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.
Thursday, 20 May 2010
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
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?
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?
Leadership Succession – Developing your High Potentials
By Mark Evenden at Developing People
You may have identified a number of people as high potentials in your organisation, but how do you develop them to ensure that they reach their full potential? It is certainly not appropriate in today’s organisational climate to simply leave them to it. Organisations need to continually change and develop and their high potentials will need to change, develop and ‘move with the times’ as well.
So what should your company do? The following is a guide to help you to develop your high potentials.
1. Make the development of your high potentials an issue for the Board. As the part of the strategy of the business, they needs be a clear plan to define the types of skills, behaviours and experiences its leaders will need in the future.
2. Be clear with your high potentials what it is they need to learn and don’t simply assume that they should work on their weaknesses. What is it that will add the greatest value to their performance and ultimately the organisation’s performance? Many leaders succeed because they maximise the impact of their inherent strengths.
3. Provide ‘on the job’ opportunities for your talent to flourish. Search for business improvement projects that need a leader, opportunities to undertake new roles or gain international experience. Experience shows that people will raise their performance to what is being requested of them. Take them outside of their comfort zone to find out what they are ‘really made of’.
4. Provide a range of options to support them to develop. This might be attending a leadership development programme or being given leadership coaching support. Coaching is a very powerful way to enable high potentials to develop quickly.
5. Provide networks both internally and externally. High potentials can benefit from shadowing leaders in their own or other organisations and learning from them how they use their skills and behaviours to inspire their staff.
Ultimately the long term success of your business resides with your high potentials. Surely, the development of these people is far too an important business issue to be left chance?
You may have identified a number of people as high potentials in your organisation, but how do you develop them to ensure that they reach their full potential? It is certainly not appropriate in today’s organisational climate to simply leave them to it. Organisations need to continually change and develop and their high potentials will need to change, develop and ‘move with the times’ as well.
So what should your company do? The following is a guide to help you to develop your high potentials.
1. Make the development of your high potentials an issue for the Board. As the part of the strategy of the business, they needs be a clear plan to define the types of skills, behaviours and experiences its leaders will need in the future.
2. Be clear with your high potentials what it is they need to learn and don’t simply assume that they should work on their weaknesses. What is it that will add the greatest value to their performance and ultimately the organisation’s performance? Many leaders succeed because they maximise the impact of their inherent strengths.
3. Provide ‘on the job’ opportunities for your talent to flourish. Search for business improvement projects that need a leader, opportunities to undertake new roles or gain international experience. Experience shows that people will raise their performance to what is being requested of them. Take them outside of their comfort zone to find out what they are ‘really made of’.
4. Provide a range of options to support them to develop. This might be attending a leadership development programme or being given leadership coaching support. Coaching is a very powerful way to enable high potentials to develop quickly.
5. Provide networks both internally and externally. High potentials can benefit from shadowing leaders in their own or other organisations and learning from them how they use their skills and behaviours to inspire their staff.
Ultimately the long term success of your business resides with your high potentials. Surely, the development of these people is far too an important business issue to be left chance?
Friday, 9 April 2010
Leadership Succession – Identifying Your Potential
by Mark Evenden at Developing People
Do you know who has the capability to lead your organisation in the future? Do know if you have the people with the capability and potential you need to succeed?
Leadership succession plays a vital role in ensuring that an organisation can fulfill its long term aims and objectives. But how does an organisation go about identifying people with potential?
The first step in the process has to be preparing a ‘specification’ of characteristic of someone with high potential. In other words a description of the skills, capabilities and experiences that the business needs from its key people in the future. These may include:
• Intellectual and critical thinking ability.
• Specific behavioral traits.
• Technical skills and knowledge.
• Experience and types of role.
• Personal impact and credibility.
While evidence to measure/assess some of the above can be collected from how a candidate has performed in their previous roles, the only way to eliminate the prejudices and inconsistencies of different managers viewpoints it to undertake an independent assessment of each person. In this way decisions about who has/does not have the potential to fulfill a key role can be taken in a consistent manner across the organisation.
An independent assessment process will enable further evidence to be collected to help managers make decisions about an individual’s motivations, capabilities and potential.
Typically such a process will consist of collecting evidence in a number of ways, for example:
1. From the candidates themselves by completing questionnaires and profiles.
2. From feedback from people who know the work of the candidates.
3. From a formal assessment centre.
The first two invariably consist of using tools such as: 360 degree Leadership feedback questionnaires, career values questionnaires and other specific psychometric profiling instruments (e.g. Myers Briggs, TMS, 16PF, or OPQ 32).
A formal assessment centre will typically involve a day during which the candidates with potential are observed undertaking a number of challenging individual and team tasks. These tasks may include:
• ‘Intelligence’ tests for example critical thinking, verbal and numerical reasoning.
• Business case studies.
• Leadership and team activities
• Structured interviews.
The information from the whole process is subsequently reviewed and each candidate’s results prepared and benchmarked against other internal or external high performing managers. Once this is complete, the results should be reviewed and validated by using a panel of senior managers who will also make the final decisions about who will and who will not be earmarked for future roles.
Finally, care needs to be taken about how feedback is given to the candidates. It is important that the detailed outcomes from the whole assessment process are provided and it is not just perceived as a pass/fail result.
For further leadership development advice, contact Developing People Ltd
Do you know who has the capability to lead your organisation in the future? Do know if you have the people with the capability and potential you need to succeed?
Leadership succession plays a vital role in ensuring that an organisation can fulfill its long term aims and objectives. But how does an organisation go about identifying people with potential?
The first step in the process has to be preparing a ‘specification’ of characteristic of someone with high potential. In other words a description of the skills, capabilities and experiences that the business needs from its key people in the future. These may include:
• Intellectual and critical thinking ability.
• Specific behavioral traits.
• Technical skills and knowledge.
• Experience and types of role.
• Personal impact and credibility.
While evidence to measure/assess some of the above can be collected from how a candidate has performed in their previous roles, the only way to eliminate the prejudices and inconsistencies of different managers viewpoints it to undertake an independent assessment of each person. In this way decisions about who has/does not have the potential to fulfill a key role can be taken in a consistent manner across the organisation.
An independent assessment process will enable further evidence to be collected to help managers make decisions about an individual’s motivations, capabilities and potential.
Typically such a process will consist of collecting evidence in a number of ways, for example:
1. From the candidates themselves by completing questionnaires and profiles.
2. From feedback from people who know the work of the candidates.
3. From a formal assessment centre.
The first two invariably consist of using tools such as: 360 degree Leadership feedback questionnaires, career values questionnaires and other specific psychometric profiling instruments (e.g. Myers Briggs, TMS, 16PF, or OPQ 32).
A formal assessment centre will typically involve a day during which the candidates with potential are observed undertaking a number of challenging individual and team tasks. These tasks may include:
• ‘Intelligence’ tests for example critical thinking, verbal and numerical reasoning.
• Business case studies.
• Leadership and team activities
• Structured interviews.
The information from the whole process is subsequently reviewed and each candidate’s results prepared and benchmarked against other internal or external high performing managers. Once this is complete, the results should be reviewed and validated by using a panel of senior managers who will also make the final decisions about who will and who will not be earmarked for future roles.
Finally, care needs to be taken about how feedback is given to the candidates. It is important that the detailed outcomes from the whole assessment process are provided and it is not just perceived as a pass/fail result.
For further leadership development advice, contact Developing People Ltd
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Leadership Succession
By Mark Evenden at Developing People
Do you know who will be leading your business in the future? Do you have the people with the capability and potential you need? Or will you leave you leadership succession to chance?
Leadership succession is significant issue for many businesses, as too many do not have a systematic approach to succession planning and effectively leave it to chance. Succession planning is not just a business risk issue. In their research paper ‘Will Succession Planning Increase Shareholder Wealth?’ Shen, Cannella, and Albert, found that there is also evidence that that investors, employees and customers respond positively to companies who invest in planned succession management
Essentially the purpose of succession planning is to ensure that there is a ‘pipeline’ of people with the talent and capability to fulfil key roles and deliver the strategies of the business. Key roles are any role that drives a disproportionate share of the organisation’s performance. While traditionally, these roles are defined in terms of leadership roles, in reality these also include other roles such as technical, product or business development.
Succession planning is not a complex process. It starts with the organisation identifying what’s needed to deliver the strategy. For example:
• What are the ‘key’ roles needed to deliver the organisation’s strategic objectives?
• What capabilities do we need?
• Who might leave or retire?
• What gaps exist?
Once these questions have been answered the organisation can set about preparing specifications for roles and finding suitable people. Finding the right people means measuring and assessing a number of things, such as:
• Current levels of competence and performance.
• Technical skills - does the role require high, medium or low technical skill.
• Experience – for example industry and international experience.
• Cultural fit - personal style.
• Personal motivation.
• Potential.
Evidence to assess the above criteria can be collected from how a candidate has performed in their current/previous roles as well as through independent assessment. The advantage of using an independent assessment process is that decisions about who has/does not have the potential to fulfill a key role can be taken in a consistent manner across the business.
Once the business knows and understands the people it has and their own personal motivations, it can prepare a succession plan However, succession planning does not exist in isolation. For example, any gaps that exist may generate a requirement for recruitment. In addition, the performance of the successors will need to be regularly reviewed as well as appropriate development support provided such as leadership development or coaching to enable successors to reach their potential.
Ultimately, a highly tuned succession planning process cuts the risk to the future success of the business, succession is far too important an issue to leave it to chance.
Do you know who will be leading your business in the future? Do you have the people with the capability and potential you need? Or will you leave you leadership succession to chance?
Leadership succession is significant issue for many businesses, as too many do not have a systematic approach to succession planning and effectively leave it to chance. Succession planning is not just a business risk issue. In their research paper ‘Will Succession Planning Increase Shareholder Wealth?’ Shen, Cannella, and Albert, found that there is also evidence that that investors, employees and customers respond positively to companies who invest in planned succession management
Essentially the purpose of succession planning is to ensure that there is a ‘pipeline’ of people with the talent and capability to fulfil key roles and deliver the strategies of the business. Key roles are any role that drives a disproportionate share of the organisation’s performance. While traditionally, these roles are defined in terms of leadership roles, in reality these also include other roles such as technical, product or business development.
Succession planning is not a complex process. It starts with the organisation identifying what’s needed to deliver the strategy. For example:
• What are the ‘key’ roles needed to deliver the organisation’s strategic objectives?
• What capabilities do we need?
• Who might leave or retire?
• What gaps exist?
Once these questions have been answered the organisation can set about preparing specifications for roles and finding suitable people. Finding the right people means measuring and assessing a number of things, such as:
• Current levels of competence and performance.
• Technical skills - does the role require high, medium or low technical skill.
• Experience – for example industry and international experience.
• Cultural fit - personal style.
• Personal motivation.
• Potential.
Evidence to assess the above criteria can be collected from how a candidate has performed in their current/previous roles as well as through independent assessment. The advantage of using an independent assessment process is that decisions about who has/does not have the potential to fulfill a key role can be taken in a consistent manner across the business.
Once the business knows and understands the people it has and their own personal motivations, it can prepare a succession plan However, succession planning does not exist in isolation. For example, any gaps that exist may generate a requirement for recruitment. In addition, the performance of the successors will need to be regularly reviewed as well as appropriate development support provided such as leadership development or coaching to enable successors to reach their potential.
Ultimately, a highly tuned succession planning process cuts the risk to the future success of the business, succession is far too important an issue to leave it to chance.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
How to Develop a Good Succession Plan
by Paul Lanham
The reality of business today is that many key executives and talented professionals are coming up to their retirement. In addition, because of the recent economic pressures many organisations have had to reorganise and re-size themselves, the consequences of which mean that the talent pool that would have been ready to step up into key roles are either not ready or no longer there. All of this represents serious implications for the business.
This issue doesn't just affect large organisations either. A survey conducted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), found that 30 per cent of small-business closures take place because of the lack of an effective succession plan, as many owners do not make sufficient arrangements in the event of their retirement.
To address this issue, companies need to integrate succession planning with their strategic business plans and view it as a long-term, continuous process.
The following highlights the key steps to successful succession planning.
1. Think strategically
Succession planning requires a strategic perspective. What are the things that might impact your organisation in the future? Will it grow and acquire other businesses, or is the market shrinking and therefore a different leadership approach may be needed? What 'type' of managers and business leaders will be needed in the future?
2. Understand key roles
Which roles in the organisation drive the majority of the business's value? Think broadly, and not just about traditional leadership roles, but consider specialist technical roles such as product or service development as they may be as equally important. Once this is complete it is a straightforward task to examine the age profiles of those currently in the key roles. How many of these will be retiring in the next 5 years? How many roles have 'ready now' successors? Answering these questions will give a view to the size of the task ahead.
3. Identify the requirements of the key roles
The requirements for the key roles need to be agreed. What are the key skills and capabilities needed for the roles? What specific experience will be needed, such as international or project experience. All key roles should have the necessary components for success clearly defined. These requirements can then be used to assess people into the role. either internally via a promotion or perhaps externally via recruitment.
4. Identify who your talent and potentials are
The mechanisms to identify and determine talent can range from subjective views of managers to objective means of assessment where candidates are assessed against the clearly defined criteria identified above. Whichever method is chosen it is important to understand who your potential business leaders of the future are.
5. Agree your succession strategy
Once the organisation knows:
- who is planned to retire when
- who are 'at risk' and may potentially leave the business and...
- who the potential talent is
Objective decisions can be made about how the key roles will be filled in the future. For example, does the business need to actively recruit and bring in new blood or can all the key roles be filled from within? Should the strategy be a balance of recruiting externally as well as promoting internally?
6. Define career paths for internal promotions
Once your succession strategy is clear, establishing career paths and the ability to describe the requirements for pursuing the path becomes easier. Creating effective career paths requires two components, knowing the requirements for the next level and creating clear plan of how to gain the necessary skills, behaviours and experience.
7. Manage successors through the performance management process
Succession planning should become a part of the organisation's performance management and career development processes. Regular performance discussions are important to collect evidence of how potential successors have demonstrated the performance expectations needed by the key positions. These discussions also provide the opportunity for managers to coach talent to ensure ongoing development and readiness.
8. Provide ongoing development
Managers should identify the development outcomes and actions that potential successors need. What are the specific learning expectations, new skills or behaviours that will be demonstrated as a result of their development? What actions need to be taken? Should the individual attend a course, undertake an assignment or new role or be coached? Focusing on developing specific skills can help shorten the learning curve necessary for success.
9. Monitor readiness and prepare the plan
Senior managers should meet at least annually to initially agree who the potential successors are for the key roles and to subsequently monitor their progress. Who is ready now to move to their next role? Is their evidence to suggest that any of the successors will not 'make the grade'? If not what needs to be done?
10. Ensure proper ownership
Succession planning needs to be owned by line managers and needs to be actively led by the Chief Executive or owner of the business for it to be successful. However, HR has a vital role in raising awareness, supporting and facilitating the process. This can range from compiling all the relevant information on potential candidates, keeping records of development and career progression and providing independent assessment techniques to identify potential.
None of the above steps needs to be made overly complex and most can be integrated across existing Human Resource systems. If your business does not focus on succession planning then the availability of talent for your key roles will be left to the fickle finger of fate. Surely the future success of your organisation is too important for that?
Developing People have played an instrumental part in helping many companies assess their succession planning strategies over the years. If you feel that your company is not equipped to manage staff turnover in the most effective way, contact Developing People for advice.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Lanham
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Develop-a-Good-Succession-Plan&id=4014690
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
The key to successful leadership is within us
Developing People’s Managing Director Dave Marchant has a straight forward and pragmatic approach to leadership development. Dave explains: “It is all very well for someone to read the latest leadership theory and think that is how they need to think and act when they don’t fully understand their current behaviour and approach, and how they might be currently de-motivating their staff big time! In reality it is much more straight forward to do something about your current behaviour, rather than learning a totally new, radical or even “proven” approach. Indeed in our experience, many managers de-motivate their employees because they fail to understand even the fundamentals of human motivation”.
Dave’s approach is to help managers understand the behaviours that can quash people’s motivation and to help them change them. His ‘Top Ten’ management failings are:
1) Taking away person responsibility by over controlling peoples work.
2) Being too pushy, aggressive and task-orientated.
3) Disregarding employees’ right to a sensible work-life balance.
4) Making unfair decisions about work routines, pay and reward.
5) Failing to engage people creatively by asking them to do meaningless work.
6) Being incomplete or inconsistent in communications.
7) Applying work rules and policies in a rigid manner without the concern for individual needs.
8) Failing to get the involvement of staff over decisions that affect them.
9) Rewarding and/or promoting behaviours that are contrary to the direction/culture of the organisation.
10) Acting without integrity.
"If an organisation truly wishes to improve the performance of their leaders, they need to provide constructive feedback to them, and make room for a mix of formal leadership development supported by external coaching and possibly mentoring to help leaders change their behaviour," recommends Dave.
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