they possess—and certainly place on their resumes. But ask yourself a question, if it is a competency for you, how are you going to discuss leadership in a way that will bring it to life in an interview?

Authors have described leadership in a multitude of ways, some say that to be a leader you must be a visionary, directive, democratic, pacesetting, a coach. Others describe a leader as one who sees the forest while a manager is one who sees the trees—leaders ask questions and managers answer questions. It is also said that leaders must be articulate and forceful, be able to influence and persuade. Some stress that leaders must have the courage to share beliefs, values, character and knowledge. Kenneth Boulding, in The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society (1956) suggests that when a person is deciding if the leader is to be respected, they are not thinking of attributes but are examining what and how the leader does something, so they, the employee, can see “who” they are.

Building trust and confidence is, Boulding feels, the most reliable predictor of staff satisfaction. So, trust, communication, vision, influencing, persuading, listening are some of the key items we will need to be able to talk about in order to effectively showcase the competency of leadership, during an interview.

Our original question was, why do you feel you have the competency leadership and if you do, how will you bring the competency to life during an interview?

The Answer:

First, you must know who you are; you are not just a bag of job skills and knowledge because there is a personal side of you and that is what is used to get work done.

Second, you have to take who you are and translate it into your SHARE EVENTS. We suggest you put it into the last “E” section of the SHARE event.

Third, you will have to practice using the components that make up leadership to describe why you are an effective leader. For instance, if influencing is one of your strengths, consider how you will talk about it—how to bring the concept to life in the eyes of the interviewer. Remember, it isn’t enough to say: “I am an influencer,” you must demonstrate it working for you.

Once you get a handle on your job skills and personal competencies, and have practiced how to talk about yourself, then you will be ready to bring “yourself” to life during an interview.

About the author: Ron Venckus

Sources:
Kenneth E. Boulding. The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society. University of Michigan Press: Michigan, 1956.
Lominger Limited, Inc., Behavioral Technologies, Inc., Hay Associates, Inc.,
www.personal-development.com, www.stewartcoopercoon.com, www.quintcareers.com