Although there are many unique aspects of each leadership situation, leaders generally follow three basic steps when faced with a leadership situation:
- try to get a read on the existing situation,
- then set a strategy to achieve a desired outcome, and
- execute the strategy.
This fundamental human process—read, set, execute—has strong roots in basic psychological processes (i.e., stimulus, thought, response), but the steps can happen with varying degrees of quality. Because PLC's mission is to develop extraordinary leaders, we examined the differences in quality between the read- set-execute process ordinary leaders use and the READ-SET-EXECUTE process that extraordinary leaders use. What we found is that there are different routes to ordinary leadership and extraordinary leadership.
READ-SET-EXECUTE
Extraordinary leaders need to read situations with insight, generate incisive strategy, and then execute with stunning results. The PLC Strategic Academic Plan is built upon developing six core leadership skills: information literacy, critical thinking, applied quantitative ability, writing, oratory, and group process. The six skills executed in an integrative manner provide the key fundamentals for scholars to read, set, and execute in an extraordinary manner.
Key Terms:
- Insight = Clear and deep perceptions. Ability to
discern inner character or underlying truth.- Incisive = Remarkably clear and direct; sharp; keen.
- Stunning = Capable of causing astonishment. Of
striking beauty or excellence.
PLC Skill Set
Why 6 Skills Lead to Extraordinary Possibilities
In leadership, there are so many junctures where mistakes can occur when reading complex situations, setting strategy, or going down the long road of sustained execution. Leaders in pursuit of admirable ends should not fail because of poor training in leadership fundamentals. To lose a deal because of sloppy writing, to fail to gain momentum for a judicious strategy because of mundane oratory skills, or to set strategy incorrectly because of a failure to find relevant information is unacceptable. Leaders should be able to rely on sound fundamentals as if these skills were reflexes. That is the goal of PLC's academic curriculum in which fundamental skills and content are addressed in the five semesters of PLC coursework .
Although being fundamentally sound is a necessary starting point, watching someone "not make mistakes" is usually far from witnessing something extraordinary. In leadership, good leaders may emerge because of a specific ability or skill (e.g., being charismatic in groups or capable of generating insightful analysis of situations), but great leaders are excellent in a core area and also highly capable across multiple components of the hexagon. The sense of awe that comes from watching someone engaged in an extraordinary performance comes from the performer's creative and seemingly effortless combination of fundamental skills. Extraordinary leadership occurs when scholars first become expert in their six hexagon skills and then creatively combine their hexagon skills to effectively READ, SET and EXECUTE in a wide range of difficult leadership situations.
For more information on the PLC Academic Plan and the research behind it click here.
