Leaders today are facing a demanding and fast-paced environment in which they must quickly demonstrate high performance and produce results. In a highly task-focused culture, where belts are being tightened and the unflinching demands of the balance sheet loom large, self-reflection and personal development are seldom treated as priorities. However, faced with a potential personal development chasm, discrepancies can start to rear their heads between how well a leader believes they are performing, and the cold reality of what others think: last year the CIPD published a report highlighting this very gap. For leaders without the chance to reflect on their performance objectively, it may be difficult to see when and how they started to become ineffective.
Personalised coaching by a skilled practitioner can be the starting point for many leaders in recognising where they are not as perfect as they may have thought – and an experienced coach can help leaders benchmark their performance against 360-degree feedback from their peers and their organisation’s competency framework or key objectives, as well as draw up a focused development plan.
For coaches and L&D professionals, there are some key areas of consideration, around leadership development can be structured. Importantly, these are not specific skills, qualities or attributes that have a simple cause-and-effect relationship with an abstract notion of ‘great leadership’. They are themes that provide the context for understanding what great leadership means for each organisation, team or individual – and getting to grips with this context sets you on the path to performance improvements that get noticed.
What and who is around the leader?
Information about the market, the industry, or the political environment and culture in which the leader is working provides insights into the pressures they are experiencing. These factors impact the leader's behaviours and experience of their work and their relationships with their colleagues. As the environment is difficult to change, however, it is crucial to work with and help the leader to adapt, adjust and change.
Who does the leader think they are?
Leaders may be ineffective partly due to a lack of understanding of their own motivations and behaviours, or acknowledgement of their weaknesses. Self-awareness is about knowing yourself: recognising what you enjoy doing, and being aware of what impact you may have on others. Psychometric tools can act as a ‘stop and think’ sign, which contributes to the self-understanding necessary to become effective.
Does the leader have mobility?
A leader must have the motivation and desire to change. To gain this they must be clear about their goals and where they are going, and understand why the identified goals are required. A skilled coach helps leaders understand their behaviours and underlying motivations using good questioning techniques and sophisticated analyses, and helps them to reach ‘mobility’ – ie the moment when the leader makes their own choices and recognises that they are in charge of their own actions, values, thinking and goals.
Can the leader keep it up?
It is important that coaching is seen as a sustainable, ongoing process, not a one-off. During the coaching process, motivations and behaviours are discussed, goals are refined, and action plans agreed. The leader is equipped with changed or new behaviours to try out in the workplace and can then reflect and follow up with the coach to continue learning and to sustain the support received from them. The leader also needs to have support from trusted peers – and from the top of the organisation – if the behaviours are to be successfully implemented and sustained. An environment should be provided that is safe and that encourages openness, learning and development.
So, what is the ‘secret’ to effective leadership? In a way, the secret is that there is no secret: at the core of an effective leader is the concept of authenticity, which leads to a multiplicity of ways to succeed. Leaders can be guided to become aware of and to develop their own unique, individual and genuine leadership potential – rather than subscribing to a fixed or pre-defined set of characteristics that purport to work for everyone. Being an authentic leader is about being true to yourself and your values, rather than presenting a façade that you believe is required or accepted.
Above all, we believe that the secret to leadership success really rests with development that is guided by what is important for the individual in question, enabling recognition of their own resourcefulness and ways to build on this for future success.
