HAVING DIFFICULTY MEASURING LEADERSHIP

As a leadership development company one of the most difficult aspects of our work is measuring the return on investment from any form of leadership development.

There is no doubt that leadership drives success in an organisation and therefore has a direct influence on the bottom line profit of any organisation but the relationship between leadership and profit is indirect and tenuous therefore difficult to correlate and hence measure. Anyone can tell fairly quickly if a company is well lead or badly led by the way it functions. Good leadership is after all the difference between being an ordinary or an extraordinary organisation and that difference is stark  to the honed eye. Yet rarely is the success of an organisation directly attributed to the leadership function.
Leadership needs to be measured over a substantial period of time as its impact will take time to manifest itself. And leadership cannot be measured easily for its effects are entwined in every outcome or efficiency measure. There is no simple clearly evident link between good leadership and success although such leadership is commonly acknowledged as  fundamental to success.

Leadership, good or bad, is exercised in a personal and individual way and therefore there is no real metric that meets the leadership requirement as most of it is about feeling and subjective rather than tangible objective assessment. Different types and styles of leader suit different situations and a leaders influence is so ubiquitous it can be measured in many different ways.

One thing each leader is responsible for is selecting their supporting team and it is perhaps here that there are certain common requirements that need to be met. Having the key skill sets embedded within that team and allowing those skills to come to the fore when necessary is probably one of the true abiities of a successful leaders and perhaps one of the  simplest and  yet most effective way of measuring  good leadership. Leadership is after all about decision making and leadership is about making sure that the right expert is in the right place to enable the smart decision.
So what are the key skill sets required within any leadership team and how do we measure them. tasks can be duplicated as long as each team member understands his or her duties.

A team needs a Vision Maker someone who sees and can clearly articulate the desired endstate this may be the leader. The team also needs an Organiser to marshal people and resources. But people don't do things without a Motivator or Enthuser so one of those is required. Opportunities need to be recognised and exploited by a Watcher. An Innovator is key to overcoming issues that have no precedent.     Motivation once estabished needs to be maintained and goals set and reviewed by a Driver/Manager. If a team is to be successful it must build relationships within it and with other teams, hence the requirement for an Alliance Builder. We all get bored and some are not good at finishing what they started so a Deliverer/Finisher is key to completing anything. Learning and communicating are the domain of a Communicator, someone who ensures the smooth passage of communication and learning wherever it is required. Last but not least is the person who thinks the unthinkable who keeps the whole team true to the purpose and consequences through challenge, whatever the appeal elsewhere; long live the Honest Broker.

As Marshall Goldsmith said "Every decision in the world is made by the person who has the power to make that decision - not the "right" person, or the "smartest" person, or the most " qualified" person". Key to leadership and being effective in power is being  able to make that decision with the right, the smartest and the most qualified people on your team advising you.

THE ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE PROCESS OR TRANSFORMATION

Key to an organisation going through any change are a few fundamental principles which apply to any size organisation. Rather like a journey you have to decide where you want to go and once you have that clear in your head you have to decide where you are now. Most people have heard the story of the Irishman who informed a lost couple “that if he wanted to go to their desired location  he would not start from here” . And there is a lot in that statement, for it is understanding the reality of the current position of the organisation and preparing and adjusting it until it is  right to begin the journey that is vital to the process. For it is from there that the journey starts.

Once you know where you are and where you want to go youe have direction and vision underpinned by a dose of reality. This is your strategy.

Now you must turn to the execution of that strategy constantly basing your assumptions and reviewing that strategy when necessary.

The execution phase continues the planning of the change journey. How are you going to move from where you are to where you want to be? Who are you going to undertake the journey with? What controls and checks do youneed in place to assist you upon that journey?

The first question is complex and yet simplified by the strategy,  for it is here that the dastardly detail lies. The second is more about knowing your people and optimising their talent and potential; putting the right people on the right tasks. The final question is about boundaries and momentum. Boundaries and checks to ensure that you progress in the right direction at the right pace  and the measurement of progress to maintain momentum to keep you going when you lose motivation or drive to complete the journey.

So simply the rules for the change process are:

• Decide where you want to go
• Recognise where you start from
• Develop a detailed plan based on the agreed strategy
• Know and optimise the strengths of your people
• Maintain momentum through checks controls and the measurement of progress

PUBLIC SPEAKING PHOBIA

How many people are prepared to speak in front of large audiences? Not many and yet it is always an excellent opportunity to reach out  to people quickly and effectively. Public speaking is about connecting with every single person in your audience. It is about managing yourself and your stress in order to deliver the required message as competently as possible. But nobody's perfect and perfect people often appear cold  to people with high emotional intelligence. So mistakes are fine as long as there are not too many of them and they are not repeated. To make mistakes is to be human and we all like humans don't we.
Reading from a script or reading power point slides is worthless most people can read for themselves, it is the speaker's additional knowledge that people want to hear. Nobody attends a voluntary presentation unless they want to understand something better so the more natural we are the more we connect. And if we connect we give the audience the opportunity to learn.  We all learn in different ways using  Visual, Auditory  and Kinesthetic means and the more you can cover all of these in your presentation the more you will connect with your audience
Three basic rules for public speaking are engage everyone, be natural in yourself and allow the audience to go away with what they want, additional knowledge.

WHY DO PEOPLE SHY AWAY FROM BECOMING LEADERS

Leadership is an issue that frightens a great many people and yet often they lead naturally. Recently I was talking to a 'Team Leader' at an event and I asked him who he lead. He denied leading anyone but merely stated that he was a team manager not a leader. Why is there such a stigma attached to leadership?
Teachers lead, parents lead, coaches lead- there are not many roles in life that don't involve a leadership role  somewhere and if they don't they involve followership which is critical to effective leadership. Good leaders are great followers, as they have to have learned their leadership somewhere, therefore most good followers have the capability to become leaders all they need to do is want to lead.
I believe it is the fear of responsibility that drives people away from leadership. they fear accountability and they fear failure. Humans are often pessimistic about outcomes and therefore expect  to fail; to lead therefore would be driving failure. It is overcoming this fear of failure that is one of the key attributes of good leadership, be aware of it but don't be frightened by it. Striving for success is what leadership is all about and that requires vision, courage and determination. Vision to see the success, courage to keep believing in yourself when others doubt you and determination to keep going when the outcome appears a long way off.
Managers are the police force for leaders and they are vital to successful leadership. They ensure targets are met, expectations are understood and resources allocated they don't drive the outcomes like leaders do because they live in the present  and not the future. It is leaders who bear responsibility for the future as they have the vision, set the direction and inspire their teams. For me it is that burden of responsibility that frightens people away from leadership. Overcoming that fear is key to training great leaders for the future.

COACHING SIMPLICITY

So many of today’s coaches and consultants take great pleasure in over intellectualising their clients issues. For with complexity comes confusion and confusion requires interpretation and consultants interpret confusion and keep their jobs.

A better consultant creates simplicity where there is confusion, for with simplicity comes comprehension as they turn from coaching to mentoring and finally to supporting. These rarer leadership consultants believe they should do themselves out of a job as quickly as possible if they are to be true to their ethics. For great consultants create simplicity and allow the organisation they are working with to get on with business after all an organisations  business is its business.

Business Networking

You know your business inside out and are confident and capable enough to take that leap into the world of starting your own business. What you do not know so well is the business world and all that it entails. You seek wise counsel and sometimes receive it; though more frequently you will encounter or find a plethora of not so wise counsel - the army of the "you don't want that you want this" experts. Try to find a new start up who is entirely satisfied with their web designer and website and you will begin to understand where I am coming from. Slightly off piste; however, we all know how absolutely vital networking is to building a successful business - don't we?

I have been successful in several sectors/industries at various levels of leadership and management and networking has undoubtedly been key to both personal and professional progress. My experience has been (that) informal social networks have provided many leads and much needed peer support. Whether this networking took the form of sporting activities, social clubs/groups or simply a regular drink at a favoured 'watering hole', the net result has always been the same; company, advice, support and guidance. I would not like to guess how much of it was good quality and sound, though I know a lot of it was and it was all, more or less, well intended and largely motiveless. Not to mention, frequently to my benefit. Thus I have been positively disposed to the consensus of opinion I have encountered since starting up a business that networking is an essential element of making headway in business.

Well, some months on and I have a few observations regarding the formal business network scene I have encountered. The social aspect is as varied as the social mix of groupmembers who are generally drawn together by less natural motives than simply to seek the company of similar types. One interesting and noticeable consequence of this is the prevalence of stilted, almost forced conversation and interaction. The 'fiscal focus' (for want of a better phrase) is another interesting aspect in so far as the effect this has on the mechanics of a network group. In business money is God and expenditure rightly demands return on investment. This inevitably leads to individual members constantly, or at least regularly, monitoring and evaluating the value of business they have apparently gained by being active members; measured against the cost of membership fees. The formal administration and management of the groups are driven by the fact the network is usually a business in its own right and therefore in turn must generate income and profit - hence members come under scrutiny and, well we know the rest. Usually we don't care either, because 'you have to put in to get out'. After all that's only fair - isn't it?

Well, I am becoming increasingly unsure about organised business networking. I still socialise actively with people I am like and whom I like. I still enjoy their company, receive their unquestioning support and unmotivated advice. It is still as variable as it ever was - and you know what? It is as good and sound and beneficial to me as it ever was. So, I'm off to play (read hack) a round of golf with a bunch of mates in different jobs and we'll finish the day with a few pints in a favourite pub talking to more mates who have other jobs. And you know what? I bet I will get more leads than I have over the last three weeks at all the network meetings I attended. Mmmm. I wonder. Who benefits most from organised business networking? Surely not the franchises or network organisations themselves?

Leading and Empowering in Today’s Business World

A key duty of any leader is to develop the team below them; this can be done in two ways through work experience or through learning. Learning is so important to an organisation today, particularly one that is keen to maintain progress rather than wither on the vine. Yet it is all too often neglected particularly when time becomes available to undertake it as business slows. Prepare during a recession for the good times ahead, for if you don’t those good times will never come. As organisations cut costs one of the easiest things to cut is training and yet in the good times, when people are busy, there is no time to train; that is why effective training or learning rarely happens.

Return on learning to an organisation is all too often ignored and hence the case for training pales into insignificance when compared to the far more tangible return on technical investment. So what does learning give an organisation and its employees?

When people learn they develop and self development is a key component of satisfaction and self fulfilment. Both of which are constructs of personal happiness. Happy people work better and, as attitude is infectious, they help others work better.

Happy people don’t seek opportunities elsewhere. They are loyal to their contemporaries and to an organisation even with promises of greater financial remuneration elsewhere. Happy people exploit opportunities and optimise their initiative and potential for the good of an organisation.

Organisations with a learning culture are organisations that believe in their people and they invest in the development of their people to invest in their business. It takes about a years worth of salary to replace an individual in terms of recruitment, knowledge development and organisational understanding according to Price Waterhouse Coopers. Keeping staff happy and loyal is obviously a sound investment. In addition individual learning contributes to an organisation’s continuous improvement and that is essential to fend off competitors. Furthermore strategically individual learning underpins longevity as succession strategies are planned and trained for throughout an organisation’s structure.

UK companies that want to maintain or enhance their business position need to take learning far more seriously. They need to consider it as part of their overall return on investment; because people and knowledge have become an organisation’s principal assets, as technology now gives a shorter lived and more expensive return on investment.  The time is right to start taking training seriously if businesses are to empower their people to exploit the post recession opportunities! 

THE DRIVE TO SUCCEED

So you have the plan, you have the people and the resources. You decide to implement the plan and it all starts wonderfully well then you hit your first problem. People begin to lose their optimism, some vote with their feet. The problem is overcome and you are on the road to success again. Quickly you become aware that a competitor is a little more advanced and on the same track. Just another problem you need to overcome by increasing speed and in increasing speed you increase pressure on yourself  and your team. You overtake and boom. you hit a technological problem that requires a redesign. Some of your staff can't take the increased pressure and leave.

This scenario is a common one and it often causes undue problems  and sometimes project failure because people are stuck in the present. There are two ways to help overcome the lack of drive. The first is maintaining and strengthening the vision as you progress. the next  which is as important and often forgotten is to regularly review how far you have come.

The drive to succeed has lieutenants known as the past and the future and the clever leader will optimise both.

Talking Ourselves into Recession

I wonder how much of the lack of business confidence in our economic prospects at present can be put down to the government's public persona and (for this matter only) its sergeant at arms the media.  The Government is feeding us the worst possible case in order to sugar coat the real news on cuts when they come; the media are all for a bit of bad news as good news rarely sells papers. Unfortunately the two combined have a pretty powerful influence over our complete society.

 Hope has to come from somewhere lest we drown in our own self pity and depression. When you are swimming at the bottom of a well there is one thing you can do to improve your prospects of survival and that is start climbing and keep on climbing until you get out! It is only  true self belief and optimism  that will enable you to survive and that is what this country needs now more than ever. Begone you doom and gossip mongers!

TRUE EMPOWERMENT AND ENGAGEMENT

How many times have you feel totally powerless and ineffective as a result of the scale of the problem and the lack of understanding what it is that is required of you. Empowerment can only be effective if boundaries, expectations and a common understanding of the current position are shared between the empowering individual and the person being empowered.
Surprisingly one of the best examples of true empowerment is evident in the UK's Armed Forces with their mission command, doctrine and shared ethos. Mission command is all about telling someone what you want them to do rather than how to do it. Explaining the outcome required and attributing the correct resources to achieve the expected outcome.  It is also about constraints and boundaries. To put it simply it is 'empowerment within a box'. Such empowerment  affords total freedom of manoeuvre within the set area whilst allowing adventure outside the box if the opportunity presents itself, that is providing that the empowerer knows as soon as possible.
Ethos and doctrine in the Armed Forces are developed through training and operations and these are things which are often neglected within Britain's major businesses. For it is doctrine that gives the common understanding and it is ethos that generates the mutual trust that enables an organisation to meet and exceed the speed of modern life and business. Ethos requires development and if companies are to truly empower their workers and to really engage their people they need to invest far more in it.  Selection and training save money and create ethos and facilitate a common doctrine. Ethos enables trust but it is doctrine that gives the commonality to processes that underpins that ethos and enables a company to continually improve.

WHY ONLY THE OCCASIONAL ENGLAND TEAM WORKS

We have all been in some form of team that has really functioned, a team with true cohesion that has all the necessary ingredients to be truly intra-active; where the right things happen without a word being spoken, almost as if you are reading each others’ minds. The sad thing is these teams rarely come along and their longevity is limited as the individual team member’s circumstances change, so the magic chemistry that created the team alters and fades. Now compare that experience to that of the English Football team in the 2010 World Cup, great in terms of its individual components potential but found wanting when it came to competition.  Two English teams that have achieved international success are Clive Woodward’s Rugby World Cup winners and Grant Flower’s Twenty20 Cricket World Cup winners. Both teams had similar qualities and it is these qualities and their relevance to success that are worth exploring further if we are to identify the ingredients of successful teamwork.

Leadership was key to both these teams success with the strategic leadership, the shaping of the environment to create success, coming from Grant Flower and Clive Woodward. They created the strategic conditions but both were supported superbly on the field by the strong tactical leadership of Martin Johnson and Paul Collingwood.

What Clive Woodward and Grant Flower were able to develop was a real Vision for both their teams that was sold to and bought into by every team member in each of the squads. Their vision became omnipotent and their vision became reality as the teams belief grew. Their vision became the team’s vision. Working like a motivational magnet it pulled the players to greater heights of self belief as individuals and as individuals their shared belief and team ethos made for a stronger more cohesive team; much stronger than the sum of the parts as ethos, beliefs and attitudes are contagious and empowering.

Once a vision becomes reality in the mind of those striving for it, it is all the smaller supporting aspects working in unison in the background that support the team to greater achievement the momentum is all consuming.  Preparation of all aspects is key to shaping the future, so developing the team’s confidence, inherent flexibility and indefatigable spirit. This remarkable cohesion is created through empathy and understanding of each team members needs and the whole team’s requirements. From medical preparation to physical preparation and probably most importantly the psychological preparation, which is the oxygen of great performance all are considered, delivered and all contingencies prepared for during the preparation phase. Look at the Italian coach’s reaction to Italy’s (The World Cup holders) exit in South Africa. Marcello Lippi stated “I take all responsibility for what happened. Because if a team shows up at such an important game with terror in their head, heart and legs and if the team is unable to express its abilities it means the coach didn’t train that team as he should have done, psychologically, technically or tactically.”

Now let’s look at the German experience at the World Cup. A spirit of positivity is engendered by blending some of the innocence and naivety of youth with the wily know how and maturity of the experienced players. This positivity enhances self belief and delivers a constant positive attitude that refuses to recognise defeat and fosters continual improvement. The German coach Joachim Loew talks of the "lightness" of youth which courses through his team and when they play - they so clearly enjoy it.

A team is made up of people and it is important to have the right people in the right seats- Johnny Wilkinson great kicker attacking runner and great tackler at fly half and Craig Keiswetter hard hitting opener and able but not brilliant wicket keeper. Both allow options in other areas of the team both were the right players in the right seats. But a team needs more: someone with a sense of humour and a wicked wit such as Matt Dawson and Graeme Swann, people who communicate well like Lawrence Dallaglio and Matt Prior who support the captain and his message. |The team needs its quiet warriors who lead by example on the field showing the courage and grit of Richard Hill, and Eoin Morgan who do their business superbly.

           

And then and only then there is the superstar the Kevin Pietersen or the Johnny  Wilkinson. But these superstars have been nurtured and developed within a team they are not hungry for the next contract and further individual accolades, they are not so overpaid that they are disinterested, they are as hungry for team success. They share in that success and consider themselves part of the winning formula and not the sole architects of it. They put team success ahead of personal reward and status.

Team Cohesion and understanding is critical to the bonding experience which leads to the interdependence that a great team has is spades; it is developed away from the ipod and other individual entertainment technologies, it is developed through mutual experience and understanding which can be fostered and which, in both Rugby and Cricket, is honed on long tours away from home. It is interesting to compare the frequency and length of Rugby Union and Cricket tours with Football and Rugby League tours and the comparative success internationally.

The old adage that there is no I in team but there is a me holds true and it is the ability to put the right blend of characters in a team that is essential to success those who add extra curricular value on top of their sporting prowess whether it be through their leadership, communication, sense of humour or an outstanding work ethic. Those that fit into a team ethos and further empower the team through their presence are essential. The team needs leaders throughout it to supply strategy and vision at the top and to supply guidance and tactics at the bottom people who stand up when the going gets tough, people who have pride in their team, people who have passion in their performance people who hate losing, people who care. Creating a sensational team is far more difficult than just picking the best individual players and that is why we often have far better prospects in international competition on paper than we ever do in reality.

I wonder if a team from the Championship would have played in such a lack lustre way in South Africa?

RISK AND LEADERSHIP

Leadership is inherently about taking risk, risks with people and risks with situations. It is the ability to judge when risk has to be taken and mitigating that risk whilst understanding how much risk needs to be taken that truly marks out a good leader. Humans are naturally risk averse, their instincts are designed to protect them and therefore they like to live within their comfort zone. And yet if we were all to live within our comfort zone mankind would not be progressing and pushing at the natural and technological boundaries in the way that we are. Let us look at the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The ability to drill in that depth of the ocean was a risk but a risk worth taking, however to do it with a paucity of planning for contingencies should an accident happen and the lack of the necessary  safety measures to prevent an ecological disaster was not. Leaders will always serve several masters in their decision making and leaders need to remember the moral component of risk taking in all their deliberations.

Continuous improvement and development are all about risk management. As to progress an organisation has to learn and to learn there has to be experimentation and with experimentation comes failure. Climbing a ladder involves a risk and we naturally mitigate it. For it is ‘laddership’ that is so important in leadership and the true understanding of risk. One step at a time the more competent the more confident and yet that confidence should never be allowed to become over confidence. ‘Laddership’ is about rungs and levels and risk can be viewed this way.

Humans naturally remain in their Comfort Zone Bubbles if they believe they are going to be criticised for experimentation and yet it is experimentation that leads evolution in whatever sphere. A blame free culture where experimentation is encouraged is where true development will happen. This normally happens when an organisation is in the doldrums or has hit rock bottom as it is often only then that leaders are happy to take the necessary risks for experimentation as they have nothing to lose.  Hence the cycle of moving from prominence to the also rans always repeats itself unless leaders are prepared to take risks and empower their people.  Look at the rise and fall of an empire it starts with a drive a hunger that empowers risk and ends as its exponents clutch the comforts they have made their masters and are so frightened of losing.

To empower people the overarching philosophy in any organisation has to be a positive one. How do humans best learn through positive encouragement or negative criticism? Positivity and praise are key elements that underpin a risk culture as they prevent the blame being passed and hence people avoiding risk. Key is to ensure that responsibility is delegated downwards whilst accountability remains at the highest level.

Risk must be taken consciously and hence an organisation and its leaders need to be aware of the risk they are taking. This requires good communication practices and a clear understanding on expectation and boundaries for it is only with these in place that true informed empowerment can happen. If the box where freedom of action is understood the liberation is total inside the box and communication expected when venturing outside the box. If expectations and boundaries are not understood then inevitably restrictions are self generated and limit the empowerment particularly when a blame culture is dominant.

Unfortunately even with the best will in the world mistakes will happen and they will happen with no malice of forethought or wicked intent. They will happen because we as members of the human race are fallible. The Human factor must always be considered in contingency planning and the human factor must always be taken into account when reviewing a failed action or procedure. Mistakes will happen it is the speed of recovery that ensures they are not fatal. No one sets out to do a bad job, most humans thrive in a positive culture. As long as mistakes are learned from then they must be seen in a positive light as part of the learning. As failure is essential to success then the risk of failure or mistakes must be planned for if a non-blame culture is to hold prominence within an organisation.  

A blame culture exists if an organisation or individual focuses on the problem and not on the solution. Yet the solution is the home of the required development. Hence risk has to be part of development and blame has to be banished to the background if the drive for success is to dominate the fear of failure

The Performance Gap

Turning good ideas into action in this modern world is extremely difficult and often does not happen. How many times have you reflected on something and wished you had done what you had thought you might do at the time. How many times have you done nothing about an idea which then makes someone else rich and famous? But what is it that causes that performance gap between thought and action?

The human race is naturally reserved and averse to change hence when it comes to new ideas we are often pessimistic; the media ensures we are constantly bombarded with bad news and we are not encouraged by bureaucracy and regulations not to take risk. Some of us in our soft and comfortable society are not even able to recognise true failure and therefore unable to sustain a risky venture for the required gestation period. The motivation to succeed is crucial to closing the performance gap and it has to be dominant over the fear of failure. Positive thinking creates positive outcomes.

Yet failure always precedes success think about the UK’s great inventors Thomas Edison, George Stephenson, Alexander Graham Bell, James Watt, and James Dyson. The industrial revolution would never have happened without a positive ethos and attitude no spinning jenny, no steam engine and no railway.  Failing has to be seen as a positive factor rather than a sign of weakness and incompetence and the domain of lesser beings. Failure has to be accepted if not encouraged as long as the necessary lessons are drawn from it. Expecting and exploiting failure is key to success and closing the performance gap.

The speed of life is a critical factor, nowadays with modern communications, and productivity expectations. Time is precious and without rituals and discipline many ideas quickly fade into the past and disappear until they are reflected upon. The ability to turn thought into action by planning and “operationalising” an idea is key to closing the gap and that requires great personal discipline. 

Leadership, employee empowerment and creating a non blame culture are vital in enabling an organisation to liberate itself from fear. Bosses have to free up and encourage their people to explore, learn and evolve, to fail and then to succeed. All too often in the modern world bosses shy away from failure hence they shy away from progress and in doing that they inevitably allow their competitors advantage. Change is a natural phenomenon and it has existed throughout evolution it is only the pace of it that has increased and it is that pace that has enlarged the performance gap.

 Individuals need to develop self leadership to prevent a performance gap appearing in their own lives. They need to develop disciplines in time management, rituals that make behaviour consistent and thorough whilst leveraging time for strategic contemplation and most of all the required relaxation. Clear vision does not occur in a cluttered mind and clear vision offers the chance to exploit opportunity.

Just how many ideas are lost through a lack of energy or discipline, a lack of leadership and empowerment, a fear of failure and a desire to maintain the safety blanket of the status quo? Whatever it is it change is evolution and evolution is here to stay it is just the speed of it that makes the gap more evident. However where possible it is a gap worth closing and we need to “mind the gap”.

PUTTING THE L BACK IN LEADERSHIP

How many leaders have been trained in leadership? How often do leaders get it wrong? Interesting questions in their own right but with investment in leadership paling in comparison to the pursuit of technological advantage is it perhaps time to take a hard look at teaching and developing leadership? On too many occasions leaders come to their position by accident. That may work in times of plenty, when pressures are slight and competition weak. Yet when hard decisions need to be made, when morality and values are questioned, the credibility and capability of some untrained leaders, or perhaps I should say managers, who have flourished in the years of growth, can quickly come into question. The current parlour of British Politics affords an outstanding example. Experts often become leaders because they are knowledgeable and people defer to them because of their expertise, not necessarily because they have leadership qualities. The problem with leadership is that it is like money: you only find its real value when you have not got enough of it!

Leaders can become great without training, as can doctors and generals, but it is the mistakes made in gaining greatness that can be avoided through effective training and mentoring. Yet if an untrained leader’s experience is not real, relevant or credible it is exceedingly difficult to leap from a position of limited authority to a true leadership position. Politics in opposition is hollow and without tangible measurement, hence it can be no substitute for national leadership experience or substantial investment in leadership training.

Often businesses chase the technological advantage. However, unless they achieve a quantum leap or paradigm shift, the advantage is expensive and short lived. Shifting the leadership dimensions of an organisation to create better communication and staff empowerment can have dramatic effects within the organisation and with its overall business success. Loyalty, emotional development and empowerment make a strong team closer and bring rewards in the form of a sense of belonging and pride. The key ingredient to this is effective, positive communication. Whether it be in development, in criticism, in objective or boundary setting, positivity and communication are vital. After all, we all learned our early lessons through positive encouragement and not criticism. Think of how each of us learned to walk or learned our mother tongue. We were unafraid to try and we tried until we succeeded.

The true visionary will use technological advantage through effective leadership and empowerment and, when compared, the price of great leadership is far less significant than technological superiority. Throughout an organisation’s leadership, from the first tier to CEO, the principles remain the same; it is the scale and impact of the leadership which changes.

The old perception that leaders need to be clever is quickly undermined. Sheer intellect is not enough and can sometimes prove a hindrance when it comes to effective communication. Effective intellect, in other words emotional intelligence, can have far more impact. Leaders need to be able to communicate and to understand their teams to optimise their team’s real potential. The vast majority of business is founded upon emotional intelligence rather than intellectual acumen. Think why you bought your last car!

True leadership can be inspirational wherever it sits within an organisation. If it courses through the whole organisation it can be a tremendous force multiplier. If it is to be practised throughout, it must have commonality and doctrine, developed through teaching and mentoring, so that it is common, understood and effective. It cannot remain the province of enthusiastic amateurs. Leadership requires understanding from the learning organisational perspective- and understanding from the autocrat’s perspective. The true leader will have some of each and use the most appropriate whenever it is necessary. Knowing how and when to be an inspired servant leader or an empowered autocrat is the answer.

Are You a Great Leader?

Many organisations believe they have leadership and more particularly those who hold management or leadership positions believe in their own leadership qualities as they know no better. So to sell leadership development to any organisation is extremely difficult. But do they really have leadership or is it more about management? Do they know what real leadership is? Do they understand the very real benefits true leadership brings?

Very few leaders appear naturally without mentoring and training. Those that do appear naturally are often flawed in their leadership style either as one dimensional leaders or as inconsistent leaders. One dimensional leaders believe in autocracy, dictating to, or dominating their employees using top down leadership. They limit rather than liberate and this can lead to employee frustration.. Those that are inconsistent in their dealings will create cohesion difficulties amongst their staff and this could eventually lead to a void appearing between the team and the leader. Either way the passage of communication up and down and hence the enhanced power and real advantages of the group through employer empowerment is stifled. Both styles make a leader appear arrogant and uncaring to some of their subordinates and this can become poisonous to the organisation and can affect staff loyalty. Remember 49% of employees would rather take a pay cut than work for a bad boss.

Leadership is about more than management or the skills and knowledge to lead. Management-the skills and knowledge have rarely lead to a leader’s downfall, however they will affect his or her initial selection. Hence these professional skills are generally taken for granted. But Leadership has two other aspects which are often neglected in leadership training and development, they are personal qualities and behaviour and they are always evident in exceptional leaders look at Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Field Marshall Slim, Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela:

Leadership = Personal Qualities + Skills and Knowledge + Behaviour

Personal Qualities consist of such things as: judgement, bearing, willpower, effective intellect, moral courage, confidence and knowledge. The Behavioural aspect of leadership consists of: consistency, fairness, rationality, proportionality and setting an example. How often do we see bosses who neglect these qualities setting a bad example or being inappropriate in their behaviour; Parliamentary expenses being a classic modern case. Do you focus on your behaviour and personal qualities?

Good leadership requires individual sacrifice, it demands humility and it creates a natural respect for all those involved in an organisation. This perhaps why so many of my examples have been assassinated, they trust others and take personal risk. Good leadership is about communication it is about subordinate reward and acknowledgement. Good leadership engenders respect, support and mutual admiration between a leader and those led. Good leadership empowers the experienced, motivates the unwilling, develops the inexperienced but values each and every individual’s positive contribution. Does your organisation empower? Does your organisation possess that mutual respect and is it as evident at the bottom as it is perceived to be at the top?

A good leader will flourish far more in today’s open social and business environment where groups and conglomerations are more powerful than old fashioned resource intensive stove piped organisations. Leaders need to be flexible in their style and a good leader will also know when a commanding style suits the situation and when a visionary ‘servant leadership’ style is right. It is the ability to flex an approach to the needs of the task, the needs of the individual and the needs of the group that allows a good leader to become a great one. Do you have that awareness? Do you change your style consciously depending upon who you are leading and what the situation is? Are you a great leader? Great leaders create great followers.

The Real Benefits of Coaching

It's been a very busy week of preparation for future events and activities, mainly for some interesting executive board development, a school InSET training day and a seminar next week. We will deliver our "The Real Benefits of Coaching" presentation at a seminar hosted by Newcastle Business School of Northumbria University on Wednesday 8th September. The presentation is based on our experience in developing an effective coaching network in an organisation and the benefits this brought to the organisation. The content is somewhat unconventional as it is centres on coaching in the Royal Marines during training and on operations with a lot of emphasis on the importance and role of leadership. Our view of coaching is from both a leaders and trainers perspective and is a little different from most coaching we have found to be commercially available. Our methodology is not an open ended focus on achieving improvement or development it is about achieving specifics goals and tangible results or output; our view of the role of the coach is that he/she should effectively work themselves out of a job. For us coaching is one of a range of skills a good leader should have and develop understanding its limitations as well as its benefits. If you want to find out more visit us at www.sampsonhall.co.uk or get in touch on info@sampsonhall.co.uk

Teachers' Leadership Training Success

Too long since our last blog and it is not due to lack of material to write about as we have had a very busy summer delivering leadership training courses and bespoke team cohesion training to a varied range of clients. Our Head Teachers and schools Senior Leadership Team training day in July went extremely well; we received some excellent testimonials and recommendations for future work. Education is always a bit of a soft target and teachers are all too often singled out for some scathing criticism - everyone has been to school and has no reservations about expressing opinions, often based on less than accurate (and distant) selected memories fueled by an over zealous media. At Sampson Hall we do not reinforce failure by endless criticism and whinging, we focus on developing solutions. We have worked hard to apply our own extensive leadership experience to produce very effective leadership training for those stepping up to their first leadership roles in teaching. If this interests you visit our website at http://www.sampsonhall.co.uk/. Our other notable success of the summer has been with working with a premiership rugby club's coaching staff during their pre-season build up - more of that next time......

Flying Start for Scheduled Courses

Sampson Hall's scheduled leadership courses got off to a flying start yesterday at the Jack in the Green, Rockbeare near Exeter airport. The immediate feedback from all attendees was extremely positive; complimenting course content, delivery, materials and venue. The first of eight courses scheduled in the South West and eight in the North East was a single day "Leadership for Managers" course. Delegates ranged from an experienced manager of 8 years standing through to a newly appointed team leader and even included one candidate aspiring to a leaderhip position. North East courses will take place at the impressive Lumley Castle Hotel located near Chester - le - Street, Co. Durham and commence Wednesday 9th of June. Places on our other scheduled courses are filling rapidly, visit our website at http://www.sampsonhall.co.uk/ for more details and booking.