Learnable leadership: The one meta-skill all great leaders possess 

One way to describe the current state of the workforce is uncertainty. From budget cuts and retention to the Great Resignation and new work patterns, these monumental challenges have leaders treading water. To get ahead, experienced leaders need more than the basics to be effective.

In my previous article, we discussed the core competencies (aligning, boosting, connecting, delivering and enabling) and why they will always be fundamental to good leadership. But to really level up, experienced leaders need another layer of skills that reinforce and activate those basics in flexible ways, so they work better for you. We call these meta-skills, and the one meta-skill we know can set leaders apart from the rest is called attunement.

What is attunement?

Attunement is an experienced leader’s ability to read the environment, know the needs, identify the “push and pull” — what we refer to as “organizational tensions” — then apply core competencies flexibly to flip challenges into big wins. As a meta-skill, attunement requires leaders to use their base leadership skills not just in a single incident, but as a pattern, in combination and over time to steer the system toward better results.

We’ve seen attunement come to life in countless industries. For example, senior nurse practitioners may notice what really helps patients to recover more quickly, and adjust their approach according to their patients’ unique needs. On the other hand, a rule-oriented recent graduate may stick to textbook reactions that don’t always account for changing needs.

By responding dynamically to changes, leaders who can master attunement climb to the next level because they know how to read the room and make the tensions work for them, not against them.

The four practices     

Attunement isn’t a skill you take a few courses on to perfect; it takes real-world practice to master. To make this complex talent learnable, my team and I have reviewed the research on how leaders successfully attune and broke it down into its behavioral components so that when applied, leaders will always have a solution that works for them in the long term.

Notice: Don’t just do something, stand there. The practice of noticing is about how we separate observation from evaluation, giving us a chance to recognize when we are at risk of reacting instinctively and making room for more thoughtful, intentional responses. Sometimes we are so busy reacting that we don’t notice what is going on around us. The words a colleague uses or avoids, a toxic exchange in an otherwise constructive team conversation, a subtle shift in the types of employees who are leaving the company — all of these scenarios give us a chance to slow down and notice more ways forward.

Sense-making: Find the signal in the noise. Sometimes the most salient, and loudest is not the one that is most important — leaders need to be more proactive than reactive during these uncertain times, so sense-making is crucial. The practice of sense-making is about having the skills to take a more balanced view of the situation. As a result, you can evaluate different challenges, such as to what extent the complaints about feeling overworked are caused by the team’s new manager, unrealistic deadlines, lack of role clarity, a poor relationship with a different department, feeling unappreciated or any of a host of other reasons. Looking at the situation through different lenses to get a complete view makes it easier to recognize patterns over time and understand what works or doesn’t.  

Choosing: Decide what to do. Once you’ve noticed what’s happening and come to a view about what it means, your next move is to decide the steps you will take as a result. As a leader, you may have noticed a series of unhealthy behavior, e.g., how team members treat one another, how communications about changes are not transparent and have concluded that the culture in a certain department is toxic. That’s a good start, but we will need to draw on our expertise to know what to do to start the process of detoxification to best move the system in a positive direction. The practice of choosing is about understanding the opportunities that tensions create and making dynamic decisions about how to handle both current and future priorities, adjusting course flexibly as needed.

Acting: Do it with panache. It’s all very good knowing what to do, but that doesn’t help all that much if you can’t then do it effectively. For example, you may know you need to address a colleague about their inappropriate behavior, but if you do it poorly, this may damage our relationship and cause them to double down and become guarded. Being able to apply your choice of what to do with panache is essential. When uncertainty and friction are high, how leaders act matters as much as what they do. Acting with empathy, equality and confidence will make leaders a source of stability in an unstable world.

Remember: Leadership isn’t an end goal. It’s an ongoing process of navigating tensions in productive, sustainable ways and, importantly, bringing others along with you on that journey. By applying the four practices of attunement, leaders will have a flexible solution to keep up with ever-evolving situations no matter what the future brings.