Functional abilities – skills that are specific to a profession or industry – are overrated.
Yes, overrated. Easily and often.
Let’s start with a given: experience is a powerful thing. Maybe its experience with inventory, software, economics, heavy industry, or pricing. You name it.
The mistake leaders make is overvaluing the kind of experience that goes on their resume or CV.
Those are invariably functional skills.
Yes, our jobs are more complex than ever. It takes “know how” to succeed. However, experience and knowledge alone isn’t enough to navigate the complexity leaders face and counting solely on functional skills to succeed results in leader burnout and compromised growth.
The costs of relying too heavily on functional skills are missed opportunities to engage teams and get more done in groups.
To reinvent, evolve or grow in any meaningful; way without burnout, leaders must tap into their people skills. This is the differentiator.
How do we know?
Recently published research by the Full Circle Group, creators of the globally and extensively applied universal model of leadership, The Leadership Circle™ paints a compelling picture. Through their research, they examined the qualitative feedback provided on thousands of leaders. Several key findings emerged and these two are particularly relevant:
- People skills dwarf technical skills as the differentiator of the most effective leaders.
- Leaders who are unable to demonstrate effective people skills essentially “cancel out” the good work that is accomplished through the other skills such as functional acumen.
In short, the canceling effect is what happens when a leader’s strengths specific to their industry are diminished, or canceled out, by liabilities that are shortfalls in people skills, too often dismissed (see blog) as soft skills.
So, leaders, there is no doubt you can learn more about your industry or business. The question is, are you accruing more knowledge and experience in service to the people whose efforts fuel your team’s progress?
