// This is the first post of the 4 part series covering Officer Like Qualities
If you have been following my writings, one of the key themes is to read and learn from others about how they lead a fulfilling life. The undercutting theme is centered around developing a basic set of qualities that then become the foundation upon which the other qualities are then developed. Recently, which watching some videos on YouTube, I came across the term OLQ which stands for ‘Officer Like Qualities’ and this caught my attention for two reasons:
The qualities were very clearly listed and sub divided into groups
These qualities are base of officer selection programs for many prestigious institutions
Based on the above reasons, I started reading into these qualities and found them to be very helpful as a criteria to think and develop and therefore, here is a 4 part attempt in sharing these OLQs
There are 15 Officer Like Qualities in total that are in-turn grouped into 4 Factors. They are as follows:
Factor – I (Planning and Organising)
(a) Effective Intelligence
(b) Reasoning Ability
(c) Organising Ability
(d) Power of Expression
Factor – II (Social Adjustment)
(e) Social Adaptability
(f) Co-operation
(g) Sense of Responsibility
Factor – III (Social Effectiveness)
(h) Initiative
(i) Self Confidence
(j) Speed of Decision
(k) Ability to Influence the Group
(l) Liveliness
Factor – IV (Dynamic)
(m) Determination
(n) Courage
(o) Stamina
In the first of four articles covering Officer Like Qualities, we will cover the first factor : Planning and Organizing
Leadership in it’s most basic form is the management of people and resources. An effective leader knows the difference between intensity and consistency and is therefore able to justify and deploy the right resources for the right task. Although seemingly simple and straight out of a management handbook, Planning and Organizing is underrepresented as an essential skill. The 4 OLQs that are encompassed under planning and organizing skill are:
Effective Intelligence
Reasoning Ability
Organizing Ability
Power of Expression
Let’s talk about my interpretation of each of these qualities in detail:
Effective Intelligence
Effective Intelligence can roughly be translated to adaptability. The ability to adapt to varying situations and reacting appropriately comprises of effective intelligence. I err on the side wherein leadership can be trained and this is also valid for effective intelligence. Effective intelligence or adaptability can be trained by exposing yourself to variety of situations that leads to increase in the ability to adapt.
The scientific explanation perhaps lies in the neuroplasticity wherein the circuits which were inactive while repeating the routines are trained once again for quick adaption and delivery.
Reasoning Ability
This refers to the ability to draw conclusions as well connect multiple disjointed points of information to solve a particular problem. In terms of problem solving, this is one of the key abilities and an effective leader must have the skill to look at an issue from multiple resolutions, sometimes at a very high level and sometimes having the ability to go into microscopic details.
In the world of business, this can be translated to overlaying different sources of information to take a better decision or help support better decision making. For example, one can overlay the latest macro economic data with local supply chain data and figure out a correlation that can help with future decision making.
Organizing Ability
The ability to organize people and resources to achieve the targets that have been set out can be categorized into this ability. The ability to organize does not comprise only the ability to pass down orders, although if need be then it may also be important but most of the times this comprises of the ability to get the buy-in of the people around you to achieve this talk.
This ability takes most amount of work to train as well as execute as there is a large component of rapport building that is required to be able to organize people effectively. One of the basic traits remains that you should lead from the front, fully capable of doing something that you are asking others to do. This serves two key purposes:
You will be able to control the quality better and deliver higher quality output
You will create faster followership as your team will respect you more and therefore getting the buy-in will be quicker than expected
Power of Expression
Power of expression is simply the ability to communicate. The ability to formulate the intent clearly and then express it in a way that you are able to get the required buy in is an essential quality of an effective leader. The communication spans in three dimensions:
Self Communication: This is the self-talk part which defines how do you talk to yourself. How are you thinking and clearly structuring the thoughts
Internal Communication: This is the communication of intent to the team. It is therefore important to communicate the intent clearly
External Communication: Getting the required buy-in from the stakeholders to advance the project, get the funding etc. comprises the external communication. External communication is aimed at relaying progress, ensuring alignment and most importantly communicating achievements
Planning and Organizing is one of the ‘Hard Skills’ that comprises the essentials to leadership. In the subsequent series of articles, I will try to tie this in together with other OLQs so that towards the end of the last article , we have and effective path to leadership.
With this, there is also a request from my side to help me with figuring out topics that you would like to know more about. You can either use the chat function or email me directly.