 |
Leadership Development
How to Develop Your Leaders
Leaders move people to achieve more.
The development of leaders remains an evergreen
consideration for organizations. With the changing
environmental landscape, the need to elevate this
priority higher up the must-do list becomes more
pressing. Study after study looking toward the
future continues to demonstrate concern about
building leadership. One recent Conference Board
study found that only 54 percent of companies
surveyed felt that they had the leadership necessary
to respond to change. The Human Resource Institute
in the U.S. found leadership to the number 1 issue.
The statistics goes on…
To build leaders, organisations first have to
be aware of the importance of this mission. To
achieve this, the leadership team in the organisation
must first be sold. It is oxymoronic to suggest
that leaders themselves cannot see the need to
help create more future leaders. Yet history is
paved with countless examples of leaders stubbornly
holding on to power past their usefulness and
leaders who move to the top by virtue of their
ability to ward off contenders. Communist leaders
like Stalin and Castro are examples.
On the other hand, enlightened leaders take a
servant attitude. Their goal is to support others
to achieve their goals. They believe in the maxim
that “I look good if I make others look
good”. They attract respect for walking
the talk. They see the importance of growing people.
They recognize the importance of empowering successors.
Lee Kuan Yew started planning for his succession
more than a decade before standing aside to allow
Goh Chok Tong to take over the prime minister-ship
of Singapore though he was still mentally and
physically competent to govern.
So how do you develop your leaders? Well, there are numerous
leadership development training programs you could enroll your
leaders or leaders-to-be in. These programs take the assumption
that leadership can be cultivated in the classroom. This is
too simplistic.
Leadership
Development is an involved process over time and
methods. But before we go into the process, let
us first dispel some leadership myths:
Myth 1: Leadership is a job or task
You cannot put on your leadership hat at work
and take it off after. Leadership is a role, a
state of being. Leadership is not a job description.
It involves adopting the right mindset, internalising
relevant values and displaying appropriate behaviors.
The person becomes the leader.
Myth 2: Leaders are in the limelight
Leadership is not about charisma and personality
per se. Mao Ze-Dong was a stereotypical revolutionary
leader who can move mountains with his stirring
speeches. Contrast him to Deng Xiao Ping who came
after. He was a man of small stature and technocratic
leanings. Yet Deng is today credited for China’s
economic awakening. Great leaders rely on convictions
more than words.
Myth 3: Leadership is generic
The pool of common leadership attributes is large. Yet leadership
is situational. Different settings call for specific competencies
to take dominance. Heading a non-profit and a for-profit organisation
requires different leadership competencies. While the former
calls for a leader to be more apt in building collaboration
relationships, the latter might need a leader who is strong
in setting directions.
A.D.K.A.R model for Leadership Development
The A.D.K.A.R model is a change management process
developed by Prosci, a recognized change management
and reengineering research organisation. The model
consists of 5 steps that must occur for any change
to take root:
We adapt the model to the Leadership Development
process. We take the premise that for Leadership
Development to be effective; it has to follow
a sequence of initiatives that address the intent
of each step of the A.D.K.A.R process:
• Awareness
of the need to develop leaders –
Identify Key Leadership Competencies
To create wider awareness, an organisation
needs to identify its unique leadership competencies
that will carry it into the future. For a high-tech
firm, having leaders who are visionary like Bill
Gates is crucial. For a service organisation like
the Ritz-Carlton, a strong people focus is necessary.
This is where organisations need to realise that
they cannot take a generic approach to defining
leadership. The essence is focus. They have to
ensure practicality and manageability by determining
4 to 6 core leadership competencies to work on.
These core competencies are mined through an environmental
scan, both internal and external. What are the
critical success factors? What trends and forces
will influence the organisation in the future?
What do the customers and stakeholders expect?
What are the current and expected job roles required
among the leadership group? What are the current
internal cultural values? How do we move the people
to perform? The answers to these questions and
more will yield insights to what the leaders of
the organisation need to do and how they need
to act.
• Desire
to participate in and support Leadership Development
– Gap Assessment
Now that the core leadership competencies
are known, the next question is where each current
and potential leader stands in regards to these
competencies. Here competency gaps, the difference
between the leaders’ current and desired
competency levels, are discovered through assessment
and profiling exercises.
A slew of assessment tools exist on the market.
Psychometric and Competency tests are commonplace
like MBTI, DISC, and Harrison Innerview etc. These
also include 360-degree multi-rater assessments
that allow for a leader’s superior, peers
and subordinates to assess his/her leadership
competencies. A note of caution: Leadership is
a role, not a job. Thus job competency assessment
instruments might not be able to surface deep
intrinsic and psychological leadership attributes.
For this reason, psychometric tests like the MBTI
can be more appropriate though more laborious
when it comes to analysis and interpretations.
Competency gaps heightened the need for leaders
to move forward in their personal and professional
growth. Though cynicism is often present after
the gap assessment, most leaders realise that
the writing is on the wall for them to change.
• Knowledge
of how to lead – Leadership Development
Programs
The competency gaps form the basis for
the development of a customised leadership training
program that targets the learning of the identified
competencies. These training programs are created
with the objective of allowing the leaders to
learn the concepts and skills of the core competencies.
Active and experiential training techniques, like
the use of case studies, simulation games and
role-plays, are encouraged as these have been
proven to be effective for adult learning. These
programs can last from 2 to 5 days.
• Ability
to implement Leadership Competencies - Mentoring/Coaching
Training programs are cognitive in purpose.
They build knowledge. Knowledge is a means to
an end. The ability to apply and implement knowledge
leads to outcomes. Thus this is where learning
takes on a new dimension, an active form on the
job. Executive coaching is now a more than US$100
million industry in the U.S. Xerox Corporation
did a study recently that showed in the absence
of follow-up coaching, 87% of the skills change
brought about training programs was lost. Many
organisations are using both internal and external
coaches to solidify learning and change in people
while they are on the job.
Mentoring, on the other hand, involves a wiser
and more experienced person, within the organisation,
assisting another person to grow and learn. While
coaching tends to focus on skills and is common
between superiors and direct reports, mentoring
takes a broader and longer-term perspective to
include career development and personal growth.
Formal mentoring in an organisation has formalized
objectives like increase the levels of core leadership
competencies. It usually does not involve direct
reports in order to allow for more openness and
wider perspectives. Formal mentoring, when established,
can bring about a people-focused and learning
organisation. Yet, this initiative has not quite
caught on among Asian organisations.
• Reinforcement
to keep the change in place - Rewards
and Recognition
Monkeys see, monkeys do. At the end of the day,
to bring about the wanted leadership competencies,
behaviors demonstrating these competencies must
be recognized and rewarded. Jack Welch’s
GE was a proponent of this initiative. Formal
appraisals incorporate these “soft”
skill measures, in addition to hard-core quantitative
targets. Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard
acknowledges this aspect through the Learning
and Growth perspective.
Written By:
George Quek
Director,
DistincTions Asia Pte Ltd
|
