Leadership flaws – which ones do you exhibit?

by Mark Evenden @ Developing People Limited

Great leaders are not successful simply because they are in the right place at the right time. They succeed because they play to their strengths, and they work hard at maximising them. Effective leaders are very conscious of their strengths and know how to deploy them for their own advantage and for the benefit of their Organisation. This mean that they can repeat their performance as a leader in any new role they find themselves in or different organisation they work for.

However, all leaders also have weaknesses. These weaknesses can inhibit a leaders’ success or in extreme cases they can be their downfall, if they are not aware of them. I remember a number of years ago I had a new boss. He was a guy from the ‘centre’, young and keen and the business promoted him to a director role. They wanted to give him experience of an operational role with a view to moving him into a more senior position within the group in due course.

While my new boss was keen and clearly wanted to do the best for the business, he was very unaware of the impact his behaviour had on others. For example he would:

• Grill me about my budgeted overspend and expect me to come up with an urgent plan to correct the situation. On investigation I discovered that he had shifted a large spend onto my budget to make another part of the business appear more successful than it actually was!
• Not listen to me or other people properly - he was not interested in other people’s views, just his own.
• Claim that people were the organisation’s most important asset, but not give time for them.
• Be insensitive to people’s needs and also be indiscrete
• Be overly critical about other people in public.

Great leaders are very self aware and understand their flaws and work hard to minimise the impact of their flaws on others. Sadly my new boss didn’t’ understand this concept - he thought that he already knew what he needed to. Interestingly he often complained about not getting as much engagement and commitment from his staff as he wanted, and he couldn’t understand why people didn’t respect or trust him. Perhaps if he was courageous enough to ‘look in the mirror’ he would have seen his flaws and done something about them.

Here at Developing People Ltd, we specialise in helping your leaders to maximise their strengths. Have a look at our Leadership Development page for more information, or telephone us on 0845 409 2346.

Giving Feedback

by Mark Evenden @ Developing People Ltd

Giving feedback can often be fraught with difficulties. You may worry about how the other person will react to your feedback, whether they will believe it, ignore it or possibly get angry, upset or even aggressive.

I remember many years ago working for a consulting firm when my boss asked me for some feedback about a colleague. A couple of months before I had an issue with this colleague as they hadn’t undertaken a final check on a report that subsequently went to a client with a number of mistakes in it causing me a little embarrassment.
I hadn’t said anything to this colleague at the time but as my boss wanted some feedback I explained what had happened. The following week my colleague came to me - they had just had their annual appraisal with our their boss and they were very angry with me.

They accused me of going behind their back and causing trouble – they said that they did not know anything about the mistakes in the report and if it was true then why didn’t they speak to them first?

In hindsight, they had every right to be angry - first of all they weren’t prepared to defend / explain themselves in their appraisal, and secondly I didn’t own the feedback I wanted to give, but did it through a third person instead - our boss.

This was an important lesson for me, and over the years I have picked up other tips to give feedback more effectively too:

1. Remember feedback should not always be about things that someone has done badly - it should also be used to reinforce things that have gone well too.

2. Always give feedback when it is fresh – in your mind and the other person’s. It is a waste of time referring to something that happened 3 months ago, as the other person will probably have forgotten about it and will wonder why you haven’t discussed it before.

3. Prepare what you will say in advance; think through what you will say and how you will say it.

4. Own the feedback you are going to give – don’t give it through a third person. If you have an issue with someone then you should discuss it with them first.

5. When giving feedback ask for the views of the other person first by asking open questions – “tell me about how you think your presentation went’. It may be that they already know what you are about to tell them.

6. Give feedback on what you observed. Make sure you are specific about the details, when, where, how often etc.



7. Own the feedback you give – “I saw, I heard, I observed …”, and stick to the facts and don’t be judgemental ( ‘you are too slow, careless, short tall etc!’), and don’t be vague ( ‘that report was great!’).

8. Discuss the impact their behaviour/actions had on others. For example - ‘The impact of you not turning up on time to the focus group meeting was that the meeting finished later than planned.’

9. Talk to them about the consequences of their actions. ‘The consequence of you turning up late was that our consumers felt we were very unprofessional.’

10. Finally agree with the other person what actions are needed, and what the resulting outcomes will be.


These are tips that I have learned over the years and I hope they help you too.

For more help on Giving and Receiving Feedback, please see our Training Course, or call us on 0845 409 2346 for more information.

Surviving Your Success as a Leader

by Lucy Cadman @ Developing People Limited

I have been enjoying the hobby of Ballroom and Latin dancing for the last few years. I remember the aches and pains in the early weeks – a short lesson that was relatively gentle compared to the standard I dance at these days used to leave me with crippling muscle aches and cracking joints for several days afterwards. I pressed on for further physical fitness and greater technical ability, all the while thinking to myself “If I can just get to *this* standard, then it will all be so much easier”. Having now achieved a standard of passing several exams, winning various medals and being fit enough to dance for three or four hours a day several days a week, has it got any easier? Has it heck!! I now spend all my time trying to maintain the level of fitness that I have achieved, as well as constantly hungering for more technical skill. It never gets easier – but it does remain enjoyable and fulfilling.

After the months and years spent working hard to be successful in leadership, you have made it to the peak – well done! But being a successful leader can be as difficult to maintain as physical fitness and stamina. Success can mean that you take a big step towards stress and burnout, because the pressure of being a high achiever drives us to try even harder to achieve more.

Here are a few ideas to help maintain balance and survive your own success.

1. Learn to relax. Give yourself a break and take time out to relax and enjoy your success – you deserve it! Make sure that you are not at the office late into the evening every day, and when you have a holiday, then make sure you really do take a holiday – that means no mobile phone, laptop or any other device that helps you to be tracked down!

2. Know your limitations. It’s important to remember that success doesn’t mean perfection. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and trying to be good at everything can water down your impact. Play to your strengths, and don’t get hung up on your weaknesses.

3. Don’t be paralysed by indecision. Decisions lead to consequences and action, but not making decisions will lead to inactivity and organisation paralysis. It is better to make a poor decision that needs to be revised than to make no decision at all.

4. Give yourself a pat on the back. Leading a team can be a lonely experience and so it’s important to validate yourself. Note down your achievements and read them through to yourself whenever you can to reinforce successful behaviour.

5. Learn to fail. At some point you will take a “fall” – this is an inevitable part of life, both professionally and personally. The key to falling is how you deal with it - learn from it, move on, and retain confidence in your abilities.

6. Be a mentor. Establish yourself as a coach or mentor to others. Some may be jealous of your success as a leader, but helping them to achieve their own targets will reduce their negativity towards you.

7. Don’t micro manage. Your success as a leader will not last if you over control your team’s tasks. It is vital to trust other people to do what you used to do. Delegate to your team, and then give them freedom and space to achieve their goals.

8. Have a laugh. A sense of humour is very important, particularly in difficult or stressful times. Being able to smile lifts others and shows your self deprecating style.


Maintaining success as a leader is difficult, but it is totally achievable by following these few simple tips. If you would like to find out how Developing People can help you to develop and maintain your leadership skills, please email us or telephone us on 0845 409 2346.

Priority Management - Improve Your Effectiveness

by Lucy Cadman @ Developing People Ltd

Earlier this month, for the first time since I started working at Developing People Limited, I started to feel rather like I was drowning under a sea of paperwork and never-ending tasks, for which I did not have enough hours in the week, let alone in a day. It took a couple of quite serious mishaps with relatively simple tasks to make me sit back and decide to find a better way to deal with things that would result in everything being completed correctly and on time without me bouncing about the office rather like a tightly coiled spring.

Do you find that your working days get longer and you end up working weekends and evenings just to keep up? Is there never enough time in the day to complete all your tasks? Are you constantly asking your boss for an extension of time, or even worse, brushing tasks under the carpet and hoping they will be forgotten? If so, you need to read on to find out how to manage your priorities better, and in turn how to improve your effectiveness.

Try this simple experiment. Take some large stones, several handfuls of gravel and several handfuls of sand. Now put them into a small bucket in this order – sand first, followed by gravel and then the stones. What happens? The sand fills up the bottom of the bucket, the gravel fills up the next part, and not all the stones fit in at the top. But what if you placed the stones in first, followed by the gravel and then the sand? The gravel and sand fall into and fill in the gaps around the stones and hey presto - you have managed to fit everything into one small bucket!

This very simple visual experiment demonstrates the power of priority management. Do the important priorities (ie. the big stones) first and then the smaller ones (ie. the sand and the gravel) can be fitted in around them during the working day or week. Do it the other way round and you will find yourself constantly working extra hours just to catch up on the “important stuff”.

So how should you decide on what your priorities are?

The first suggestion is something called the Pareto rule. Pareto was an Italian economist who identified that 80% of the wealth in Italy was produced and owned by 20% of the population. This 80:20 rule applies to many other situations for example, 80% of profits often come from just 20% of a company’s products or services, and 80% of the worlds pollution is caused by 20% of the world’s population. Using Pareto’s rule you can identify what your important priorities are and where you should focus - what 20% of your priorities or activities will give you 80% of the results you want?

The second suggestion is the concept of “important” and “urgent” – do you know the difference? Draw four boxes as two rows and two columns. Along the bottom of the boxes, write “important” and an arrow pointing to the right. Up the left side of the boxes, write “urgent” and an arrow pointing upwards. Split your tasks into these four boxes in the following way. The top right box is for tasks that are both urgent AND important. The top left box is for tasks that are urgent but not important. The bottom right box is for tasks that are important but not urgent, and the bottom left box is for tasks that are neither urgent nor important. Tasks which are urgent and important must be completed first. Tasks which are urgent but not important come next. Important but not urgent tasks are in third place, and tasks which are neither important or urgent should be delegated or scrubbed off your list altogether (and believe me, that can feel remarkably refreshing and theraputic, if you are sure you are scrubbing out the right tasks!)!

Getting your priorities right will ensure that you are more effective at what you do, and more accomplished in achieving your tasks. It will lead to a calmer and more efficient working environment, and you will reap the reward of being able to leave your job behind when you go home on time at the end of the working day every day. I have left the office on time every day for the last two weeks, and been a nice mummy rather than what my children none-too-fondly call a “growly bear mummy” into the bargain. It’s a much better way of life!

For more information on how Developing People Limited can help maximise your Priority Management skills, please see our training course on Personal Effectiveness and Priority Management. You can also contact us on 0845 409 2346 or by email to enquiries@developingpeople.co.uk to discuss the needs of your business or organisation.

Management Development in a Recession

by Lucy Cadman @ Developing People Limited

I am very fortunate that my own career has never yet been affected by redundancy, but sadly at the age of 43, my husband has proved not quite so lucky – tomorrow is his last day of work at what has been his job for the last four and a half years. Unfortunately his own redundancy (along with the twenty or so colleagues leaving with him tomorrow) is just the first part of a three-part wave of redundancies in the business scheduled for the next three months, so many others will shortly be facing the same fears around trying to find new employment.

With news of a “double dip” recession, more short time working, further redundancies and unfortunate business closures, it is not surprising that many employees – staff, managers and leaders alike - have become nervous about what the future holds for them. It is understandable that this will cause some people to become distracted and therefore not completely focused on what needs to be achieved. A potential consequence of this is that they become less productive, less creative and take fewer risks, which is obviously not what a business needs in the current climate. It becomes an ever-decreasing cycle of less productivity, poorer results and potential job losses, and it is hard to see a way towards breaking the cycle.

It is even more important now than ever before, therefore, that managers are trained not just to recognise the ‘mood’ of their staff, but that they are also given the skills and capability to influence the motivation and morale of their staff in a positive way. There is no doubt about the fact that some business will have to restructure and make staff redundant, but the way managers handle this sensitive and emotive issue can have a big impact not just on those who leave, but also on the morale and commitment of the staff who remain.

It would be an understatement to say that my husband has not had a good experience from his managers surrounding the news of his redundancy. Thankfully he does have an opportunity to retrain, but the news was not given sensitively or kindly, and he has recently learned that there will be no management staff in the office on his last day at work to wish him well after four and a half years of 3am starts. He feels unappreciated, uncared for, and would not jump to the front of the queue to recommend his current employer to anyone else considering embarking on a career with them.

One of the key characteristics of how successful organisations perform after any such restructuring is how the employees who remain feel that their colleagues who left the business were treated. Organisations whose staff felt that their redundant colleagues were treated poorly often subsequently struggle with low levels of employee motivation and productivity for a while after the restructure. Treating people ‘unfairly’ can range from a number of things. For example, redundant staff may have experienced:

* No sensitivity in breaking the new of forthcoming redundancy
* No apparent logic to who is made redundant and who is not
* Little or no support to find a new job.
* No opportunities for retraining.
* Redundancy payments handled incorrectly.
* Broken promises from managers.
* Leaving the organisation’s premises with out any recognition or thank you from their manager.

It is important therefore that managers are given the appropriate management training and support to help them deal with the consequences of a business restructure. For example they need to be able to:

* Give appropriate time, attention and sympathetic support to affected staff.
* Help staff to focus on the future and not dwell on the past.
* Give practical and useful advice and guidance about how to find a new job.
* Demonstrate independence and not collude with staff.

Management training and development can therefore play a vital role in a successful restructure. Cutting back on training costs will only worsen the situation, but investing in training will help managers deal with the effects of redundancies sympathetically and appropriately, and it will also enable them to keep an eye on the mood and motivation of their staff who remain. After all, you want staff who leave the business to be prepared to recommend it to potential employees in the future, as well as needing to maintain the productivity and commitment of those who remain, if the business is to have a hope of riding out the current recession and moving forwards into a successful future.

Talent Management - Talent Retention

by Mark Evenden @ Developing People Ltd

Is talent retention a serious issue for your organisation? Many organisations suffer each time a talented manager or member of staff leaves, as they often take with them valuable knowledge and expertise, and leave a void which can be time consuming and expensive to fill.

But why do some organisations struggle to keep their talent, and why do talented people become disillusioned and leave?

My own personal experiences have led me to a number of conclusions. Many years ago I worked for one of the UK’s largest nationalised industries which employed hundreds of thousand of people. While the organisation had many strengths, nepotism was rife, and those that got on the most were relatives and/or close friends of more senior personnel within the organisation. While I was there I witnessed numerous well qualified and talented individuals be ‘sidelined’ and not given the career opportunities they deserved.

In other organisations, I have seen talented individuals and their managers in ‘competition’ with each other. They both try and climb what appears to them as the same ladder in the organisation, and feel their personal career interests are in direct conflict. The line manager is usually the one with the power and I have seen them resort to ‘blocking behaviour’, which prevents the talented individual from progressing. The consequence of which is that they quickly became disillusioned and left.

Another main reason why talent leaves is because they become “turned off” by their line manager. A number of years ago I experienced a boss who was a ‘do what I tell you to’ manager. He wasn’t empowering, and didn’t like the idea of me (or anyone else in his team), demonstrating a great deal of initiative. However, talented individuals want opportunities to stretch and prove themselves, but some managers can perceive that giving their staff stretch opportunities to learn and develop is just too risky. They like to keep tight control as they are ultimately responsible for what their staff deliver, they do not want to risk their own reputation or career because a particular person has failed to deliver. However, the consequence of this is that the talented individual feels that they are not stretched, they become frustrated and leave. Which is exactly what I and a number of my colleagues did.

So how can businesses prevent talent from leaving? How can they prevent nepotism, blocking behaviour and over control from managers? The key is to have a visible talent management programme that is owned by senior managers where these issues can be highlighted and dealt with. In addition, businesses must provide their managers with the necessary skills to manage their talent appropriately and help them to understand the benefits of developing talent, for themselves, their team and ultimately the business’ success.

Management Development - What are the benefits of the development of managers?

by Lucy Cadman

A couple of years ago, I had to attend a management development and team building event run by a previous company that I worked for. We spent two hours eating fish and chips, and awkwardly asking each other for three random facts about our lives that no one else would know. At the end we had to report back on the random facts, much to the embarrassment of everyone present, especially those who had shared a little more information about themselves than was truly professional. We were all left wondering what on earth was the point of the training, and how it had impacted on our performance in any way – sadly, if not understandably, everyone came to the conclusion that the training had been a waste of time and had achieved absolutely nothing.

When thinking about the benefits of investing into the development of managers within a business, it is necessary to first consider the answers to a further two questions :

1) What is the business or organization striving to achieve?
2) How do the managers need to think and act for the business to achieve these goals?

Management development can only help to improve the performance of a business if the development activities are directed in the right way and are aimed at achieving a measurable change. For example, the outcomes required from the development activities may be around:

• Developing managers to have more impact and influence with the intention of leading to increasing sales revenue.
• Improving the performance management skills of managers to in turn improve the productivity of staff to increase capacity and / or reduce costs.

It is also good to remember that there are a range of less tangible business benefits associated with management development activities - for example, investment in training and development is often seen by employees as a sign of being valued by the company, as well helping to create a positive business and professional image. Businesses that are seen to invest in staff development will not only find it easier to recruit quality personnel, but will also enjoy much lower rates of staff turnover.

However, it is important to recognize that individual development is not just about “going on a course”. While training courses will enable a manager to address a specific skills gap, there are other alternatives to consider - for example:

• Secondments into other roles within other teams or departments to improve business understanding and team focus.
• Coaching.
• Mentoring
• Project work
• Research
• Networking
• Reading
This list is by no means exhaustive!

Whatever the reason for investing in management development, the impact on individual performance and the impact on the company's bottom line should always both be kept in mind, measured and regularly evaluated to ensure that the investment is worthwhile and that the full benefits have been gained.

An Abject Lesson in Leading by Example

by Mark Evenden @ Developing People Ltd

Leading by example is an interesting topic, because for many of us we often want to “tell” people (family, friends, work colleagues, etc) something and then expect them to get on with it. We may not feel the need to do the things we have asked of others (for example, we might insist our child keeps their room tidy when the rest of our house looks like a bomb site), but we just expect others to do as they are told. However, our behaviour has a direct impact on the people we interact with, and I will give you a simple example of this.

I have had an interesting first season as the Manager of a girls football team. I had no previous football coaching experience, and so the club assigned me an experienced coach to support me and help me learn the ropes. Initially this was very helpful because I could not make every game due to work commitments.

However, I found out that when I was away, the said “experienced coach” had become very frustrated with one of the league referees. Instead of hiding his frustrations, he made them known to all, and made comments in front of the girls (and their parents) such as “We lost because the other team had an extra player”. His behaviour started to cause angst amongst the team and the parents, and it because a regular discussion point whenever that particular referee was in charge.

The team played really well, and reached the final of the local league cup. However, guess who the match referee was and guess what the outcome of the final was?

Yes, we lost the game - not because the other team were better than us, but because in the minds of the girls and of the parents, we were playing against a team of 12, and therefore we would never ever win.

This is an abject lesson in leading by example. The behaviour of the “experienced” coach affected the team and how they played. Sadly, he still couldn’t see it – his only comment was a hollowly triumphant “See?? I *told* you we wouldn’t win with that referee” !!!

Sometimes (or perhaps often), football coaching has nothing to do with football, but it does have a lot to do with setting an appropriate example.

Management Training - Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

by Lucy Cadman

Whenever the subject turns to anything technological in our Team Business Meetings at Developing People, I usually end up having to stifle a smile or two at the reluctance and the disinterest of our more mature team members. The response can be anywhere from a mumbled “Do we really need that?” through to “Can you say that again, as I really don’t understand it”, and usually finishing off with a grudging “Well, I suppose we must move with the times – but YOU can deal with it all!” (with the latter comment always being aimed at and embraced by myself – the 33 year old “wet behind the ears” member of the team!).

During 2009, the High Court upheld the decision that it was legal for the Default Retirement Age of 65 (introduced by the Government in 2006) to remain in place. As the Law currently stands, a British employer can therefore dismiss a member of staff without redundancy payments on their 65th birthday, as long as the employer sticks to the correct procedure for the dismissal. Employees have the right to request to continue working, but the employer can refuse this without giving any reason for the decision. An employer can currently also refuse to employ anyone over the age of 65.

However, the new Liberal Democrat-Conservative Coalition announced in June 2010 that they want to scrap the current default retirement age of 65, and that they plan to bring in an increase to this age – the state pension age for men is now due to rise from 65 to 66 in 2016, and up to 68 by 2046. Women are scheduled to move to a state pension age of 66 a few years after the increase for men. Steve Webb (Liberal Democrats Pensions Minister) says pensionable age should be a better reflection of life expectancy, which is currently 77 years for men and 81 years for women in the UK.

With this in mind, is it justifiable that some employers are still seemingly reluctant to offer Management Training and Development opportunities to their older employers in the age ranges of 50’s and 60’s? Is this a wise investment, or is it too late to be of benefit to either the employer or the employee? Do older employees respond as well to Management Training activities as their younger counterparts?

There is still a strong case for including older employees in management training events :

* They may still have the need, and they definitely still have the responsibility.
* They are likely to be just as motivated to grow and to perform on average and in general as their younger colleagues - indeed some may be even more strongly motivated!
* A "one team" approach is better than a divisive approach
* It could be strongly demotivational not to include them.
* Including older managers gives them and the other participants the benefit from their knowledge, experience and wisdom.
* They often set a good example to their younger peers - and any cynical responses are much more driven by individual attitude differences than by age.

There are many reasons to ensure that you include your older managers in management training that outweigh any concerns about less return on your investment or that they may "know it all already" - after all, they may still be working for you in years to come well into their 70's!

Mr M – long may your time with us continue, and we will get you addressing the masses on Twitter yet …!!!

Must a Good Leader Be Liked?

by Lucy Cadman at Developing People

It strikes me at some point during most days how lucky I am to have such a great boss. No, that’s not just me trying to earn some “Brownie points” – it really is the truth! Having worked for some particularly challenging leaders in my time, I feel justified in being able to comment what makes a good leader, and on the subject of whether or not a good leader must be liked.

A few years ago, I worked for an ogre – and I really do mean of full-scale proportions! This particular gentleman was totally and utterly unapproachable, whether it be with a problem, a question, a suggestion or any degree of social chat. He would stalk through my office at ten minutes past nine every morning on the way to his own dominion, and would (if I were lucky) snap a curt “hello” as he went past. Until he stalked back out again at ten minutes to five every night (despite demanding total and unerring punctuality for nine to five from myself), the only words I would receive from him were bullet-pointed instructions fired as if from a gun, or complaints and criticism if a miniscule item happened not to be one hundred percent perfect.

He honestly believed that he commanded my respect and therefore my devout hard work by this harsh, Dickensian method of running the office. However, it is safe to say that there were more errors made, more disasters that could have been averted, more severely unhappy clients and more questions that never got answered owing to the fact that I lived in constant fear and trepidation of having to knock on his door and go into the lion’s den. Funnily enough, after two days I was hunting through the local job adverts, and after two months I had moved on … shortly followed by my predecessor … and then their predecessor … and then theirs …

Since then I have had a thankfully-received plateau of “pretty nice but nothing truly spectacular” leaders, and have finally, gratefully and happily reached a point where I feel I can ascend no further in the kind of leadership that I receive now.

Good leaders must be many things in varying quantities – for example :

* Trustworthy
* Enthusiastic
* Confident
* Purposeful
* Tolerant and calm
* Analytical
* Committed to excellence
* Respected

They must also be able to motivate and trust their workforce, communicate their ideas well, work effectively and practically, encourage and inspire their staff, and above all, lead by example. They must have drive, passion and enthusiasm, not only for what they do, but for the people who they are responsible for.

BUT is it necessary that they are liked, or even likeable? Or is it purely an added bonus if this is the case?

There is an old military saying that if you take care of your troops, they will take care of you. Another vital element to a good leader, therefore, is taking care of those they lead. Employees who feel good about their workplace and the way they are led will contribute far more above the bare minimum required, and will generate high productivity for a relatively low turnover. So it is imperative that a good leader must be respected and able to get results, as well as also being able to find out what motivates each member of their team personally – and this care for people is something that cannot be faked, or brought to the working environment by someone who could be defined as unlikeable or unliked. Having said that, part of being a good leader is also going to be making difficult decisions which may not be popular (obviously with the best interest of both the business and the team at heart), and it is important that a good leader does not value being liked above making a sound business decision.

My boss took a holiday to South Africa recently, and got stranded there for an extra week in the aftermath of the eruption of the Icelandic volcano. In his absence, I noticed two things in particular. The first thing was how easy I found it to run the office due to feeling confident in my abilities brought about by his faith in me and his encouragement of me. I felt comfortable with the strategies that were in place (even though none of them catered for such an emergency), the clients that I had to deal with, and the workload that we had to tackle that week, again primarily due to the constant good leadership that I experience day in and day out. The second thing was how quiet the days were without the light-hearted and sociable companionship that I am used to there being around this office environment – something that I guess you take for granted until it is not there.

What role does Leadership Development play in all of this? Is it possible to learn all the qualities of a good leader, and thus for a person to transform themselves from having less likeable qualities to being really liked? Leadership skills can of course be learned, but leadership also comes from within – leadership can bring about a transformation within those being led, but the leader must have both the right tools and the right attitude and disposition to see that transformation begin to happen.

Leadership Behaviour? I don’t think so!!

by Mark Evenden at Developing People

A recent experience made me reflect on the impact that a leader’s behaviour can have on others. Like millions of others in the past week, I found myself stranded in a foreign country trying to get home, but unable to because all flights had been cancelled due to the volcanic explosion in Iceland.

I arrived at the airport to be informed that all flights to the UK had been cancelled, and I should report to the airline’s ticketing office for further information. I joined a queue of dejected travellers waiting to hear our fate.

We were clearly all very frustrated with the situation, as there seemed little hope that alternative arrangements could be quickly made. However, the gentleman in front of me decided to vent his own frustrations on the poor airline customer service representative. He clearly wanted her to know that he was a very “senior manager” with XYZ organisation, and should be treated as such. He was very curt and aggressive towards the airline representative, who to her credit remained calm throughout his tirade.

I wondered to myself if this “senior manager” really knew anything about leadership, whether he behaved in this way towards his staff, and whether he understood the impact that his behaviour might have on others?

While we all have a right to be angry, it should be directed at the right person for the right reason, at the right time and not simply as a vehicle for releasing our own pressures and frustrations. Consider a situation when this “senior manager” behaved in a similar way to a member of his staff. How would they react? What level of commitment would they give when a problem arose but it was “clocking off” time? How motivated would they be in the future to go the “extra mile”? How engaged will they be in delivering the organisations vision?

At the end of the day, people work for people, not for organisations, and the level of motivation, commitment and engagement that anyone gets from their staff is directly related to how they behave towards them. So before you “have a go” at a member of staff, are you angry with the right person for the right reason, or simply doing it to vent your own frustrations?

Key lessons learned from Coaching.

As we approach the end of 2009 I have been reflecting on my coaching experiences throughout this past year. I have been busier than ever with my coaching work with Developing People this year, coaching 45 different people for an average of about 5 sessions each – a total of more than 200 individual sessions. Given this amount of focused coaching effort, there are some important themes and lessons that can be learned from this work.

Many of these coachees have come from the same organisations where I have been engaged to coach a number of managers from the same team – and quite often also their boss.

There has been a significant benefit to the coachees themselves, meaning it is not only organisations and individual managers who benefit from what individual coaching can offer. I have not lost any of these coachees during the middle of a series of coaching sessions and all of them have gone on to complete the committed number of sessions and nearly half of them have carried on beyond their original coaching plan.

I have also been regularly recommended and asked to coach 4 other people who are colleagues of some of the original coachees.

Here are some themes that this year’s coaching sessions have reinforced in my mind:

• Confidentiality is absolutely crucial – especially when coaching people from the same team or in the same management reporting line. When professional links, relationships and other complexities are involved, it would be very easy to ‘put your foot in it’.
• The relationship between coach and coachee is fundamental and it needs to be a supportive, non-judgemental, trusting one.
• Using my intuition as the coach and knowing when to be truly authentic and honest with my feelings and thoughts about their situation is more likely to produce breakthrough thinking and actions that will really make a difference.
• It is important to support each person that I am coaching- even if they get into difficulties with their sponsoring organisation. This has happened with two managers that I was asked to coach who were employed in an F.E. College but who were then asked to leave their employment under “compromise agreements”. Whilst it is not my role to give them advice about the merits or demerits of their situation or advice on how to negotiate the best deal with their organisation it was gratifying to know that they both wanted me to continue to coach them and to support them with their new career search outside their original organisation.
• When we have surveyed our coachees and asked them what they would like me to do more of or do differently for them in their coaching sessions, the main thing that they ask me to do is to challenge them more. I am conscious of this and also aware of the need to strike the right balance of challenge and support for them, in order to maintain an appropriate level of openness and disclosure from them. My sense is that it will not be conducive to our coaching relationship if they feel that I am being too critical of them and constantly judging them. This is one of the criticisms some of them often level at their line managers!

How ego can affect the success of coaching.

We all have our egos and they can and do have a big impact on how we conduct ourselves, our communications and our relationships. They also influence our attitudes and how we relate to both the outer world and to our inner world of thoughts and feelings.

As a consequence we also take our egos into any coaching relationships – both as the coach and as coachee.

The coaching subjects all have their own egos to work with and most of them, in my experience, fit in towards the middle of a normal distribution curve of attitudes and behaviours – neither with over inflated egos nor with over whelming anxiety and uncertainty. If there is any tendency towards the extremes then I sometimes encounter people who are some what uncertain and lacking in confidence.

In these situations part of my coaching work is about helping them to build their confidence to an appropriate level and to help them to deal with more assertive people and those who are difficult to work with. Sometimes difficulties exist for coachees with their line managers who may not understand them or who may even have their own swollen egos to deal with.

I have occasionally been asked to coach a person with a big ego and this has provided its own unique challenge and my response must vary from person to person. The positive aspect of a big ego is that the person is usually very interested in themselves and in their own success. The potential downside however is that sometimes this type of person wants a lot of ego stroking from their coach and they may not be very realistic or self-aware. Giving these people objectives and useful feedback is part of the challenge and so is the role of challenger.

Quite often they don’t like the idea of them having weaknesses or development areas to reflect and act upon. One way that I have found to get this aspect across to strong people is to talk about “over played” strengths becoming weaknesses and inhibiting performance. This approach can help them to accept the message and for the feedback to become acceptable and useful in practice.

In a small number of coaching assignments that I have taken on, it has become apparent to me and to the coachee that the realisations and changes required by this type of coaching is not consistent with their view of themselves and of their world. In such cases we have agreed to discontinue the work. The requirements of openness, looking inwards at oneself, admitting to vulnerabilities and taking the responsibility for producing and implementing an action plan that may include behaviour change, is sometimes a step too far for these people.

We must also consider our own egos as coaches. We cannot deny that we have them but we need to be able to put them to one side if we are to truly focus on the needs of our coachees. We are there to listen to, support and challenge them to work on their real issues and objectives – not to massage our own egos or self-importance. All too often in the arena of sport we can see the ego of the team's coach or “manager” being placed ahead of the needs and achievements of the team – particularly when success arrives!

One aspect of this coaching role, that I find particularly challenging is the use of experiences or any anecdotes from my past which I think might stimulate new thoughts for the coachee through my example. In sharing my experiences and vulnerabilities with them I need to check with myself that I am doing this for their benefit and not for my own. It may give them the confidence to deal with an important issue for them but that assessment should be made on a case by case basis.

Keeping in my mind that the success of anyone that I coach is their success rather than mine, is an important aspect to bear in mind.

A Leadership Dilemma

Imagine the situation: Your organisation is currently struggling. Revenues are down, profits are down and if the current trend persists, the business may end up making a loss at the end of the year.

While putting the brakes on expenditure may be the only option the business has, depending on how this is approached can make a big difference to the motivation, commitment and engagement of managers and staff who have to implement it.

If you did not have to think too hard to imagine this situation, you may find it useful to read on...

Consider the following scenario:

Last year, your business invested in a leadership development programme for its middle and senior managers. The focus of the programme has been on developing the skills, capabilities and behaviours of the management cadre to lead and empower their staff more effectively to generate greater engagement and change the organisation’s culture.

The results of the programme have been tremendous. Key business measures have shown improvements and the culture of the organisation has changed to become more customer focused and proactive.

However, because of the economic climate the organisation has not been making the required profits and the leadership team decided to put an embargo on all unnecessary spend. The directors decided to take control over the purchasing of all “consumable” items such as stationary, printing inks etc and all managers have to get approval from a director before they can purchase anything.

What will be the impact of such an apparently ‘micromanagement’ approach? Managers will suddenly feel that they cannot be trusted to make the right decisions and staff become frustrated because they can’t get the tools they need to do their jobs properly.

The consequence of this is that in an instant all the good work that the organisation did in investing in the leadership development of their managers becomes undone. This is because the managers perceived a lack of congruence between what they had learned and were expected to do (i.e. develop trust, empower their staff etc) and the behaviour of the directors who are into command and control.

This issue is not about what the directors of the business were trying to achieve but how they went about it. Clearly action needs to be taken to control costs during difficult times, however by stripping managers of their decision making authority will simply alienate and demotivate them. So what advice can Developing People offer?

• Managers need to know what’s expected of them e.g. to reduce costs.
• Maintain your manager’s motivation and commitment with trust in their decision-making abilities.
• Set realistic targets and budgets so managers feel empowered to deliver the new targets and budgets without draconian measures that WILL reduce morale.

If businesses approach the engagement of managers in this way, trust and performance is more likely to be increased despite the economic difficulty. If you act now, managers will be primed and ready for when the economic pressures ease and the organisation returns to growth.