What do you think your team would say?


As mentioned above research by Jim Collins for his book 'Good to Great' contradicts some of the thoughts many of us have on leadership (this, of course, may not be true of your answers above).

 

Collins' research indicates that companies and organisations who have made it from good to great do not necessarily have leaders with great personalities, those who grabbed the headlines and become celebrities. There is, of course, nothing wrong with a big personality but many of the leaders outlined in Jim Collins's book showed traits of self-effacement, quietness reservation and what often even shy.

Interestingly Collins even asserts that many of his good to great leaders do not start out with a vision of where they want to go they start out with the right people on board in the organisation.

So when we say, 'Not being a Leader,' what do we really mean? In most companies this revolves, in a recessionary space, too much managing and not enough focus on getting the "right" people in your organisation and, of course, allowing them to take up leadership positions within their roles in the company.

I was only recently talking to a client who is a very senior executive in the financial services, he knows how to 'do' the job, is highly experienced, has been around several 'blocks' but he was complaining bitterly about how much pressure he was under from his line manager because of her unrelenting attention to detail, meddling in his work and that of his team. When asked what his line mangers Vision for their substantial part of the business was he couldn't tell me.

Of course his boss is under tremendous pressure to 'perform', cut costs, get the 'results' and is living in a management culture. BUT in our coaching we would 'stand' for this person being able to look in on themselves and their behaviours. To confront themselves with some key facts:

• She is employing a highly experienced senior executive on a substantial salary

• He knows how to do the job

• He needs space to both do the job and excel at it – a good leader will allow this

• She is suppressing the leader he may well be – we may never know!

• As a leader we'd ask her to spell out where she expects to lead her team, what that will look like, her expectations and the timescale in which she expects this vision to be delivered

Is this lady being a leader by getting the right people on board, allowing them space to perform both as managers and leaders OR is she suppressing performance by an overreliance on detail and managing down the organisation?

Does any of this ring true for yourself, your boss, someone in your team or even your whole organisation?
 

How many of your list are household names – the ones who everyone knows and talks about in a leadership context? Our experience tells us that lost of people tend to list characters whose leadership tends towards the charismatic end of the spectrum – how many leaders have you come across who are low key, unassuming and, above all, facilitative in that they allow others in the team the room to grow and perform.

Whilst this list is great and, undoubtedly, represents a view of leadership research (notes above) also suggests that to be a great leader does not necessarily mean you have to be a huge personality. In view of this statement would you now add more people to your list above in exercise 3? How many "low key" leaders do you know who are highly effective, have the right people on their team and create and deliver great results?

 

What did you consider to be the key leadership competencies or traits? did you end up marking yourself?

Over many years of working with senior executives and leaders TRChas great insight into what they think leadership is about. In most cases people, whatever level in an organisation, intuitively know what makes great leadership. Most talk about communication, vision, motivation, charisma, stature, etc. etc.

Often managers also think that managing is wrong and leading is right – not, in any way, support this. Management is entirely necessary and should form the pivotal basis of any business and often the bedrock of good leadership (think of the chaos).

When asked delegates will often describe managers as "doers" i.e. the people who make things happen, the engine room of any business and, quite frankly, leaders could not do without managers–they simply could not function.

As you will have seen from the exercise above, it's relatively easy for you, anyone else come to that matter, to identify the traits of a leader. Most know (all think they do) what a great leader looks like, sounds like and feels like. The difficulty, of course, is in the delivery–how do you become a leader, can you be trained to be a leader or our leaders born?

The caveat to these lists, (as noted above) which are often focussed on, we might call today 'celebrity', is that leadership can often be unsung.

Our assertion is that leaders (the ones you've heard about and the unsung leaders), whilst they have traits that are often part of their personality, can learn and certainly can develop greater skills and much more ability to lead teams, businesses and organisations. It comes down to the oft stated distinction of personality versus behaviour i.e. your personality is NOT your behaviour and vice versa.

In simple terms our leadership model states that managers are predicated on "a badge" and that leaders are predicated on "followers".

Think about this...

How many people in your organisation are claiming to be leaders when all they're really doing is wearing a bigger badge than everyone else?

How many people in your organisation assert that they are leaders but, in reality, do not actually have any followers who volunteer to be followers? How many "unsung" leaders do you have in your organisation?

Those low-key people really are highly effective at both managing and leading?

All tough questions but highly relevant and absolutely necessary if you are going to create an amazing organisation that produces results through the survival of the recession and then positions itself for post recession growth.

 

 

3. Being understandably short-termist but missing the obvious medium to long-term opportunities

In the current climate, it is easy to take the short-term view. Many managers are looking at their businesses, often panicking, and looking at the opportunity to cut costs, increase short-term revenues and take very narrow short-termist decisions that will, almost certainly, adversely affect their businesses in the medium to long-term.

Many managers that we work with do, of course, state that they have their backs to the wall and they have very few options in taking these actions. All we ask and, indeed, all our coaching proposes is that they examine all the possibilities within their business–we have yet to come across a business that has explored all of these!

 

 

4. Not realising that leadership is more crucial in a recession than in the good times

In many similar ways to the above a lot of businesses put themselves in a "bunker " i.e. they dig a hole and sit in it during recessionary times. Leadership tends to go out of the window. The 'loud' very idea of vision, strategic investment and long-term planning tends to be something easily forgotten in the cut and thrust of survival, the 'quiet' elements of leadership, getting the right people and making things happen in an, often, unassuming way are also lost in mêlée.

The great businesses that we work with are the ones that are, of course, focused on short-term survival but have a clear and unwavering eye on the medium to long-term and certainly a focus on post-recessionary times - particularly around both getting and keeping the right people on board.

 

The idea of being in a bunker is, of course, quite attractive but the danger is that the walls fall down on top of you - the great businesses are the ones who create robust tactics and a defensive position but have an eye to having someone put their head above the parapet to look to the medium to long term vision.

So what does this really mean for your business?

5. Not looking for leaders in the organisation

One of the things that should have come out of the exercise above re what actually makes a leader and, again, this is an assertion we make from having spent years working with leaders in business, is that leadership is NOT predicated on hierarchy. What does this really mean?

If you think about this there are many organisations where leadership comes from the middle or even the bottom of the structure.

 

 

6. Not really taking in what the great organisations are doing

Given the bunker mentality that many organisations adopt during a recession is hardly surprising that they take little time to look at what other great organisations are doing.

Take some time to look at what your competitors, industry leaders in your sector and industry leaders in the wider business community are actually up to.

As well as looking for the big headlines and news stories around both your competitors in your sector and companies in other marketplaces it's also important to look beyond these. Look more deeply into companies and search out the ones that clearly have a series of breakthroughs that have been based on steady work, great foundations of strategy and leadership and, most importantly, a fantastic team of people.

7. Choosing to 'be' the leader you are with a Vision and Purpose to match

We recently started working with the Managing Director of a highly successful consultancy business. He has spent years working in a "management mode" where survival has really been the name of the game. Business has, however, despite the inherent difficulties, survived mainly due to the strength of character of the Managing Director. He has stood firmly in his belief that the business can and will prosper.

They have emerged, after many difficulties, into the light of a recession and now need to urgently move into a leadership space as opposed to space survival "management space"–what does this really mean?

You will, of course, have heard of the phrase "situational leadership" and this MD has taken on executive coaching in order to really sit back, albeit momentarily, and assess his "situation". He's recognised

8. Looking inwards

Many would argue that this is a very similar point to not looking at what great organisations are doing (as per point 6 above) but, no, what we're really talking about here is a tendency to look at processes, procedures and cost reduction exercises within organisations during these difficult trading times.

Many organisations that we work with have a focus, spending inordinate amounts of money on project teams who are looking at ways of creating efficiency, cost-cutting, headcount reductions etc but are placing little emphasis on the opportunities to invest in, what they see as risk focused, margin generating opportunities.

 

On the other hand, there are a number of organisations that we are working with, where they have taken the sensible route of balancing the obvious need for cost-cutting with the investment required to take calculated risks out in the market.

It goes without saying that cutting will ultimately lead to a non-existent business, now of course, no one really sets out for this to happen but a lack of focus on opportunity including those opportunities that might be seen as slightly risky is eventually going to lead to failure. Retrenchment can only really result in the ultimate demise of the business.

9. Stretching

Businesses are often amazed at what can be achieved by working with, not only, the senior team but with senior and middle ranking executives on the very simple concept of 'is stretch'

10. Not getting a Coach

When McKinsey (The War for talent, 2001) surveyed managers on what fuelled their development through their careers, it was not training; it was job experiences. This may not come as a surprise, what was more surprising was the high degree of importance they assigned to coaching, feedback and mentoring.

According to the McKinsey report, in addition to challenging assignments people must be given feedback and coaching about their strengths and weaknesses. People need to be told how well they are performing, what specific things they are excelling at, and what they should do to improve their performance. Not telling people these things robs them of the opportunity to take charge of their development and their careers. Lack of feedback often plays a role in the derailment of highly talented people. Self-awareness is critical to their continued growth. Yet only 35% of people feel their company tells them openly and candidly about where they stand.

 

Why isn't there more coaching and straightforward feedback?

For most of us, giving honest feedback is uncomfortable. It's hard to do. It takes precious time. Many people don't know how to do it well because they have never experienced it themselves. Organisations don't normally explicitly value feedback or hold people accountable for delivering it. Part of the problem may lie in the word straightforward. This is not mean-spirited criticism, nor is it exclusively negative feedback. Frankness is an open, respectful dialogue about an individual's achievements, coupled with an insightful acknowledgement of challenges, or even failures, that stand between the individual and the next success. It's an appropriate mix of constructive criticism and positive feedback. Underpinning it should be genuine caring for the individual's growth and development. Most managers gloss over or omit the constructive criticism. They know it can be a start of a, sometimes, uncomfortable dialogue. When delivered with a genuine dose of caring, though, it can be received more openly. You can't go soft on coaching and feedback, but you can intend and deliver it empathetically.

In TRC we call this 'ruthless compassion' or 'unconditional positive regard' To ensure return on investment coaching needs to deliver recognisable results, such as an increase in profitability, performance and productivity as well as a decrease in internal conflicts and problems. No matter what the company's size, executive coaching does have its place if planned and procured correctly. It has the ability to provide Executives with the skills to be successful leaders and return on investment for the business that ultimately will drive business success.

To find out more about The Results Centre you can contact us via: info@theresultscentre.com
 

The author

Alan Denton...

Alan's recent coaching results include a sales director producing 40% annual sales growth, and project leads completing a £20m project early and under budget.

He specialises in coaching leaders and creating transformational business programmes.

As a CEO Alan has led multi-site, £multi-million businesses. He has coaching and leadership qualifications and is a post-graduate qualified business and personal coach.