The Leader Lab

IIThe Core Skills

Congratulations! You have now collected all seven Core BUs – the small Behavioral Units that came up again and again in our research at LifeLabs Learning as the distinguishing behaviors of great managers. These BUs alone will make you a better manager faster by helping you create clarity, drive alignment, build trust, mitigate bias, and accelerate learning. But to become a truly great manager – someone who catalyzes engagement and helps people achieve amazing results – you need to know how to wield your leadership Swiss Army knife in an infinite array of situations. You'll need to mix and match different BUs to develop leadership skills.

What's the difference between a BU and a skill? As an analogy, consider the importance of strengthening your physical core muscles. Think of a strong physical core as a BU. While this BU alone is great to have, its true power comes from what it makes possible. With a strong core, you can more quickly develop your athleticism, posture, flexibility, and many other skills. Skills are more complex and take longer to master than BUs, but they will let you tackle an even greater array of obstacles and opportunities as a leader. The Core BUs you've learned so far are at the foundation of most leadership skills and will help you develop these skills faster.

Which leadership skills matter most? While the great managers we studied displayed dozens of skills, we found that a small set of just eight Core Skills came up more than any others ...