Everyone today wants to know what are the skills of successful leaders and how to develop them. Let's explore some insights from the recent academia.
Five Cs, Hs and Ks
When talking about leaders one work that come to my mind is trust. Without trust, nothing gets done easily. Otherwise we only work hard in pain and cost.
Steve Gladis (2010) developed a model called 'Five Cs' that he believes a leader should demonstrate to be successful:
Candor - trusted leaders do not lie, cheat or steal.
Communication - Leaders know how to write and speak clearly. They do not confuse of waffle.
Courage - leaders do the right thing at the right time for the right reason - not for their own benefit
Commitment and Consistency - leaders are steady and reliable. They are not career-oriented or power-oriented for the wrong reasons.
There is also the model of of 'Five Ks':
Know-self - leaders are aware of themselves, they know their weaknesses and strengths, they are not the know-it-all managers
Know-others - leaders know how to use people's strengths, rather then forcing them to continuously work on their weaknesses
Know-their-stuff - leaders know their disciplines very well but they are not necessarily the smartest in the organisation
Know-how-to-learn - they learn on how to adapt to the changing environment and do not stick to the same old ways
Know-how-to-teach - they teach others and experience success because of it. They do not meet people one a year, but engage and contribute.
And finally, there is the 'Five Hs" :
Honour-self - these leaders have integrity and values which they execute on a daily basis. They do not say one thing and do another.
Honour-others - leaders treat others as colleagues and now as someone lower then them
Honour their community, company and country - they will strive for something bigger then themselves
Leadership development
Many leadership programs in organisations fail. Businesses want to develop their leaders and investing in new learning and development. However, these seldom bring the return on investment. Many of the participants of such leadership sessions do not practice or cannot apply the skills they learn. Why? Let's explore a little bi more details!
Jack Zenger (2000) believes, that the fundamental problem is that there is lack of executive support.
Often, there is no clarity of the business purpose and business outcomes. What's missing is the clearly stated business objectives for the outcomes. So, what could we target? For example, we can produce measurable gains in the productivity, schedule and plan projects for improvements in the weakest areas, implement new initiatives such as greater diversity, more innovation. We could also introduce new strategic direction, such as moving the organisation towards the globalisation, help organisation to reach new markets faster and increase the business market value through new accreditations and certifications, new development programs should have a clear business case and leaders out to support those programs. This will allow the improvements to sustain, improve the human interactions and provide improvements that leads to success.
Starting with the results
Leadership is to be placed in the organisational context; the nature of the organisation, norms, cultures, values, history, work processes and systems that cannot be ignored.
Viewing a leader simply as a process of human interaction may be very misleading. It should, therefore, include results and not just a method or process of human interactions. Developing a clear vision is not done through human interactions particularly.
We do need to work on self-awareness but we also need to work on the organisational awareness. Therefore the business strategy should be the core of leadership development. The vision of where the organisation is going is imperative and the leaders must be crystal-clear about where the business is going. Therefore, the true leadership development happens inside the organisation. Although any external programs have a high educational value. This is because people in the organisation pay close attention to what is happening at the top. The top managers need to go through the program first if this is truly so important to them to develop their leadership teams. Senior executives are those who are to serve the instructions. Best senior leaders spent time with their teams routinely.
Any development program should produce leaders who are capable of recruiting and hiring right people and have enthusiasm for the business mission. They should have the commitment, improve the loyalty of employees and customers and produce results to improve the business financial performance. They should produce measurable results.
We cannot hope that results will come themselves from being better people. We are to start with the results because leadership is all about action. We can plan, but we need to have the skills to implement.
Some people have the habit of producing results. They are comfortable in being in the spotlight and take responsibility for the outcomes. They like to make a difference and achieve.
Therefore, many of those programs should leave actions to undertake for leaders, have to do lists and capability to measure progress in certain areas. For example: better employee retention, progress to globalisation and measurable results. Leaders need to perform to their true capacity. Therefore every competency statement should be followed by the outcome and benefits to the business. Leaders should know their people, their strengths and weaknesses, their skills and how to utilise them.
Develop themselves and others
The true leader raise the bar of what results are expected and help people to achieve their goals. These leaders have people perform better then ever before. They see the greatest potential in people. Therefore the most effective leadership programs should have is allowing the participants to plan on what they will do when they return to work, create measurements and expected outcomes, offer skill building activities and encourage need for feedback and create action-learning projects when they tackle the most important issues.
Jack Zenger (2000) suggests:
"That transition follows several principles that we suggest should guide all developmental activities:
* Use practical, concrete content, not academic or theoretical.
* Structure job-related activities rather than those irrelevant to the real work of the organisation, regardless of their excitement or entertainment value.
* Use involving, emotionally engaging, action-oriented learning methods and activities.
* Create ongoing activities and short sessions rather than long, one-time events.
* Focus on implementation skills instead of stopping at problem-solving and decision-making skills.
* Emphasise learning that can be immediately applied instead of distant applications.
* Generate accountability on the part of participants.
* Develop feedback mechanisms from peers, staff, and people higher in the organisation.
* Use the most respected, talented executives of the organisation in the learning processes. Let them coach the aspiring leaders.
* Group participants from the same organisational level. They'll be more comfortable and will face similar issues."
Confidence and competence
Leadership is about accepting the accountability and responsibility. For example if there is a feedback organised now and in another 18 months, the people will more likely want to improve.
Leadership is also about change and leaders are accountable for producing such changes and lead the business to higher performance.
Leadership is about turning complexity into simplicity. Leaders must also learn to simplify. Perhaps turning a complex decision to three alternatives and not more or turning a complex report into one-page summary.
Leaders must also balance the demands of different stakeholders: customers, employees, suppliers, authorities. It also often means taking care of people with limited resources. Therefore, it is important for a leader to step back and take a wider view.
Leadership is also about developing complex strategies in a short period of time.
And finally, leadership is also about training others to lead. We invest in everyone to learn leadership skills.
References
Gladis, S., 2010. The Trusted Leader, Training and Development, [e-journal] 64 (11),14 Accessed through: https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=anglia_itw&id=GALE%7CA241781175&v=2.1&it=r ( Accessed on 18/11/2022)
Zenger, J., Ulrich, D. and Smallwood, N., 2000. The New Leadership Development, Training and Development, [e-journal] 54 (3), 22. Accessed from https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&u=anglia_itw&id=GALE|A61649759&v=2.1&it=r ( Accessed on 18/11/2022)
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