Meet Tony. Tony has spent the last three and a half years as manager within a large company, where he has led a team on several diverse projects. His team of eight employees was productive and consistently met the goals of their projects. Your organization recently hired Tony due to his stellar reputation and expected him to impact a team that has been underperforming. However, in the last few weeks, there has been some unrest in Tony’s team and they seem to be struggling to meet deadlines. You can’t help but question whether Tony was the right leader for the position. Can he demonstrate and sustain the leadership ability that you thought you hired?
Tony’s story is not uncommon. So often we expect individuals who have shown us signs of leadership ability to demonstrate success, no matter the environment. This brings us to the question that is often debated: Are great leaders born, or can they be developed? Although there are examples to support both sides of the question, I believe the answer lies somewhere in between. When hiring for an open leadership position, we spend significant time and money searching for qualified candidates and engaging in extensive recruiting activities in hopes of finding the perfect hire. We put candidates through strenuous, thorough interview activities. We pose behavioral questions, introduce case scenarios, gather responses to inbox exercises and review references, just to name a few. Then, once we are convinced we have found the candidate with the skills and leadership ability that meet our expectations, we make an offer. If we have done our due diligence in our hiring practice, then all should be good, right? We hired a talented individual with a proven record of success. The individual then should, by default of his or her innate leadership skills, be effective at communicating strategy and vision, delegating to others and setting priorities. They should excel at motivating teams, inspiring others and collaborating with others to deliver business results. So, why does this not always happen? Why does the promising star we hired not always live up to our expectations? The answer to this question is found in our approach to developing leaders. Just as gifted athletes need coaches to mold their natural abilities in order to fit into a specific system, business leaders need coaches to create a structure for enhancing their leadership abilities. Providing this structure defines everyone’s role in leadership development, allows leaders to take ownership of their development and sets them up for success in their roles. This structure can be created by following six steps:
- Set clear expectations early: I often hear employees say they don’t know what is expected of them. As a result, they may appear to be working inefficiently or focusing on the wrong things! This breakdown of communication or action is a slippery slope and may ultimately harm trust, disrupt teams and diminish productivity.
To minimize this risk, spend time with the leader on your team discussing both your and their expectations of their role. Your organization may have leadership competencies chosen specific to the company and level of position. If so, let them know which competencies are priorities to the role they are in. Be specific and clear with communication — even capture the discussion in a document. These agreed-upon and documented expectations now create a foundation for clear and consistent future evaluation of the leader’s effectiveness in the role.
- Evaluate natural leadership talent: Identify the leader’s strong, natural leadership abilities as well as weak spots. This exercise will give you a better understanding of how a leader will immediately contribute to your organization. It will also help to increase his or her self-awareness and support the need for ongoing development. There are several formal or informal evaluation instruments available that provide leaders with insight into their strengths and weaknesses. Self-assessments and leader assimilation can be done early in the role. After just several months, behavioral observations, 360 evaluations and start/stop/ continue exercises can all provide ongoing evaluation.
Discuss the results of these evaluations, and compare them to the expectations of the role. What natural leadership abilities will this leader bring the role? Where are the gaps between strengths and defined expectations? This pragmatic analysis is critical for the leader to reach maximum potential specific to the needs of your organization.
- Put the leader in the crucible: A very important part of developing others involves pushing them out of their comfort zones and into situations where is it necessary for them to change their behaviors or approaches. Once you are both clear on the gaps identified in the analysis in step two, leadership development begins. Agree upon a developmental plan that includes a situation, project or goal that challenges the leader. The situation should be directly related to the expectations previously outlined and support the daily actions of the role.
- Coach and support: Although leaders are ultimately responsible for their own development, it is important to provide consistent coaching and support along the way, especially while they are in the crucible! Expect a leader to set up periodic updates to discuss progress and learning. During the discussion, seek to understand current progress and roadblocks, brainstorm solutions and offer feedback as appropriate.
- Leverage additional resources: Instructor-led training, e-learning modules, books and seminars are examples of additional resources that assist leaders in developing their skills. These resources are excellent for ongoing support of development but should not be considered a “magic bullet” or the only source for learning. Leaders should strategically choose books, podcasts, or courses to support on-the-job learning experiences (such as collaboration in the earlier example) and infuse what they learn during those times.
- Evaluate the leader’s impact to the business: Having a plan and executing it are essential to leadership development. However, it doesn’t stop there. The result of the development must support the goals of the business, otherwise it is just development for development’s sake. Is there evidence to support that the change in the leader’s behavior has made a difference in the result of a situation or project? Have others shared any feedback on interactions or behaviors they have observed? Evaluating the impact of the leader’s ability to deliver against the plan is a crucial part of the development loop and provides you with an objective measurement of success.
Leadership development doesn’t have to be complicated. It does, however, need to be specific to the standards of your organization and to the individual being developed. Following these simple steps will allow you to create a foundation of development for coaching someone like Tony or any other leader on your team. In the end, you will find that spending extra time and effort in developing leaders for your organization will be well worth it.
For the past 20 years, Vicki Hall has had a successful career in leadership positions in both the healthcare and manufacturing industries. Vicki is responsible for the design and implementation of the Global Leadership Academy for Brambles. The Brambles Leadership Academy supports leaders across the world in developing the competencies necessary for success today and in future roles within the organization.