These are the four skills you need to be a leader, says a top Atlanta exec

It’s more challenging to be a leader today than it was in the past, said Southern Co. executive Bentina Terry.

“Being a leader requires more of you than it’s required before,” she said. “Imagine what we are asking our employees to deal with now: AI, cybersecurity, workforce stuff, return to work, global stuff that’s going on, national stuff that’s going on, customers, technology.”

Terry — who is CEO of Southern’s wireless communication subsidiary Southern Linc and fiber optic subsidiary Southern Telecom — said there are certain skills she looks for in leaders.

And the good news is the same skills that have been important through the years are still valuable today, Terry said during a keynote speech at the Georgia Chamber’s Women Who Lead event last month.

Here are the four skills you need to be a leader, according to Terry:

No. 1: Curiosity

A leader who is not curious will fail, Terry said.

“Especially in the types of times we live in today, when the dynamics are changing every single day, you can’t afford not to be curious,” she said.

The reason: “As a leader … the information flow doesn’t go up well,” Terry said.

“I tell my employees all the time, I’m the least knowledgeable person in the room. Because people don’t tell you stuff. They don’t like to tell you stuff. They don’t want to tell you stuff,” she said. “They try to hide stuff from you. Not because they’re mean, just because either they don’t want you to get involved in their business and think you’re going to get in the way, or because they don’t want to let you down and disappoint you. And they want to try to handle it.”

“As you move up, people will tell you less and less,” Terry said. “And you are further and further away from the front lines of your business.”

“That requires you to be curious, because if you don’t ask a question as a leader, you will oftentimes not get the information that you need to make the decisions.”

Southern CEO Chris Womack “is a curious person,” Terry said in an interview. “He’s always thirsting for knowledge. … I see the impact it has on his leadership.”

Managers sometimes feel they’re supposed to know things without asking.

“But you’re not supposed to know. None of us are supposed to know,” Terry said.

No. 2: Courage

“You have to be courageous,” Terry said. “I did not say you have to be reckless. I did not say you have to be fearless. I said you have to be courageous, because courage requires you to do the things that need to be done for the people that need you to do it.”

It’s not the same thing as just having something to say or to fulfill a sense of self-righteousness, according to Terry.

“Are you being courageous because you feel like you need to say something? Or are you being courageous because you feel like you need to impact?”

“Those are two very, very different things,” she said.

Without courage, you can’t move forward with a big vision to have lasting impact, according to Terry.

No. 3: Authenticity

“Authenticity has gotten to be a buzzword,” Terry said.

But if you’re not authentic, people “know what fake looks like,” she said. “They feel it. You feel it.”

Terry said when she became CEO of Southern Linc, she stood up in front of her employees and “told them that I didn’t know how to do their jobs.”

“And guess what? They already knew that,” she said. “They looked at my background.”

“Who would I have fooled if I acted like I knew?” Terry said. “So being authentic was not only good for me, it was good for them.”

“It allowed me to be curious” and ask questions, she said.

No. 4: Empathy

Being empathetic helps you to process information when talking with employees and helping them deal with problems, she said.

“You spend the time to try to understand what’s going on in their lives, if you’re courageous enough to ask them the questions that they might be afraid to tell you information about,” she said. “Then you can be empathetic to their situation.”