Building Great Leadership Capability – What’s Important!

“To be successful businesses have to deliver financial results. Leaders at all levels need to be commercially aware and capable of making good decisions that impact the performance of their teams and the wider business”.

I started my earlier article on great leadership by saying that”

• “Without great leadership you wont have a culture that attracts, retains and gets the best out of your talent and you certainly won’t be successful executing your organisation’s strategy and delivering on the performance goals”.
• “The leaders you hire and promote internally must be able to engage and inspire the best from their employees, while making the right decisions to successfully compete in the ever increasing complexity of today’s dynamic business environment”.

While every organisation is different the areas of greatest importance in any leadership development strategy don’t (in my view) differ very much. So, previously and today, what I emphasise to leaders is the importance of developing:

•       Organisational awareness, commercial acumen and strategic thinking to be more effective decision makers.

•       People leadership qualities to be better at influencing, engaging and developing their employees, building trust and capability and driving performance improvement.

Both are essential to executing your organisation’s strategy and delivering on performance goals and both are critical components of any leadership development strategy.

Below are four sources of leadership insight I rate highly in developing the people leadership qualities in leaders and which I’ve shared with leaders at every opportunity.

Following this are four high-impact business relevant leadership development activities I’ve implemented and seen be effective in practice within an organisation.

There are four focus areas essential in developing people leadership qualities. Whether at leadership induction or during future ongoing leadership development, the focus must be on helping leaders become better at:

•       building trust, influence and credibility across working relationships;

•       driving high levels of employee engagement;

•       maximising the capability of the talent in their team; and

•       growing their own levels of emotional intelligence.

The principles and practical guidance from the sources I highlight below are just as valuable and relevant to helping leaders engage talent and drive business performance today as they were when they were first published.  They come from white papers and business books written by respected leadership educators, business consultants and researchers, some of whom I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and learn from during my career.

There are numerous other great sources to learn from and I read excellent articles and research papers every week, but as I would say to leaders I present to and coach:

“Always keep learning, but focus on learning the principles from these people leadership insights, and apply them as a leader in your work environment and you will be a better leader of people and be more successful”.

1. The Speed of Trust, Stephen M.R. Covey

The practical advice Stephen M.R. Covey shared in his book ‘The Speed of Trust’ on building and developing trust are fundamental to great leadership and employee engagement. Without trust there can’t be engagement and certainly the business performance will be impacted. As Stephen Covey highlights, “simply put trust means confidence”

Doing what you’ll say you’ll do and doing it well builds trust and credibility as does open honest communication.

Whether it is with employees, peers, stakeholders or the CEO and the Board, delivering on what you commit to is essential in great leadership. 

• Trust matters internally when it comes to the provision of business or operational support and service delivery. 
• This impacts the engagement and performance across teams and externally affects customers and market competitiveness.

Having led HR supporting offices located in different continents I’ve seen first-hand the importance of trust in the speed and quality of communications and decision making. Having collaborative communication practices built on trust, commitment and credibility is critical across organisational teams. This is more acute for global teams based in different geographies as they rely directly on each other to operate efficiently in the delivery of services to customers and the winning of new business. With time-zones at play the commitment to delivering information, services and support across international teams has to be an organisational priority. If delivery is late and communication is poor, trust disappears quickly and with that so does organisational agility and performance.

The insights outlined in The Speed of Trust are a great resource for all leaders to reflect on and apply practically. It encourages leaders to work hard at building credibility through their integrity to deliver and their honesty when dealing with others. Building trust is also vital to be an effective influencer, an essential quality in any great leader. 

2. The 5 Drivers of Engagement, Juice Inc.

Of all the articles and research papers I’ve read on engagement the Juice Inc White Paper on The 5 Drivers of Engagement is the most easy to follow and practical for leaders to understand and apply. It’s a great meta-analysis that pulls together and articulates the essence of what employee engagement is, both simply and effectively. It references numerous well respected research studies on employee engagement conducted across businesses globally.

The five drivers of engagement as outlined by Juice Inc. tap into the emotional priorities of employees working within an organisation, namely: I fit, I’m clear, I’m supported, I’m valued and I’m inspired. These translate to employees having a sense of belonging, security, freedom, significance and purpose. The Juice Inc white paper intelligently demonstrates that the five drivers referenced are critical in harnessing each employee’s willingness to offer their discretionary effort.  It also outlines how leaders can build on each of these emotional drivers with their employees as a means to creating a culture of high performance and engagement.

“When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people areemotionally invested, they want to contribute.” – Simon Sinek

As leaders, new or experienced, we all need reminding that as human beings feelings and emotions are important in the engagement of our people. Mary Angelou, voted one of the most powerful women in the USA in 2001, said “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

So it is with employees too. Only with mutual respect and trust will high levels of engagement be reached and employees care and act on what you tell them, leading to better business performance.

As higher percentages of millennials take leadership roles in the workplace we know from research they will be placing greater priority on workplace culture, diversity, flexibility, teamwork and a sense of community, while seeking greater purpose in their work contribution. Trust, collaboration and engagement within the organisation will clearly be key factors in retaining them as leaders along with other individual contributors who are holding critical roles.

In the 2015 McKinsey research on leadership, one the four key differentiating qualities held by high performing leadership teams was supporting others.This was defined in the research as:

“Leaders who are supportive understand and sense how other people feel. By showing authenticity and a sincere interest in those around them, they build trust and inspire and help colleagues to overcome challenges”.

Whether it‘s millennials or any other generation in the team, the research findings and insights shared in the 5 Drivers of Engagement white paper are congruent with McKinsey’s more recent research on the qualities of those in high performing leadership teams.

What’s is clear is that for leaders to engage talent they need to be supportive, showing they value their employees’ diversity and contribution, creating a safe and encouraging culture for all employees to work in and inspiring their people to give their best efforts.

3. Multipliers, Liz Wiseman.

Liz Wiseman, a former VP at Oracle, researched the positive and negative (multiplying and diminishing) behaviours of leaders across many global organisations, including Google, Disney, Apple, Nike and Facebook.

The research from her and her co-author Greg McKeown’s’ book called Multipliers, centred on ‘How the best leaders make everyone smarter’. The book identified the behaviours that great leaders had in contrast to the behaviours of those leaders who were seen as poor leaders.

Importantly, few leaders want to be talent diminishers but some are. These leaders are called accidental diminishers and they have behaviours that they don’t recognise are accidentally limiting the contribution of their teams.  The insights in Multipliers points out some key behaviours that disengage the contribution, motivation and performance of employees. It’s important for all of us to be aware of these behaviours when reflecting on our own leadership style.

“It isn’t how much you know that matters. What matters is how much access you have to what other people know. It isn’t just how intelligent your team members are; it is how much of that intelligence you can draw out and put to use.” – Liz Wiseman.

4. Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman; Emotional Capitalists, Dr Martyn Newman.

Every week we see references to emotional intelligence (EQ) and it’s importance in our lives, whether at home or at work.

For those leading people having high levels of EQ is essential for achieving high levels of employee engagement and improved organisational performance. 

Daniel Goleman’s pioneering book, Emotional Intelligence, is a great resource to use in the development of EQ in leadership at all levels. It emphasisies the importance of: Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Empathy, Motivation and Social Skills.

Dr Martyn Newman’s research on EQ highlights the importance of developing seven critical EQ skills to become a great leader at engaging both customers and employees. Based on 10 years of global research looking at successful business leaders, Dr Newman’s insights show leaders how they can drive productivity, increases resilience, build their EQ and grow their leadership skills.

The seven critical EQ skills identified are: Self-Reliance, Assertiveness, Optimism, Self-Actualization, Self-Confidence, Relationship Skills, and Empathy. 

While there are countless articles out there referencing EQ, both Daniel Goleman and Dr Martyn Newman are highly respected for their respective contributions to the field of EQ. The following link is a great discussion between the two of them in June 2017. It’s well worth the read. Interview with the Godfather of Emotional Intelligence – Dan Goleman.

• The important link here to engagement and performance is research shows that leaders who can best manage their own emotions and the emotions of others have the greatest impact on engaging with their employees. 
• Having an understanding of EQ is also a pre-requisite today for all leaders if they want to be effective influencers.

Research on neuro-leadershipalso confirms the impact that engagement has on an employee’s ability to solve problems, make decisions, stay cool under pressure, collaborate with others and deal with change.  We all want our employees to be good at these things!

A great read is David Rock’s book titled ‘Quiet leadership’ if you get the time. Another great read is an article by Andrea McEvoy published this month in Forbes Magazine ‘An agile leader is a self-aware leader’.

Leaders need to reflect on their own self-awareness and be aware of how others see and judge them. 

This is particularly important as they commence in new leadership roles. In a new role leaders are being observed and judged more acutely by their employees and peers. Bringing this to the attention of new leaders when they join your organisation or when they’re promoted into leadership, and reminding them through future leadership development opportunities, is important in setting them, their people and the business up for success.

To enable leaders to become more effective decision makers in your organisation you need to focus on high-impact business relevant leadership development activities. These will help leaders to:

•      Understand the organisation’s financial and other performance metrics;

•      Know the measures of success across the wider business functions;

•      Appreciate what the organisation’s strategy is and why certain decisions have been made to follow that strategy;

•      Know how to present a business cases to influence business decisions and lead change initiatives;

•      Develop an entrepreneurial mindset that seeks innovation and creative solutions to opportunities and organisational challenges.

Below are four high-impact leadership development initiatives I’ve implemented and seen be successful in developing the above knowledge and capabilities in leaders.

1. Encourage collaborative learning across your organisation with learning given by your leaders to your leaders.

Encourage and co-ordinate opportunities for leaders in different functions in your organisation to give short presentations on their business areas.

By presenting to their leadership peers leaders can educate each other on the functions, operational and commercial business drivers, financial and non-financial measures, key stakeholder relationships, current challenges, new opportunities, market dynamics and key customer requirements (internal and external) etc.

These presentations can be done periodically to new leaders with feedback and questioning and they can be streamed live or recorded as needed.

The benefits of growing cross functional understanding and building collaboration across your organisation helps break silo thinking, it builds trust and it improves decision making. A side benefit is it gives opportunity for leaders to present and build their credibility.

2. Connect senior executives with your leadership talent.

Creating opportunities for senior executive interaction by having interactive strategy discussion forums delivered great value. Leaders would come and listen to a small panel of invited senior executives talking about the organisation’s strategies, challenges ahead, new initiatives planned and answering any questions.  The need for the forums to be commercial-in-confidence and the trust displayed through the discussions also built engagement with the leaders present.

The opportunity for leaders to engage with senior leaders from across the organisation was invaluable in not only building networks, but it also helped grow strategic thinking and business awareness by giving insights into executive decision making.

It also helped leaders more fully understand the direction of the organisation. This had the affect of lifting their own engagement levels and helped them see the importance of their leadership contribution going forward.

Leaders who attended the sessions (they ran quarterly) returned to their business functions with a better understanding of how best to communicate back with their teams on the strategy and actions being taken at a higher level.

This helped ensure that at all levels, the link between what teams were contributing to the organisation’s vision, strategy and future success was better understood. This built confidence in the teams and greater engagement to the organisation.

3. Involve your leaders in the generation of innovative solutions through strategic challenge workshops and projects.

Diversity brings great value to an organisation, particularly when it comes to diverse thinking. In fact, the ability of your workforce to creatively find solutions that resolve problems and best exploit opportunities is one of your greatest competitive advantages. For this reason diversity and inclusion are areas I’m very passionate about.

So one powerful leadership development initiative for your organisation is to bring this leadership diversity together in small groups, from different functions and have them collaborate on identifying creative solutions to real business challenges and opportunities.

These can be on shorter time-frame workshops through to longer projects over a period of months. Having leaders work together identifying options for the organisation, linked to strategy and execution, capitalises on their diverse thinking and presents new solutions to improve organisational performance.

The best example I recall of this was a group of leaders with no cargo or aircraft technical experience who, after a project spanning months, made recommendations that influenced the head of the Cargo division’s decision (changed his then current thinking) on the planned aircraft type acquisition strategy. This changed the divisions investment in the future fleet, impacting the division’s performance for many years to come.

The leadership teams by presenting back their ideas and solutions to senior executives become more connected to the organisation and its future success. Leaders, through their participation, build credibility and stronger networks at peer level, building trust and stretching themselves to grow their strategic thinking capability.

4. Have short high-impact leadership development workshops.

Leaders have busy roles with accountability for delivering results. They can also be more cynical when it comes to leadership development, so you have to ensure they see value in giving time to keep developing. Leaders want to know “what’s in it for me”.

With this in mind, psychologically, leaders are going to be more open to a half day development workshop or a one-two hour update/learning session so they can, if needed, still invest some time back into their functional role later in the day. Yes morning is best and have some ‘teasers’ already communicated so leaders attending come open-minded to what they will get out of the time. If you can, for a workshop, have a senior executive come open the day with a short informal message to those attending, this also helps ensure everyone makes the start time.

Earlier I mentioned focusing on resources that I believe are great to help develop leaders in inspiring trust, driving engagement, maximising capability and growing their emotional intelligence. So these should be prioritised for workshops.

In addition, having specialists in your organisation or external guests share updates on global and market trends, customer and technology innovations, new software packages and Apps and any other updates or research potentially valuable in the workplace will all help your leaders be more agile, aware and contribute to improved decision making.

Mix attendees up from different parts of your organisation to capitalise on the benefits of diverse thinking and experiences. Always allow time for interaction between the leaders attending so they can build their collaborative networks and establish relationships leading to greater trust. 

Importantly, use technology smartly, to deliver, capture and share content and use physical and on-line collaboration tools to cascade the learning gained across all leaders.

Key Takeaways

• Focus must be on developing people leadership qualities so leaders can better influence, engage and develop their employees.
• Hand-in-hand, leaders must grow their organisational awareness, commercial acumen and strategic thinking to strengthen their decision-making.
• Both are critical components in any leadership development strategy to continually improve organisational performance.
• There are four essential people leadership qualities that must be developed. These are: building trust, influence and credibility across all working relationships; driving high levels of employee engagement; maximising the capability of the talent in teams; and growing leaders’ levels of emotional intelligence.
• Organisations can use their own resources supplemented by external input to deliver high-impact business relevant leadership development initiatives. Focus on encouraging collaborative learning across your organisation with learning given by your leaders to your leaders. Connect senior executives with your leadership talent and involve your diverse cadre of leaders in the generation of innovative solutions through strategic challenge workshops and projects.
• Have short high-impact leadership development workshops and use technology, physical and on-line collaboration tools to share and cascade the learning gained across all leaders in your organisation.

To achieve sustained organisational performance, prioritise the recruitment and promotion of high potential leaders who fit your culture. Inspire and develop them on what’s important for success and retain them. Investing in these strategic imperatives will deliver the highest ROI to your organisation.