Smart leadership blends hard and soft skills:... and emphasizes the importance of continuous learning

摘要

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the concept of smart leadership and outline how to excel as a leader. Design/methodology/approach: The paper highlights some of the challenges encountered by global leaders, to enable others to profit from their experience. Findings: Emphasizes the importance of articulating one's vision, managing uncertainty, staying calm in a crisis, taking feedback, using time effectively and developing successors, among other things. Practical implications: Stresses the importance of learning continuously and of blending soft and hard skills, to achieve leadership excellence. Social implications: Provides examples of a wide range of successful leaders, carrying out functions ranging from war leadership to nursing. Originality/value: The paper describes how to become an effective leader and outlines some of the pitfalls and blind-alleys in the quest for success.