|
Page 2 of 9
Expert Opinion
Dahmen and Hammond (2002) at Anderson's identify that the purpose of developing (the next generation) of leaders is to "...prepare them for the challenges of the business environment and the organizations objectives". The Work Foundation (2003) of the U.K. also highlights that "Leadership development should not just be seen as a pipeline for promotion. Its aim should be to build a group of people who can lead new businesses, maximize potential and influence strategic thinking".
Leadership development is said to involve the development of the whole person e.g. emotional intelligence, skills, and knowledge related to specific job tasks, managing people etc.. Learning to be a leader is seen by Bennis as "virtually the same process as becoming an integrated and healthy person" and "When we talk about 'growing leaders', we're inevitably involved in personal transformation".
How to Make Leadership Development One of Your Company's Practices:
If your organisation is considering introducing a leadership development programme it is important to determine the answers to some key questions. The following questions are a good 'starter' point for your thinking:
- What leadership principles and beliefs are, or should be, held by the organisation?
- What is it that the organisation is in business to do? What key leadership skills, competencies and knowledge areas are required to help meet this?
- Who should participate and/or how will people be chosen?
- How will our traditional leadership structures be affected by such a programme and what effect could this have on staff?
- What should be included in the programme.
- Who should deliver the programme or be involved in some form e.g. as mentors or coaches?
- What activities will best meet the development needs e.g. class-based training, mentoring and coaching, e-learning?
- What processes and measures need to be established to monitor and review each individual's progress as well as Return On Investment (ROI)?
- What resources do we have available for such a programme e.g. time, money, people.
- How will day-to-day business be maintained while staff are involved in developmental activities?
- How can we maximize return for the organisation from the individuals attending the programme and how can we involve as many people as possible?
Establishing the Training that Leaders Require
When determining what should be included in leadership development programmes, the following suggestions offer advice on where to start your thinking processes.
Determine the competencies most required of leaders in your organisation
Many organisations have developed a set of competencies that they identify as of importance to their organisational leaders. The American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) (cited Hernez-Broome & Hughes 2003) state "The leadership competencies of a best-practice organization uniquely fit the organization, its particular strategy, and its business model". Opposing this view, W. H. Weiss (2003) a consultant in Industrial Management, states "it is virtually impossible to identify, with certainty, the specific causal factors that determine leadership success at a specific time and place" this being due to real-life situations being in a constant state of change with many factors being in place at the same time. However, Bennis identifies that there appear to be seven common competencies or criteria for evaluating leaders:
- Technical competency (business literacy)
- People skills (the capacity to motivate and understand people)
- Taste (the ability to choose the right people)
Other authors have suggested there are 3-4 main broad domains of competencies, with sub-sections of related competencies falling within them e.g.
- Technical skills e.g. operations, finance, information resources, human resources, strategic planning
- Industry knowledge e.g. for your specific profession and industry
- Analytic and conceptual reasoning e.g. decision making, creativity, innovation
- Interpersonal and emotional intelligence
From research there does appear to be a set of competencies (or knowledge and skill areas) that are common to the majority of leadership development programmes and are worth considering for inclusion:
- Motivating, inspiring and rewarding others
- Building teams and coalitions
- Strategic thinking and planning;
- Ethical business practices
- Working with diverse cultures
- Mentoring/coaching and on-the job-training
- International business practices
- Generating ownership and harnessing people's energy
- Managing people at a distance
- Business acumen e.g. marketing, planning
- Specialist and technical knowledge and competencies
- Legislation compliance issues
Competencies can provide a form of blueprint of what ideal leaders should possess. They can also be used to help evaluate performance and to identify further development needs. An anonymous author writing for the Contractor's Business Management Report (2004) writes, "Unlike old-style skills inventories, which focus on academic degrees, competency inventories look at what individuals know and do and what special skills they have to help your business achieve its goals". Once competencies have been developed an assessment of leaders against the competencies can be completed - identified gaps become areas for development.
Study the biographies or books authored by people you consider role models
Inspiring examples and stories of successful leaders may provide valuable insight into what could make for effective leadership competencies within your organisation. Study what these individuals have done well, identify the skills and knowledge that they would have used and determine what areas could be learned and developed by leaders in your own organisation.
Benchmark
Benchmark the key skills, knowledge and competencies required in your organisation with those that you consider role models or best in class.
Concentrate on those aspects that are most important for the leader's job
These knowledge and skill sets include those that are required on a day-to-day basis, but also that that will enable leaders to effectively respond to forces and events outside their normal control e.g. equipment breakdowns, labour-force issues, governmental regulations and legislation.
Set high standards
When high standards are set for leaders and their development this encourages leaders, and others in the organisation, to stretch themselves to a higher level. This can not only be motivating and challenging, but can also role model new values for the organisation and its staff.
Develop both masculine and feminine attributes
It has long been felt that men and women lead differently and that some leadership characteristics can be classed are more masculine and others more feminine. Bennis notes that "Attributes more commonly associated with woman leaders are now increasingly in demand". Such attributes include concern for family and work-life balance, listening skills. He comments "Gender is not the determining factor. What counts is the ability to be both tough and tender as the situation dictates".
Determining the Most Effective Strategies for the Development of the Skills, Knowledge, and Competencies Leaders Require
A variety of strategies can be employed to develop the skills, knowledge and competencies that leaders require. These include classroom-based training, coaching, mentoring, action learning, and developmental assignments, challenging job assignments and job rotation, 360 degree feedback, e-learning, and blended learning solutions.
Classroom-based training
This is the most traditional method for leadership training and generally involves either on-site or off-site class-room activities using a teacher or facilitator. Many organisations are now also sponsoring staff members to complete a Manager of Business Administration (MBA) programme off-site as part of their leadership development initiatives.
Coaching
Involves practical, goal-focused forms of one-on-one learning, advice, support and feedback (or as Bennis terms it 'reflective talkback'). It can be a short-term intervention intended to develop specific leadership skills or a more extensive process involving a series of formalised and goal-focused meetings over time.
Mark Nyman, President of Nyman & Associates, and Liz Thach, Associate Professor of Human Resource Development and Organisation Development at Sonoma State University California (2002) identify 4 types of coaching:
- Performance coaching - whereby the coach works with the leader one-on-one to help identify strengths and improvement areas, and uses a customised development plan to improve leadership abilities.
- Holistic coaching - focusing on the whole person, this approach considers quality of life and balance issues and all aspects of an individual's life e.g. work, family, leisure. The role of the coach is to listen, reflect and provide insights that can help the individual deepen their learning and move forwards in accomplishing life balance.
- Content coach - this individual is used to discuss and provide assistance, knowledge and support to a leader in a specific content area at the time that it is required e.g. marketing, international relations etc. The coach is an experienced and successful practitioner in the area.
- Manager as coach - this form of coaching involves leaders leading their staff from a coaching mindset, much in the same way that a coach assists members of a sports team in working on key skill and knowledge areas. Senior executives may take this role and coach more junior staff members as part of a leadership development programme.
Mentoring
Is typically defined as a committed, long-term relationship in which a senior person supports the personal and professional development of a junior person. Mentoring may be a formal programme or a much more informal process.
Action learning and developmental assignments
These are a set of development practices in which important real-time organisational problems are tackled through combining instruction with real world application of skills and knowledge. Effective action learning may range from unspoken, non-facilitated learning at work to focused and high-impact learning projects. Hernez-Broome et al comment that "The goal of leadership development ultimately involves action not knowledge" and "Therefore, development today means providing people opportunities to learn from their work rather than taking them away from work to learn". Dahmen and Hammond agree, stating "many training programmes do a good job building awareness of leadership, but do not go far enough in actually developing effective leadership skills. The awareness stage must be followed by deep skill development, and that comes best from real life experiences".
This type of learning helps leaders develop crucial skills and allows organisations to attack relevant, crucial and real-time issues. It is critical that such activities are integrated and are tied into the organisations strategic business objectives.
Challenging job assignments and job rotations
Involves using job assignments for developmental purposes and runs the gamut from simply providing people with information about developmental opportunities in their current job to a systematic programme of job rotation. Dahmen and Hammond comment "It is wise to have as wide a set of experiences as possible. A problem in many companies is that there is too much vertical mobility. Managers inch up the same ladder, learning more and more about less and less. But some organisations are moving promising people, or 'talent' around horizontally, so that they serve time in other divisions to give them a kaleidoscopic view of the organisation and coaching from a variety of mentors".
360 degree feedback
This type of feedback and learning most often involves either questionnaires or direct interviews with a leader's manager, direct reports, peers, and increasingly, appropriate customers and suppliers. Feedback is sought on areas of strength and opportunity and development plans are frequently initiated to address issues raised. Although feedback is most often anonymous it may also be obtained from specific individuals on a more open basis to assist in rectifying explicit issues of concern.
e-learning
An increasingly utilized mode for learning and development, e-learning may range from computer-based, self-paced, modular learning on a range of leadership topics through to the use of chat rooms and message boards for assistance and advice with specific leadership issues. This advice and support often comes from peers based in different geographical locations whom may or may not be known by the individual.
Blended learning solutions
These are an integration of fact-to-face classroom and coaching experiences with technology-based tools and processes, action learning and developmental assignments, and challenging job assignments and rotations. Blending different learning methods into one programme is important if all aspect vital to the leadership programme are to be covered and learned effectively.
Hernez-Broome et al note "It is also critical to integrate various developmental experiences to each other as well as to both developmental and business objectives. That way they can have a greater collective impact than they otherwise could", and that "Leadership development efforts and initiatives must be ongoing not a single programme or event".
|
Home 
Management Brief Reports