OBSESS OVER LEADERSHIP CAPABILITY: Leadership development as part of your strategy
Almost all performance, productivity and cultural challenges can be traced back to a single point of failure – Leadership capability.
What we find most perplexing is that very few organisations do well when it comes to improving that capability. Some pay it no attention at all and those that do, often implement programs that are random and piecemeal, in reality only making a token response to something that is at the very heart of their own success.
Part of the reason is the failure of the Organisation’s Leadership Team to actually think through a Leadership Development Strategy, which seems crazy given the potential impact of leaders at all levels.
Regardless of the size or nature of your organisation here are some thoughts on how to think about your Leadership Program and ensure it is linked to both performance and culture.
KEY LESSONS
1. Leadership Development Programs should be tied directly to company performance and culture. In fact, it should be part of their culture, reflecting the company’s DNA.
2. Successful Leadership Development Programs have absolute backing and support from the organisation’s Senior Leadership.
3. All Leaders should be involved from the Executive to the Frontline and the program should be ongoing – you never stop learning.
4. The Coaching of Leaders should take place in a ‘live’ environment and be related directly to the Leader’s current responsibility and performance (ie observing how the leader interacts with their own team live– starting with team meetings and 1 on 1 discussions)
5. Leadership Development is NOT a generic one size fits all exercise. Each company is different, each Leader is different.
PLANNING YOUR PROGRAM
Your Leadership Development Strategy should be treated in exactly the same way as any other company strategy. It needs to be well planned and executed and consistently reviewed to evaluate its effectiveness and performance against objectives.
To begin you might consider answering these questions:
1. Why do you want to undertake a Leadership Development Program?
Because you feel you have a Learning and Development obligation?
2. What does success look like in X-years?Apply some Measures of Success. Ie
Performance or Productivity
Engagement.
Staff Retention.
(Be clear & concise with your answers. We are developing this program to…)
3. How will we execute this?
Who will Lead the program?
How will it be introduced and delivered?
How will it be reviewed and evaluated?
Do we need extra resources ?
A FINAL POINT
Like any other part of your enterprise, Leadership Development has to fit into your overall strategy. It has to compete for time, effort and resources and be judged against its return on investment.
BUT, regardless of your size, whether you are a multinational or a small business, you cannot afford to ignore it, because it will almost certainly impact your success or failure.
