Have you again been overlooked for a promotion you actually felt qualified for? Maybe even to someone who has less experience than you? Maybe it's because you just are good to what you do, but that there are no areas where you really excels.

John H. Zinger, Scott Folkmann and Scott Erdinger have investigated around 30,000 managers' 360-degree surveys and, by analyzing these, found that there are 16 key competencies that make your colleagues, employees and bosses perceive you as a really good leader.

According to the authors, these 16 competencies are involved:

1. Demonstrates honesty and integrity
2. Demonstrates technical/professional expertise
3. Solves and analyzes problems
4. Innovating
5. Practice self-development
6. Results focused
7. Sets ambitious goals
8. Takes initiative
9. Competent and broad communicator
10. Inspires and motivates others
11. Builds relationships
12. Develop others
13. Collaborates and creates teamwork
14. Develops strategic perspective
15. Is a champion of change
16. Connects the group to the outside world

It turns out that, in order to be assessed as a really skilled manager/employee, you need one or more areas in which you excel. Just one excellent area and the assessment of your leadership skills increases significantly.

If the manager has no excellent skills, she falls among the worst third of managers. If she graduates with just one excellent area, the assessment of her leadership skills rises to the 64th percentile. Where the 50th percentile is the average manager's performance. If she has 2 or more, the assessment increases further. 5 excellent abilities and she ends up among the 91st percentile. So among the best.

See the complementary skills in the authors Harvard Business Review article

Train one thing and be perceived as a much better leader

You can use this knowledge to be perceived as a more skilled employee (which you are, after all), if you find one area in which you improve.

According to the authors, the most effective way is for you to choose what they call a competence partner for one of the areas where you are already good, but not excellent. A competence partner is a competence that makes you better at the competence you have chosen to work on.

If you choose e.g. to work on getting better at developing a strategic perspective, then communication is a competence partner. So if you work on becoming better at communicating with your colleagues, employees and bosses, your abilities in strategic thinking will be perceived as better. Simply because you get better at communicating your thoughts.

The authors call this Cross-training. Or on Danish cross training. Just as you know in sports: if you really want to be good at something, then once you have reached a certain level, you have to expand your training to other areas. A runner will, for example, could benefit from swimming, strength training, practicing yoga etc.

How to work with the method

In order to work with this method, you need to know how others perceive you and your leadership skills. For this, a 360-degree survey is an obvious option. If a professional survey is not in the cards, you can conduct an unofficial survey, where you simply ask your closest colleagues etc. to assess your abilities as a manager.

Based on the information you find here, you identify the places where you are good, but not excellent. Then search the list of complementary skills and select a skill that appeals to you and is in demand by your organisation.

Find out how you can work with the chosen competence, and then repeat the 360-degree survey 5-6 months later.