The following table outlines key leadership and managerial competencies, with performance levels ranging from unsatisfactory to outstanding to help assess and develop leadership effectiveness at both team and divisional levels.

Learning by Doing

• Consider seeking feedback about how you manage conflicts from your colleagues and friends. Think about the feedback that you receive and attempt to incorporate this feedback into your style in the future.

• If a conflict situation arises, consider the other person’s perspective before defending your own position. Try to look at the conflict as a conflict of ideas or approaches, rather than of people and most importantly, try to remain neutral.

• Take some time to focus on an incident when you disagreed with a group or an individual within the Organization. Evaluate the action that you actually took in terms of how constructive it proved to be. You might want to consider using more constructive ways of expressing your disagreement in the future.

• Think about someone that you know who is effective at diffusing tense situations and resolving conflicts. Try to identify what it is that makes them effective at this. Consider whether you can adopt some of their techniques to help you adapt your style in such instances.

• If you have a mentor or close colleague, set up a meeting to brainstorm the changes for which you have been responsible within the Organization. Discuss how you dealt with the situations, what you might do differently and how this relates to your personal strengths and limitations in the area of driving for change and improvement.
  

Listening/Watching Recommendations

• Make time to watch a United Nations meeting or debate where conflicting parties are in disagreement. Make a point of taking critical notes of the ways that people assert themselves and which techniques are most effective.

• Try and identify a colleague or a friend who appears to be an effective manager. Discuss with this person how they go about delegating tasks and see if you can pick up any useful tips which you could incorporate into your own management style.

• Take opportunities to watch how the leaders of the Organization, for instance the Secretary-General, develop rapport and how they build relationships with people whom they meet during meetings and functions.

Reading Recommendations

• Performance leadership: the next Practices to Motivate Your People, Align stakeholders, and lead Your Industry; (2009) by Frank Buytendijk; McGraw-Hill - Full of case studies, practical examples, and unconventional thinking, this book will help you create better management processes and performance indicators that will help you make the most of your scorecards and strategic plans.

• The 60 second leader: everything You need to know About leadership, in 60 second bites; (2007) by Phil Dourado; John Wiley & Sons (UK) - Whether you are the CEO of a public company or the head of your own little empire of one, this shortcut book offers a high impact, time-saving guide to the essentials of leadership.

• Quality leadership: standards of leadership behaviour; (2008) by Richard W. Leatherman; Human Resource Development Press - Explaining basic leadership tasks in a simple, step-by-step manner, this practical manual addresses today’s need for quality performance and gives techniques for handling a wide array of employee problems.

• Leaders: start to Finish: A Road Map for Developing and training leaders at all levels; (2005) by Anne Bruce; ASTD - For any organization determined to build world-class leaders in today’s competitive marketplace, this is a hands-on, how-to, no-nonsense reference and informative guide for developing and training leadership in cutting-edge environments, large and small.

• Leadership that Matters: the Critical Factors for Making a Difference in People’s lives and organizations’ success; (2003) by Marshall Sashkin and Molly G. Sashkin; Berrett-Koehler Publishers - This instructional text promotes leadership that not only improves productivity and performance but also makes a positive difference in the lives of organization members.

• Leadership Made simple: Practical solutions to Your greatest Management Challenges; (2007) by Ed Oakley and Doug Krug; CornerStone Leadership Institute - Outlining principles that will help create a communicative, collaborative environment where solutions will evolve from the people closest to the issue, this book offers an easy-to-use process that will help you produce immediate and tangible results.

• The Handbook of leadership Development evaluation; (2007) by Kelly M. Hannum, Jennifer W. Martineau and Claire Reinelt (eds); John Wiley & Sons (US) - Filled with examples, tools, and the most innovative models and approaches designed to evaluate leadership development in a variety of settings, this practical guide will help you answer the most common questions about leadership development efforts.

• the leadership training Activity book: 50 exercises for building effective leaders; (2005) by Lois B. Hart and Charlotte S. Waisman; AMACOM - Featuring modules designed for beginning to advanced skill levels, this unique book provides trainers with a wide range of activities to teach and apply the most critical leadership competencies participants need, such as trust, vision, values, and more.

• 25 legendary leadership Activities; (2008) by Peter R. Garber; Human Resource Development Press - Challenging, fun and a must read in your legendary leadership journey, this book is packed with activities, assessments, questionnaires and charts designed to ensure you are remembered as a good – or even great – leader.

• “Harnessing the science of Persuasion”; (October 2001) by Robert B. Cialdini; Harvard Business Review.

• Influencing People; (1999) by J. Rogers: AMACON.

• On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century by Tony Blair (2024) Drawing from his tenure as the UK Prime Minister, Blair offers practical advice on political and organizational leadership. While some critics note a lack of personal anecdotes, the book provides valuable insights into the challenges of modern leadership.

This article is inspired by and uses some information from the UN Competency Development handbook.