Leadership Development

AM Strategy

PM Activity

Leadership Development - Strategy

Leadership in Organisations edited by Professor John Storey , OU Business School (2004) identifies:

A cluster of five, core enduring themes of leadership

Industry/organisational Context

Perceived Leadership Need

Behavioural Requirements

Capabilities

Development Methods(and Evaluation)

Industry/Organisational Context

Economic climate Industry sector Cross cultural implications

Perceived Leadership Need

Key stakeholders Leaders perpetuating the myth Emulation

Behavioural Requirements and Capabilities (1)

Various ‘flavours’ of required leadership behaviours, depending on the theorist:

Meta-Capabilities of Leadership

– John Storey (2004) (OU) Essentialist Leadership

– Bennis and Thomas (2002) (Harvard) Incipient Leadership Model

– Fullan (2001) Learning Leadership

– Boal and Hooijberg (2000)

Behavioural Requirements and Capabilities (2)

Meta-capabilities of Leadership, John Storey (2004)

Big PictureSensemaking

Ability toDeliver Change

Inter-OrganisationalRepresentation

Behavioural Requirements and Capabilities (3)

Essentialist Leadership, Bennis & Thomas (2002) Summary: The essence of leadership is to be ‘discovered’ within the attributes of exceptional

individuals found to be occupying leader positions. One of the most reliable indicators and predicators of ‘true leadership’ is an individual’s

ability to find meaning in negative situations and learn from trying experiences.

Four leadership crucibles:• The ability to engage others in a shared meaning• A distinctive and compelling voice• A sense of integrity• Adaptive capacity

(an almost magical ability to transcend adversity, with all of its attendant stresses, and to emerge stronger than before)

Behavioural Requirements and Capabilities (4)

Incipient Leadership Model, Fullan (2001)– Embedded learning

– Devolved leadership in teams

– Learning as a product of conflict, experimentation and false starts

Learning Leadership, Boal and Hooijberg (2000)– The capacity to learn

– The capacity to change

– Managerial wisdom

The Merging Leader/Manager Agenda?

“WE ALL KNOW THAT MANAGERS WHO DON’T LEAD ARE BORING, DISPIRITING, WELL, LEADERS WHO DON’T MANAGE ARE DISTANT, DISCONNECTED.”

“LEADERS ENGAGE OTHERS BY ENGAGING THEMSELVES: COMMIT TO THEIR INDUSTRY, THEIR COMPANY, THEIR JOB.

 Henry Mintzberg – Enough Leadership, Harvard

Business Review, November 2004

Discussion Exercise 1

What methods do your organisations use to describe required leadership capabilities, and to what extent do these descriptions reflect latest theoretical thinking?

How well do your organisations factor in business / stakeholder considerations when describing required leadership capabilities?

How do your organisations identify the current capabilities and development requirements of your leaders? How effective are these methods?

Discussion Exercise 1 - Flipcharts Group One: Core list of competencies which are great on paper however perhaps not so in practice. Organisational values translated into competency models - however models can be limiting/too generic. If you can ensure revenues or obtain clients or projects you are rewarded with a leadership role regardless of your leadership

capabilities. If you can claim that you are self aware -(admit your own deficiencies) sometimes this is enough to move you into a leadership

role although you do nothing to work on these deficiencies. Leaders are sometimes chosen for a specific job ie merger or acquisition due to the necessity of this skill at a particular moment

in time for an organisation to develop and/or survive.

Group Two: Wanadoo appear to have effective methods for leadership development as highlighted in our last session on Talent Management. IBM have different career paths including promotion for technical expertise without the need to lead people – are known as

technical architects who are regarded as key leaders within their specific field of expertise. Informal ways of assessing leadership by tapping into the grapevine; also the "suck it and see" approach - hoping that leaders will

emerge. Staff surveys gauge what the followers of leaders think.

Group Three: Stakeholders - are they the right ones? are their contributions weighted? is it an issue of stakeholder confidence,

gravitas/influence? Do we need all managers to be leaders? Do we need technical experts as leaders? Characteristics of leaders: self awareness, trust, risk taking, communication, non complaint, reluctance to learn from others (?), charismatic.

Leadership Development - Activity

BEST PRACTICE IN BUSINESS LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

  BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND – CLEAR OBJECTIVES, WHAT IS IT

THAT YOU WANT YOUR LEADERS TO DO, WHAT SKILLS THEY WILL NEED, ESTABLISH CLEAR COMPETENCES

  BUSINESS STRATEGY MUST BE THE BASIS OF LEADERSHIP

DEVELOPMENT

EVALUATION – THE END RESULT SHOULD BE IMPROVED BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

 

 

HOW DO YOU ACHIEVE SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP?

ENSURE THE EXECUTIVE LEVEL AND POTENTIAL LEADERS WITHIN THE ORGANISATION HAVE COMPLETE BUY IN, INVOLVE AT INCEPTION

ENSURE THAT THE DEVELOPMENT METHODS USED ARE APPROPRIATE FOR YOUR BUSINESS AND NOT JUST FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH!

  ENSURE THAT YOU LOOK AT THE LEADERSHIP PIPELINE AND

THEREFORE LOOK AT TARGET POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT CONTENT

  

The Leadership Pipeline

Best Practice for Building v Buying

By: Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, James Noel

Manages Self

Manages Others

Manages Managers

Functional Manager

Business Manager

Passage One

Passage Two

Passage Three

Passage Four

Passage Five

Group ManagerPassage Six

Enterprise Manager

The Leadership Pipeline

Assumptions

Future potential is based on – accumulated skills and experiences, – ability to learn new skills and– willingness to tackle bigger, more complex work

assignments Successful leaders

– add appropriate skills as they move up the leadership hierarchy

– spend their time on different things as they as they transition and

– change their perspective about what is important (new work values) as they move up the leadership ladder

First Leadership Passage

Skills:

Planning work, assigning work, motivating, coaching, and measuring the work of others

Time applications:

Making time for planning & helping others perform effectively

•Work values: Making others productive

Second Leadership Passage

Skills:

Selecting people for managerial roles, assigning managerial work, identifying resistance to managerial work, coaching them, and measuring their progress as managers

Time applications: Deploying resources among managers, managing the boundaries that separate units that report directly

•Work values:

Empowering first-line managers

Third Leadership Passage

Skills:

Functional strategic thinking, communicating with a multiple layer group, balancing team play and competition for resources with other functions, understanding the business model

Time applications: Managing upward

and horizontally, developing networks that reach across functions, participating in cross-functional business team meetings, and learning about functional areas for which they have never been resp.

•Work values: Valuing work that is unfamiliar

Fourth Leadership Passage

Skills: Business strategic thinking, managing cost and revenue, balancing short-term profitability with long-term planning, assembling a strong team, connecting all the dots (managing

the complexity)

Time applications: Building a business strategy and integrating functional work

•Work values: Valuing all functions appropriately (especially staff functions)

Fifth Leadership Passage

Skills: Holistic thinking, managing cost & revenue & capital allocation, assessing bus. managers, their teams and their cultures, managing stakeholders (industry, community, government, etc.), monitoring compliance with corporate values and policies, and portfolio strategy management

Time applications: Spending time with functional managers

Work values: Valuing all functions appropriately

Sixth Leadership Passage

Skills: Visionary thinking,

ability to sense external shifts and proactively respond, converting learning into practice, identifying best ideas and translating them into tools and programs

Time applications: Diagnosing whether the organisation is performing at full potential, managing three or four key objectives

•Work values: Valuing slow, evolutionary results, valuing the advice offered by boards

Methods of Leadership Development

Workshop Based:– Learning about leadership and understanding organisations– Self analysis, team analysis and exploration of leadership

styles– Experiential learning and stimulation– Strategy events and business schools

Based ‘on the job’:– Mentoring and executive coaching– 360 feedback and performance management– Secondments and projects– Experience!

Frequency of Leadership Development

Work Foundation Survey – 221 organisations – 2003

25% of CEOs and Board Members had received leadership development

50% of Junior Managers had received leadership development

How Effective are Leadership Development Methods?(Bailey and Butcher, Cranfield University: international survey – 271 execs - 2002)

Method Frequently Used % High Value %

Internal business projects 47 73

In company development programmes 45 53

Internal coaching/mentoring 45 69

Business school development programme 27 57

External coaching/mentoring 25 71

Observation of business leaders 15 44

External business projects 13 46

Discussion Exercise 2

What are we doing well in developing our leaders?

What are we doing less well?

What three methods or experiences have most shaped your own leadership development? Capture and rank these as a group.

How could we improve the evaluation of the impact of our leadership development activity?

Discussion Exercise 2 - Flipcharts What are we doing well in developing our leaders? On the agenda Happening at all levels Experiential learning; learn by doing Psychometrics Coaching Not ‘one size fits all (shades of grey – not black and white)

What three methods or experiences have most shaped your own leadership development? Capture and rank these as a group.

Personal crisis** Access my intuition and my spiritual awakening** Mentors ** My biggest f…..up 360 degree feedback and PDP Action learning set Reflection Secondment/shadowing Investing in Excellence - programme

How could we improve the evaluation of the impact of our leadership development activity? Establish in advance what the client wants to measure – manage client expectations Dialogue – face-to-face Evaluating throughout the programme – modular course 360 degree feedback pre and post the course – including self Employee/other internal sureys Recognising interdependencies Going through objective setting and evaluation has a benefit in itself