LEADERSHIP

GIORGI BURDULI
Leader’s Skills
 Skills

 Skill = talent x effort

 Achievement = skill x effort

*Effort counts twice: the more effort you apply, the

more your skill rises, and the more you achieve!

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose

and direction - JFK
 Types of Skills

 Hard Skills - Hard skills are learned abilities acquired and

enhanced through practice, repetition, and education. Hard
skills (also called technical skills) are any skills relating to a
specific task or situation. It involves both understanding and
proficiency in such specific activity that involves methods,
processes, procedures, or techniques. 
 Soft skills - a combination of people skills, social
skills, communication skills, character or personality traits,
attitudes, career attributes, social intelligence and emotional
intelligence quotients, among others, that enable people to
navigate their environment, work well with others, perform
well, and achieve their goals with complementing hard
skills
 Hard Skills - Examples

 General Quantitative Abilities - Mathematics and

Numeracy skills, Financial Modeling, Accounting, Statistics,
Econometrics
 Machine operation - Forklift/Shelf Stocking/Transport &
Logistics
 Technical Skills –Architecture, Engineering and Construction
 Computer Skills –Data Analysis, or Programming, Mobile &
Web Development, Network Structure & Security
 Project Management –Planning, Organizing, Execution and
Evaluation
 Proficiency in a foreign language
 Soft Skills - Examples

 Communication – oral speaking capability, written, presenting, listening, clear speech &
writing.
 Courtesy – manners, etiquette, business etiquette, gracious, says please and thank you,
respectful.
 Flexibility – adaptability, willing to change, lifelong learner, accepts new things, adjusts,
teachable.
 Integrity – honest, ethical, high morals, has personal values, does what’s right.
 Interpersonal skills – nice, personable, sense of humor, friendly, nurturing, empathetic, has
self-control, patient, sociability, warmth, social skills.
 Positive attitude – optimistic, enthusiastic, encouraging, happy, confident.
 Professionalism – businesslike, well-dressed, appearance, poised.
 Responsibility – accountable, reliable, gets the job done, resourceful, self-disciplined, wants to
do well, conscientious, common sense.
 Teamwork – cooperative, gets along with others, agreeable, supportive, helpful, collaborative.
 Work ethic – hard working, willing to work, loyal, initiative, self-motivated, on time, good
attendance.
 Learning

Largely depends on the ways one understands and retains

knowledge the best:
 Learning by doing
 Learning by observing
 Learning by receiving information about the subject
(various sources or channels)
 Learning by thinking or imagining
 Learning

 Failures - "To succeed you must first improve, to improve

you must first practice, to practice you must first learn, and
to learn you must first fail." - Swedish Proverb
 Successes – “Battles are won behind the scenes” -Michael
Phelps. Practicing and fighting in before the fight is what
matters the most.
 Science & Technology are the best possible solutions to
anything within the intelligible realm
Bloom’s Taxonomy (Learning)

 Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy is a set of three hierarchical

models used to classify educational learning objectives into
levels of complexity and specificity.
 The three lists cover the learning objectives in cognitive,
affective and sensory domains.
Cognitive Domain (knowledge-
based)
Knowledge
 Knowledge involves recognizing or remembering facts, terms, basic concepts, or
answers without necessarily understanding what they mean. Its characteristics may
include:
 Knowledge of specifics—terminology, specific facts
 Knowledge of ways and means of dealing with specifics—conventions, trends and
sequences, classifications and categories, criteria, methodology
 Knowledge of the universals and abstractions in a field—principles and generalizations,
theories and structures
 Example: Name three common varieties of apple.
Comprehension
 Comprehension involves demonstrating an understanding of facts and ideas by
organizing, comparing, translating, interpreting, giving descriptions, and stating the main
ideas.
 Example: Compare the identifying characteristics of a Golden Delicious apple with a
Granny Smith apple.
Cognitive Domain (knowledge-
based)
Application
 Application involves using acquired knowledge—solving problems in new
situations by applying acquired knowledge, facts, techniques and rules.
Learners should be able to use prior knowledge to solve problems, identify
connections and relationships and how they apply in new situations.
 Example: Would apples prevent scurvy, a disease caused by a deficiency in
vitamin C?
 Evaluation involves presenting and defending opinions by making
judgments about information, the validity of ideas, or quality of work
based on a set of criteria. Its characteristics include:
 Judgments in terms of internal evidence
 Judgments in terms of external criteria
 Example: Which kinds of apples are best for baking a pie, and why?
Cognitive Domain (knowledge-
based)
Analysis
 Analysis involves examining and breaking information into
component parts, determining how the parts relate to one
another, identifying motives or causes, making inferences, and
finding evidence to support generalizations. Its characteristics
include:
 Analysis of elements
 Analysis of relationships
 Analysis of organization
 Example: List four ways of serving foods made with apples and
explain which ones have the highest health benefits. Provide
references to support your statements.
Cognitive Domain (knowledge-
based)
Synthesis
 Synthesis involves building a structure or pattern from
diverse elements; it also refers to the act of putting parts
together to form a whole. Its characteristics include:
 Production of a unique communication
 Production of a plan, or proposed set of operations
 Derivation of a set of abstract relations
 Example: Convert an "unhealthy" recipe for apple pie to a
"healthy" recipe by replacing your choice of ingredients.
Explain the health benefits of using the ingredients you
chose vs. the original ones.
Cognitive Domain (knowledge-
based)
Evaluation
 Evaluation involves presenting and defending opinions by
making judgments about information, the validity of ideas,
or quality of work based on a set of criteria. Its
characteristics include:
 Judgments in terms of internal evidence
 Judgments in terms of external criteria
 Example: Which kinds of apples are best for baking a pie,
and why?
 The Affective Domain
(emotion-based)
Skills in the affective domain describe the way people
react emotionally and their ability to feel other living things' pain or
joy. Affective objectives typically target the awareness and growth
in attitudes, emotion, and feelings. There are five levels in the
affective domain moving through the lowest-order processes to the
highest.
Receiving
 The lowest level; the student passively pays attention. Without this
level, no learning can occur. Receiving is about the student's
memory and recognition as well.
Responding
 The student actively participates in the learning process, not only
attends to a stimulus; the student also reacts in some way.
 The Affective Domain
(emotion-based)
Valuing
 The student attaches a value to an object, phenomenon, or
piece of information. The student associates a value or some
values to the knowledge they acquired.
Organizing
 The student can put together different values, information,
and ideas, and can accommodate them within his/her own
schema; the student is comparing, relating and elaborating
on what has been learned.
Characterizing
 The student at this level tries to build abstract knowledge.
 The Psychomotor Domain
(action-based)
Skills in the psychomotor domain describe the ability to physically manipulate a
tool or instrument like a hand or a hammer. Psychomotor objectives usually focus
on change and/or development in behavior and/or skills. Bloom and his colleagues
never created subcategories for skills in the psychomotor domain, but since then
other educators have created their own psychomotor taxonomies. Elizabeth
Simpson (1972) proposed the following levels:
Perception
 The ability to use sensory cues to guide motor activity: This ranges from sensory
stimulation, through cue selection, to translation.
 Examples: Detects non-verbal communication cues. Estimate where a ball will
land after it is thrown and then moving to the correct location to catch the ball.
Adjusts heat of the stove to correct temperature by smell and taste of food.
Adjusts the height of the forks on a forklift by comparing where the forks are in
relation to the pallet.
 Key words: chooses, describes, detects, differentiates, distinguishes, identifies,
isolates, relates, selects.
 The Psychomotor Domain
(action-based)
Set
 Readiness to act: It includes mental, physical, and emotional
sets. These three sets are dispositions that predetermine a
person's response to different situations (sometimes called
mindsets). This subdivision of psychomotor is closely related
with the "responding to phenomena" subdivision of the
affective domain.
 Examples: Knows and acts upon a sequence of steps in a
manufacturing process. Recognizes his or her abilities and
limitations. Shows desire to learn a new process (motivation).
 Keywords: begins, displays, explains, moves, proceeds,
reacts, shows, states, volunteers.
 The Psychomotor Domain
(action-based)
Guided response
 The early stages of learning a complex skill that includes
imitation and trial and error: Adequacy of performance is
achieved by practicing.
 Examples: Performs a mathematical equation as
demonstrated. Follows instructions to build a model.
Responds to hand-signals of the instructor while learning to
operate a forklift.
 Keywords: copies, traces, follows, react, reproduce,
responds.
 The Psychomotor Domain
(action-based)
Mechanism
 The intermediate stage in learning a complex skill: Learned
responses have become habitual and the movements can be
performed with some confidence and proficiency.
 Examples: Use a personal computer. Repair a leaking tap.
Drive a car.
 Key words: assembles, calibrates, constructs, dismantles,
displays, fastens, fixes, grinds, heats, manipulates,
measures, mends, mixes, organizes, sketches.
 The Psychomotor Domain
(action-based)
Complex overt response
 The skillful performance of motor acts that involve complex movement
patterns: Proficiency is indicated by a quick, accurate, and highly coordinated
performance, requiring a minimum of energy. This category includes
performing without hesitation and automatic performance. For example,
players will often utter sounds of satisfaction or expletives as soon as they hit a
tennis ball or throw a football because they can tell by the feel of the act what
the result will produce.
 Examples: Maneuvers a car into a tight parallel parking spot. Operates a
computer quickly and accurately. Displays competence while playing the
piano.
 Key words: assembles, builds, calibrates, constructs, dismantles, displays,
fastens, fixes, grinds, heats, manipulates, measures, mends, mixes, organizes,
sketches. (Note: The key words are the same as in mechanism, but will have
adverbs or adjectives that indicate that the performance is quicker, better, more
accurate, etc.)
 The Psychomotor Domain
(action-based)
Adaptation
 Skills are well developed and the individual can modify movement patterns to fit
special requirements.
 Examples: Responds effectively to unexpected experiences. Modifies instruction to
meet the needs of the learners. Performs a task with a machine that was not originally
intended for that purpose (the machine is not damaged and there is no danger in
performing the new task).
 Key words: adapts, alters, changes, rearranges, reorganizes, revises, varies.
Origination
 Creating new movement patterns to fit a particular situation or specific problem:
Learning outcomes emphasize creativity based upon highly developed skills.
 Examples: Constructs a new set or pattern of movements organized around a novel
concept or theory. Develops a new and comprehensive training program. Creates a new
gymnastic routine.
 Key words: arranges, builds, combines, composes, constructs, creates, designs, initiate,
makes, originates.
 Bloom’s Taxonomy of
Knowledge
 Knowledge of specifics
 Knowledge of terminology
 Knowledge of specific facts
 Knowledge of ways and means of dealing with specifics
 Knowledge of conventions
 Knowledge of trends and sequences
 Knowledge of classifications and categories
 Knowledge of criteria
 Knowledge of methodology
 Knowledge of the universals and abstractions in a field
 Knowledge of principles and generalizations
 Knowledge of theories and structures
 What is Knowledge?

Data information knowledge WISDOM

You are not paid for what you know, but what you
do with what you know!
 Knowledge

Leaders have a need to integrate knowledge across subjects.

Such an ‘Odyssean’ philosophy  can synthesize
 a) math and the natural sciences
 b) social sciences
 c) humanities and arts
into necessarily crude, trans-disciplinary, integrative thinking
about complex systems.
In the future the world will be run by synthesizers, people able
to put together the right information (from any discipline) at the
right time, think critically about it, and make important choices
wisely.
 Knowledge

 Procedural knowledge involves “knowing how” to do things.

It included skills, such as “knowing how” to playing the piano,
ride a bike; tie your shoes and other motor skills. It does not
involve conscious thought (i.e. it’s unconscious - automatic). 
For example, we brush our teeth with little or no awareness of
the skills involved.
 Declarative knowledge involves “knowing that”, for example
London is the capital of England, zebras are animals, your
mother’s birthday etc. Recalling information from declarative
memory involves some degree of conscious effort –
information is consciously brought to mind and “declared”.
 The Past is your memory, the present is your senses and
intuition, and the future is your imagination!
 Knowing – the Past

 Any person, fact, occurrence, or a process worth

remembering
 Interpretation or full and detailed analysis of any person,
fact, occurrence, or a process worth remembering
 Knowing – the Present:
Awareness
 Political - the ability to understand different people’s hidden agendas
and use this knowledge to your advantage, so that you can influence
more effectively and with more sensitivity to different viewpoints.
 Economic – the ability to understand why and how people act to
improve their well-being and wealth (by drawing from multiple
sciences e.g. sociology or law). Behavioral economics borrows from
psychology and history to analyze how past experiences may shape
expectations about the future.
 Social - the ability to take the perspective of and empathize with
others from diverse backgrounds and cultures, to
understand social and ethical norms for behavior, and to recognize
family, school, work, and community processes and resources.
 Cultural – understanding local and foreign cultural symbols, rituals,
values, beliefs, processes, perceptions, and contexts
 Knowing - the Future

 Imagining, making educated guesses, or deeply

contemplating future facts, occurrences, or processes or
versions of people
 But, more importantly, to understand that:
 “It’ s easier to invent the future than to predict it” – Alan
Kay (Jeff Bezos has also been a big fan of this quote)
 Experience

 Remembering and understanding of facts, occurrences, and

processes that have happened in the past

 Reflecting upon them and deriving the necessary wisdom to

use it creatively and transcend yourself in the future!
 What Leaders Really Do

According to John K. Potter, the main skills that the job requires are:

1. Setting Direction – leadership’s function is to produce change. It

involves the search for patterns and relationships and guarantee
direction-setting in visions and overarching strategies for realizing them.
2. Aligning People – leaders look for the right fit between people and the
vision. This is a matter of communication. It involves getting a large
number of people, inside and outside the company, first to believe in an
alternative future and then to take initiative based on that shared vision.
3. Motivating and inspiring people – since high energy is essential to
overcoming the barriers to change, leaders attempt to touch people at
their deepest levels by steering in them a sense of belonging, idealism,
and self-esteem.
 The Work of Leadership

According to Ronald A. Heifetz and Donald L. Laurie

 1. Get on the balcony - Don’t get swept up in the field of play. Instead, move back and
forth between the “action” and the “balcony.” You’ll spot emerging patterns, such as
power struggles or work avoidance. This high-level perspective helps you mobilize
people to do adaptive work.
 2. Identify your adaptive challenge - murky, systemic problems with no easy answers.
Perhaps even more vexing, the solutions to adaptive challenges don’t reside in the
executive suite. Solving them requires the involvement of people throughout your
organization.
 3. Regulate distress - To inspire change - without disabling people - pace adaptive work:
 • First, let employees debate issues and clarify assumptions behind competing view -
safely.
 • Then provide direction. Define key issues and values. Control the rate of change: Don’t
start too many initiatives simultaneously without stopping others.
 • Maintain just enough tension, resisting pressure to restore the status quo. Raise tough
questions without succumbing to anxiety yourself. Communicate presence and poise.
 The Work of Leadership

 4. Maintain disciplined attention - Encourage managers to

grapple with divisive issues, rather than indulging in scapegoating
or denial. Deepen the debate to unlock polarized, superficial
conflict. Demonstrate collaboration to solve problems.
 5. Give the work back to employees - To instil collective self-
confidence—versus dependence on you—support rather than
control people. Encourage risk-taking and responsibility—then
back people up if they err. Help them recognize they contain the
solutions.
 6. Protect leadership voices from below - Don’t silence whistle-
blowers, creative deviants, and others exposing contradictions
within your company. Their perspectives can provoke fresh
thinking. Ask, “What is this guy really talking about? Have we
missed something?”
Mintzberg’s Five Minds of A
manager

1. Managing Self: The Reflective Mindset

2. Managing Organizations: The Analytical Mindset
3. Managing Context: The Worldly Mindset
4. Managing Relationships: The Collaborative
Mindset
5. Managing Change: The Action Mindset
 Problem Solving
What are your solutions like?

A leader must look at problem solving from one of two facets:

 Looking at those problems that only have one solution (like mathematical problems,
or fact-based questions) which are grounded in psychometric intelligence.
 Socioemotional in nature and have answers that change constantly (like what's your
favorite color or what you should get someone for Christmas).
Problem-solving strategies are the steps that one would use to find the problems that are
in the way to getting to one's own goal.
A leader must be able to:
 Recognize the problem
 Define the problem
 Develop a strategy to fix the problem
 Organize the knowledge of the problem cycle
 Figure out the resources at the user's disposal
 Monitor one's progress, and evaluate the solution for accuracy
 Problem Solving

Two types of people:

 The brave - people who can confront the problem
 The competent - people who can solve the problem (these
cannot always confront the problem)

Employing philosophical thought and practical application is

the most effective way to tackle problems
“You are paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems
you solve” – Elon Musk
 Problem Solving

The following techniques are usually called the main problem-solving

strategies:
 Abstraction: solving the problem in a model of the system before
applying it to the real system
 Analogy: using a solution that solves an analogous problem
 Brainstorming: (especially among groups of people) suggesting a
large number of solutions or ideas and combining and developing them
until an optimum solution is found
 Divide and conquer: breaking down a large, complex problem into
smaller, solvable problems
 Hypothesis testing: assuming a possible explanation to the problem
and trying to prove (or, in some contexts, disprove) the assumption
 Lateral thinking: approaching solutions indirectly and creatively
 Problem Solving

 Means-ends analysis: choosing an action at each step to move closer to the

goal
 Method of focal objects: synthesizing seemingly non-matching
characteristics of different objects into something new
 Morphological analysis: assessing the output and interactions of an entire
system
 Proof: try to prove that the problem cannot be solved. The point where the
proof fails will be the starting point for solving it
 Reduction: transforming the problem into another problem for which
solutions exist
 Research: employing existing ideas or adapting existing solutions to similar
problems
 Root cause analysis: identifying the cause of a problem
 Trial-and-error: testing possible solutions until the right one is found
 Problem Solving – General
Abilities
 Inductive Reasoning: specific premises that support generalized
conclusion. Inductive conclusion could be wrong.
 Deductive Reasoning – general premises that support specific
conclusion. Deduction both conclusion and premises must be right
 Determining correlation – that A affects B
 Determining causal mechanisms – in what ways can A affect B
 Logical Thinking - systematic study of the form of valid inference, and
the most general laws of truth. A valid inference is one where there is a
specific relation of support between the assumptions of the inference and
its conclusion
 Lateral Thinking – a manner of solving problems using an indirect
and creative approach via reasoning that is not immediately obvious. It
involves ideas that may not be obtainable using only traditional step-by-
step logic
 Problem Solving – General
Abilities
 Counterintuitive thinking - proposition is one that does not seem
likely to be true when assessed using intuition, common sense, or gut
feelings.
 Overcoming common sense – conventional and non-conventional
thinking. Intelligent people (may of them liberals) lack common
sense. The reason for this is because their general intelligence
overrides it. They think in situations where they are supposed to feel.
In evolutionarily familiar domains such as interpersonal
relationships, feeling usually leads to correct solutions whereas
thinking does not.
 Understanding other people’s problem solving logic, solutions, and
worldviews (even other creatures like dogs, flies, birds or snakes)
 Eliminating the causes of the problem’s existence, rather than
the problem itself!
 Decision-Making

 Resistance - the most important decisions of your career will be related

to resisting temptation and saying “no” to things rather than saying “yes”
 Emotions -you must be able to determine what kinds of emotions are
involved in your decision-making process and take them out of the
equation (when necessary)
 Making decisions before you have to – you must be able to make most
of your decisions in advance (when you have the time and resources to
make the most favorable choices), so that you can move fast when the
moment to make them arrives
 Integrative approach – make sure your decisions are balanced and
knowledge, data, and context driven(for ex. AI cannot manage or
understand emotion and context)
 „May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.“ -Nelson Mandela
 A Leader’s Framework for
Decision-Making
 Simple Contexts: The Domain of Best Practice - Simple
contexts are characterized by stability and clear cause-and-
effect relationships that are easily discernible by everyone.
Often, the right answer is self-evident and undisputed.
 Complicated Contexts: The Domain of Experts - may
contain multiple right answers, and though there is a clear
relationship between cause and effect, not everyone can see
it. This is the realm of “known unknowns.” While leaders in
a simple context must sense, categorize, and respond to a
situation, those in a complicated context must sense,
analyze, and respond.
 A Leader’s Framework for
Decision-Making
 Complex Contexts: The Domain of Emergence - It’s like the difference
between, say, a Ferrari and the Brazilian rainforest. Ferraris are
complicated machines, but an expert mechanic can take one apart and
reassemble it without changing a thing. The car is static, and the whole is
the sum of its parts. The rainforest, on the other hand, is in constant flux—
a species becomes extinct, weather patterns change, an agricultural project
reroutes a water source—and the whole is far more than the sum of its
parts. This is the realm of “unknown unknowns,” and it is the domain to
which much of contemporary business has shifted.
 Chaotic Contexts: The Domain of Rapid Response - In a chaotic
context, searching for right answers would be pointless: The relationships
between cause and effect are impossible to determine because they shift
constantly and no manageable patterns exist—only turbulence. This is the
realm of unknowables. The events of September 11, 2001, fall into this
category. In the chaotic domain, a leader’s immediate job is not to discover
patterns but to stanch the bleeding.
 How Leaders Think –
Integrative Thinking
The Four Stages of Decision-Making:
STEP 1: IDENTIFYING KEY FACTORS (Determining Salience)
 Conventional thinkers consider only obviously relevant factors
while weighing options.
 Integrative thinkers seek less obvious but potentially more relevant
considerations.
STEP 2: ANALYZING CAUSALITY
 Conventional thinkers consider one-way, linear relationships
between factors: more of A produces more of B.
 Integrative thinkers consider multidirectional relationships.
 How Leaders Think –
Integrative Thinking
STEP 3: ENVISIONING THE DECISION’S OVERALL
STRUCTURE
 Conventional thinkers break a problem into pieces and work
on them separately.
 Integrative thinkers see a problem as a whole - examining
how its various aspects affect one another.
STEP 4: ACHIEVING RESOLUTION
 Conventional thinkers make either-or choices.
 Integrative thinkers refuse to accept conventional options.
Two Approaches to Decision-
Making
Not all decision-making processes are equally effective,
particularly in the degree to which they allow a group to identify
and consider a wide range of ideas.
 Inquiry - is a very open process designed to generate multiple
alternatives, foster the exchange of ideas, and produce a well-
tested solution. Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t come
easily or naturally to most people. Instead, groups charged with
making a decision tend to default to the second mode:
 Advocacy - The two look deceptively similar on the surface:
groups of people, immersed in discussion and debate, trying to
select a course of action by drawing on what they believe is the
best available evidence. But despite their similarities, inquiry
and advocacy produce dramatically different results.
Two Approaches to Decision-
Making
Two Approaches to Decision-
Making
 Deciding Too Early - Sometimes people’s desire to be
considered team players overrides their willingness to engage in
critical thinking and thoughtful analysis, so the group readily
accepts the first remotely plausible option. Popularly known as
“groupthink,” this mind-set is prevalent in the presence of strong
advocates, especially in new teams, whose members are still
learning the rules and may be less willing to stand out as
dissenters.
 Deciding Too Late - Here, too, unchecked advocacy is
frequently the source of the problem, and in these instances it
takes two main forms. At times, a team hits gridlock: Warring
factions refuse to yield, restating their positions over and over
again. Without a mechanism for breaking the deadlock,
discussions become an endless loop.
 A Litmus Test – Evaluating
Decisions
 Multiple Alternatives - When groups consider many alternatives,
they engage in more thoughtful analysis and usually avoid settling
too quickly on the easy, obvious answer.
 Assumption Testing - “Facts” come in two varieties: those that
have been carefully tested and those that have been merely asserted
or assumed. Effective decision-making groups do not confuse the
two. They periodically step back from their arguments and try to
confirm their assumptions by examining them critically
 Well-Defined Criteria - Without crisp, clear goals, it’s easy to fall
into the trap of comparing apples with oranges. Competing
arguments become difficult to judge, since advocates will suggest
using those measures (net income, return on capital, market
presence, share of mind, and so on) that favor their preferred
alternative. Fuzzy thinking and long delays are the likely result.
A Litmus Test – Evaluating
Decisions
 Dissent and Debate - David Hume, the great Scottish
philosopher, argued persuasively for the merits of debate
when he observed that the “truth springs from arguments
amongst friends.” There are two ways to measure the health
of a debate: the kinds of questions being asked and the level
of listening.
 Perceived Fairness - A real-time measure of perceived
fairness is the level of participation that’s maintained after a
key midpoint or milestone has been reached. Often, a drop
in participation is an early warning of problems with
implementation since some members of the group are
already showing their displeasure by voting with their feet.
Leader’s General Skills
 Leader’s General Skills

 Understanding both, mechanical and social processes among the living

 Caring for others - saving and protecting while raising and developing them
 Power play - gaining, expanding, using, investing power and empowering others
 Influencing - gaining influence and persuading others
 Understanding context, complexity, and connectedness of things, occurrences, and
processes
 Making rational choices and educated guesses
 Integrative method of problem solving and decision making
 Ownership of issues and content
 A top down or a bottom up management of issues and processes
 Clear and assertive communication – precise and complete: never make people guess or
assume. Always make your message clear. This depends greatly on understanding
language (as well as body language) nuance while expressing
 The ability to analyze the past and future possibilities
 Fighting – being both an army builder and assembler, while fighting
 Leader’s General Skills

 Using physical or mental force (when legitimate and inevitable)

 Raising and developing people – empowering them and changing their hearts and minds
 Motivating and even pushing people beyond what's expected of them; even inspiring teamwork and
loyalty
 High level of stress tolerance
 Turning ideas into projects, and executing them. Instead of just having ideas, building business
models that prove them
 Research – advanced, deep, and comprehensive interdisciplinary research through quantitative and
qualitative methods. Doing homework on everything and everybody
 Critical Thinking – questioning and critically analyzing everything and everyone
 Ability to decode and unwind fakeness, lies, and deception
 Always asking 3 questions – What, how, and why?
 Building and maintaining profitable partnerships with key stakeholders
 Necessary Evil – play dirty, but do not deal dirty
 Constant reflection on life and work
 The ability to forgive, but not forget – understanding own mistakes, taking responsibility for them,
and learning your lessons
 Leader’s General Skills

 Direct and incisive way of looking at things

 Never tell anyone your plans. Show them your results
 Be yourself. People don’t have to like you and you don’t have to care
 Ability to be the judge and executioner simultaneously
 Negotiations - the ability to broker reasonable deals and build consensus
 Motivating and inspiring - can you bring out the best in people?
 The ability and willingness to invest efforts in people, things, and processes
 Understanding the upcoming changes and stability - what’s not going to change?
What will remain stable? That is your key to plan the future. (ex. the customers will
still want higher quality and lower price)
 The ability to scientifically determine things and processes that already exist and
happen and bring about new inventions
 The ability to work hard, smart, and long enough
 Empathy – trying to grasp the pain or pressure other people are under
 Leader’s General Skills

 The ability to appreciate people who are right and allow others to be wrong
(without arguing or correcting)
 Removing prejudice
 Unlocking your potential and that of your team members to grow and develop
each day
 The ability to organize and optimize knowledge, experience and resources to
produce the best possible outcomes
 Setting direction – knowing what needs to be done, when, how, and why as well
as communicating such matters fully and clearly. Also, understanding what
cannot and should not be done
 Being someone who solves problems people never knew they had
 Speed – knowing how fast you are and what percent of the time you are that fast;
what you need to get you up to maximum speed or develop it
 Action Logic - take action based on where you want to be, not where u are – if
this is the case then you need to develop and get ahead
 Leader’s General Skills

 The ability to divide and deal with strategy and operations separately
 The ability to appreciate and enjoy things at work and in private life
 Dealing with chaos - Business School teaches us how to manage hierarchy, but not
chaos. The idea is not to manage chaos, but to constrain it within specific boundaries
 Not only understanding people and things, but caring about them (some people
understand us really well, but that does not mean they care)
 Making peace with the fact that everyone will expect or want something from you
(either a decision, or a benefit of some kind)
 The ability to explain what you know in the most simplistic terms
 Getting used to delivering the highest possible quality. “Quality means doing it right
when no one is looking” – Henry Ford
 The ability to manage responsibilities and expectations
 Street smarts – understanding any problem or a challenge from both low and high
angles
 The ability to play a role, act, or even pretend. People love a show!
 Leader’s General Skills

 Focus only on the things you can control

 The ability to destroy - sometimes “creative destruction” is
the best possible solution for re-creation or complete change
 Understanding both the processes and results
 The desire and ability to win (ex. the best debaters win
not because they have the best arguments, but because
they are the best arguers).
 Winners focus on winning, losers focus on winners!
Film To Watch
Questions
Six Abilities of Wise Leaders

Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi:

1. Wise Leaders Can Judge Goodness - Wise leaders make decisions only after they
figure out what is good for the organization and society
2. Wise Leaders Can Grasp the Essence - They can quickly grasp the essence of any
situation or problem and intuitively fathom the nature and meaning of people, things,
and events.
3. Wise Leaders Create Shared Contexts - They constantly create informal as well as
formal shared contexts for senior executives and employees to construct new meaning
through their interactions
4. Wise Leaders Communicate the Essence - They know how to use metaphors and
stories to convert the essence of their actual experiences into tacit knowledge for
individuals and groups.
5. Wise Leaders Exercise Political Power - They exercise political power to bring
together people with conflicting goals and spur them to action
6. Wise Leaders Foster Practical Wisdom in Others - They encourage the development
of practical wisdom in others, especially employees on the front lines, through
apprenticeship and mentoring
 Things To Remember

 “What’s popular is not always right; What is right is not

always popular”
 The idea of adaptation is to minimize resemblance to an
average person through constant development and to
avoid patterns of thoughts, feelings and behavior of almost
everyone else within your community.

 In practical terms (Georgian conditions) all of this means

avoiding:
 Examples

 Cigarettes
 Alcohol
 Drugs
 Gambling
 Caffeine
 Social Networks
 Conflict
 Selfies
 Soap Opera
 IPhones
 Diet
 Wasting time
 Fundamental State of
Leadership

 The way you lead when a crisis forces you to

tap into your deepest values and instincts.

 In this state, you instinctively know what to do

 You rise to the occasion and perform at your

best!
Entering the Fundamental State
of Leadership
Step 1: Recognize that we have entered the fundamental
state of leadership before
 We have all faced great personal or professional challenges,
at one time or another
 By working through them, we inevitably enter the
fundamental state
 Our painful experiences often bring out our best selves
 In recounting our experiences, we become more purposive,
authentic, compassionate and responsive
Entering the Fundamental State
of Leadership
Step 2: Analyze Your Current State
 When we are in the fundamental state, we possess clarity of
vision, self-empowerment, empathy and creative thinking
 We wish to display these characteristics all the time but we
really do so sporadically
 By comparing our normal performance with what we did
when we are at our best creates a desire to do better
 It gives us more confidence that we can do it again, stops us
from the fear of the unknown and the risks
Entering the Fundamental State
of Leadership
Step 3: Ask the 4 transformative Questions
Question 1: Am I results centered?
 Most of the time we are comfort centered – doing what we know how to
do
 Being comfort centered is hypocritical, self-deceptive, and normal
 In pursuing new outcomes, if it means leaving our comfort zones, we
resist and find ways to avoid changing
 Being results centered is to be proactive, intentional, optimistic, invested
and persistent
 We become more energized and our impact on others become more
energizing
 It means leaving our comfort zone – behaving in new ways and
generating new outcomes
Entering the Fundamental State
of Leadership
Step 3: Ask the 4 transformative Questions
Question 2: Am I internally directed?
 In normal state we try to avoid conflict by complying with
social pressures
 We end up feeling less connected because we make political
compromises
 We lose our uniqueness and our sense of integrity
 We begin to lose hope and energy
 We need to be fully focused on doing hard work by operating
from our core values and finding motivation from within
 We must challenge people we are leading with courage
Entering the Fundamental State
of Leadership
Step 3: Ask the 4 transformative Questions
Question 3: Am I other focused?
 Most of the time we put our own needs ahead of the whole
 It is healthy and it’s a survival mechanism
 But if our self-interest controls our relationships, others trust us less; they
no longer derive energy from their relationships with us and over time
move away
 Being other focused means commitment to the collective good in
relationships, groups or organizations, even at your own personal expenses
 When a leader put the good of the organization first, people notice and the
leader gains respect and trust
 Group members in turn are more likely to put the collective good first, and
tasks that seems impossible become doable
Entering the Fundamental State
of Leadership
Step 3: Ask the 4 transformative Questions
Question 4: Am I externally open?
 If we are closed to external stimuli, we are focused on our task, but we
are ignoring signals that suggest the need for change
 Denying these signals are self-protective while at the same time self-
deceptive
 Being externally focused, we shift from controlling our environment
to learning from it and recognizing the need for change
 We depart from established routines and we genuinely seek honest
feedback
 A cycle of learning and employment is created and we see things
people normally cannot see and formulate transformational
strategueds