Developing leadership is the
most effective investment any enterprise can make in its people. It is the most effective investment any organisation can invest in, but it is also one of the most misunderstood investments organisations often make.
For organisations to achieve success across
the complete basket of performance measures, from top-line sales growth,
operations through to shareholder returns, developing the
current and next generation of leadership is the core driver of tangible and
intangible success.
The challenge for organizations is to understand the
context of the leadership they need which varies over time. This is one of the
key challenges I face when working with organizations, what type of skills do
they need to develop within their organization; all depend upon where they are
today and where they are trying to get to tomorrow. That context defines
organizations immediate and foreseeable skill needs in its leadership, which
once delivered, will open up the next set of leadership skills, which an
organization then needs to deploy.
There are a huge number of leadership skills which
leaders will need and use at differing times, these can be broken into three
main groups.
Strategic Leadership Skills
The traditional
skills leaders are most often selected for by shareholders to deliver and
therefore need to develop are in defining the vision of the organization and in
shaping the organization to achieve that vision. These primary role of the
leader as a strategic business developer are often the most challenging to
leaders as it is the most difficult role to deliver, mainly because it is the
one undertaken the least and the most high risk to undertake.
Operational Leadership Skills
The second
set of leadership skills based around day-to-day operational skills include
acting as a role modeling, decision maker, situational leadership, and
shaper create leaders who are good at adapting to changing circumstances.
Advanced Leadership Skills
The third set of leadership skills often defined as the
soft skills, which always include communication at there core, are have been
defined under skill sets such as emotional intelligence, motivation skills and
succession planning. These skills, often seen as higher skill sets are often
the defining ones in what makes leaders stand out in their field and why some
organizations become benchmarks of success.
By redefining leadership skills into these three sets of strategic, operational and advanced skills, it helps leaders see what skills they
need to develop to be effective in context to their needs and the organisations requirements. Leaders are not only real people, but they operate in real time
within their organizations business cycles. Where the business is in that cycle
drives the types of key performance characteristics, which the leadership
skills need to deliver. That makes the definition of what skills a leader needs
to deliver harder to define; it all depends of where the organization is in
terms of performance results.
Too many leadership support programs are sheep dip
sessions of theoretical skills rather than bespoke packages focused around
defined needs at stages of organizational and person needs. This is often why leadership and development
programs don’t deliver the anticipated results. The second reason why many
leadership programs not deliver results is because they are theoretical in
nature, rather than practical in application. So leaders don’t get to apply
what they have learnt relative to their precise situation. This is compounded
by a third failure of leadership development programs is that too many are in
reality mutual support clinics, piling leaders into a mixed group of leaders
and potential leaders all with differing skill development needs.
In constructing leadership development programs it is
therefore important to put the context of where the organization is within the
business cycle as well as the individual needs to the leaders themselves. The
range of skills which leaders need across the three types of skill sets are
significant, and while all are important, recent studies by McKinsey and others
show that the most effective four skills that ultimately define leadership
effectiveness are:-
1. Diverse Network Perspectives
Successful effective leadership relies upon being outward looking
by establishing effective networks with other leaders in differing sectors,
differing cycles, sectors, and personality types, this provides leaders with the ability to base
their decisions on sound outward viewing analysis and avoid the many biases to
which inwards decisions are often prone.
2. Being Results focused
Nothing succeeds like success in business; successful leaders
follow through their plans with a passion and determination, by being results
orientated leaders drive their people forward improving other aspects of their
organization to support results through efficiency and productivity towards
those results.
3. Effective Problem Solving
The skill in in gathering
relevant information from the tidal wave of data and converting it into intelligence
necessary through effective analysis to be able to solve problems effectively
is a vitally effective skill. This skill set enables effective leaders to take
control of situations with one touch decision making.
4. Supportive Leaders
Giving time to listen to
others, with an open mindedness to understand others challenges builds trust
and is seen to inspire subordinates in their performance. Investing time in
people and teams providing them with ideas to overcome blocks and supporting
progress, is the final vital skill leaders need to have to be effective.
These four core skills make the biggest impact
upon leadership effectiveness, but do not distract for the need to focus on the
context in which the leadership operates. Different business situations require
different styles of leadership, but the four core leadership behaviours above
are a constant across all leadership situations and transcend the three sets of
leadership skills which all leaders face in their role, strategic, operational and advanced.
By developing diverse networks leaders build core skills in understanding strategic perspectives. While both being results focused and effective in problem solving leaders drive their operational skill sets and through being supportive as a leader, they enable themselves to develop their advanced leadership skills in getting the most out of their people at every level. So these four core skills drive the top-line behaviours of leaders under which all other skills can be developed and delivered. Without these four core
skills todays and future leaders will struggle to be truly effective leaders.
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