The 3 C’s of Leadership Development
With record numbers of people quitting their jobs, the mass exodus of Baby Boomers, and the current report that more than 10% of all leadership positions in organizations are currently vacant, there is an urgent demand for leadership development in all kinds of industries.
From the kinds of inquiries we get each week, we’ve realized that most organizations are not approaching leadership development in a strategic way. They are looking for coaching or courses without a real plan for how they will roll them out, what they expect the benefit to be, or who is ultimately responsible for them.
Here are the three C’s of leadership development which are necessary BEFORE you actually begin any development approach:
1. Culture
2. Communication
3. Coaching
Note: It may take a year or more to get these things in place, but it is time well-spent if you want your leadership development efforts to be successful.
1. Culture
For decades organizations in the US have had a “top-down” culture. There are natural progressions from individual contributor, to manager of others, to leaders of departments, divisions and more. For organizations to be successful going forward, however, leadership is less of a position and more of a capability.
This is a significant change in thinking, in practice, and in organizational culture. And organization’s (and society for that matter) do not change their cultures quickly.
The leader’s role now is to develop others. The perspective must shift to “How far can this person go? What can I help him/her achieve?” rather than “What skills do they currently have and do they serve a specific purpose?”
The pandemic has brought this shift to light more quickly. With so many individuals working from home without direct “supervision,” everyone is essentially leading themselves; and for everyone to be successful (the individual and the organization as a whole) they need the ability to grow their capabilities in many ways, with their leader’s support.
Bottom line: Organizations need to shift their culture from control-and-command to guide-and-support.
2. Communication
The next critical practice is communicating - not only communicating the shift in culture but constantly, loudly, reinforcing it. The shift in thinking and practice must cascade from the top of the organization to the bottom. Not only do managers need to know what is expected of them, but employees need to know what to expect of their managers.
This is not a fast process. Much like in marketing, where the maxim is that someone needs to hear or see your ad at least 7 times before it even “registers,” you’ll need to keep communicating the role of the leader is to develop his/her employees.
Additionally, you’ll need to explain why this shift is happening. When everyone does better, the organization itself does better. Increased capabilities means increased creativity, productivity, and agility – all of which contribute to increased profitability. When individuals are supported to grow within a company, it is easier to retain (and recruit) employees. You pick the “positioning” which would work best for your organization and stick to it.
Bottom line: Expect to explain and reiterate your message over the course of a few years. There is a quote from (former) President Obama in which he stated his biggest surprise about being president was how much he had to repeat himself.
3. Coaching
Coaching is a skill that needs to be imbued in all managers because it is the only way that a culture of developing others will come to fruition. BUT FIRST the organization must commit to a culture of developing every employee to be able to do their best work (#1), then that commitment must be communicated and reinforced (#2), and finally, the skills to fulfill the commitment can be taught to the managers who will actually make it happen.
Coaching is a time-intensive approach to managing because it requires really getting to know one’s employees and investing time in regular 1:1 conversations with each individual. By developing deeper and more personal relationships with one’s employees, you begin to understand who is more analytical and who is more social…which leads you to be able to identify “perfect fit” roles and development opportunities for them. If you have children you get this concept – every child has a different personality, different skills, different passions, different things that make them “tick.” You only know this because you spend so much time with them. And, because you want the best for them, you help them to pursue and develop their capabilities.
Bottom line: It is the managers in your organization who will truly develop your future leaders – not classes or curriculums.
For companies to be successful in the fourth industrial revolution, it is imperative that “leadership capabilities” are present throughout the organization; this will only come to fruition through an intentional culture of developing others and a reskilling of today’s managers to be proficient in coaching.
Note: This article first appeared on LinkedIn 12/10/21
Gearing Up for Leadership Development
Things sure are different, aren't they?
- working from home is no longer a “perk”
- companies are truly embracing “our employees are our greatest asset”
- 2 million more boomers retired in 2020 than predicted or expected
- HR has found its seat at the table
There is no such thing as “average” or “normal” or “trivial” these days.
Which means….
The way you approach leadership development in your organization is in flux as well.
Unfortunately, a lot of companies and business leaders are avoiding having this conversation.
Why?
- they believe it is cumbersome to undertake
- they believe it is a financial sink-hold
- they are too focused on “todays’ crisis” to worry about the one barreling towards them tomorrow
Does this resonate with you? You're not alone.
👏 THE GOOD NEWS IS - we have a 3-day challenge this month that can help you get started.
Join us for the three-day (30 minutes each day) Gearing Up For Leadership Development Challenge - September 21, 22, & 23 at 3:00pm EST.
💡 Just imagine the peace and confidence you’ll have knowing your future leaders…
- can problem solve
- make critical decisions
- are adaptable to change
- communicate clearly and with purpose
- have self-management skills
and more….
❔ (BTW, why do we call these “leadership skills?” why wouldn’t we want everyone to have these skills?)
Would it benefit YOUR organization to have future-leaders with these skills?
What about ALL your employees? After all, a rising tide lifts all boats.
When you join us for just 30-minutes a day, September 21, 22 and 23, we’ll cover:
Day 1 - Who will be your future leaders - GenX? Millennials? GenZ?
Each generation has a different leadership style - and will shape your culture differently - who is right for your organization?
Day 2 - What skills do your future leaders need?
According to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report (October 2020) more than ¾’s of the skills employees need by 2025 will be soft skills – not technical skills!
And in a December 2020 publication from Deloitte, titled Diving Deeper, Five Workforce Trends to Watch in 2021, the senior executives polled said employees “doing new work” and “increasing capacity” are at the top of their list of immediate concerns.
Less and less we need people who “can do,” and more and more people who “can think.”
Day 3 – Three Keys to Designing the Perfect Leadership Development Process
One of the things (perhaps THE thing) that stops most business owners and leaders from beginning leadership in their own organization is the belief that this is a BIG endeavor.
It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, organic development that is integrated with people’s real-world work responsibilities is 1000X’s more effective and economical (because people actually “get it”) AND it returns immediate ROI so there’s no “hoping this pays off in the long run.”
All you have to do to join the challenge is follow us on Facebook OR LinkedIn and join-in on September 21, 22, & 23 at 3pm EST every day.
See you there!
Guest Blog: Leadership is Not a Title – It’s a Conduct
Linking leadership behavior to a job title is a misconception. You do not need a title to behave in a way that is admirable by all.
Leadership is not linked to a job role, a function, a department or an industry. Everyone should adopt leadership behavior and conduct themselves in a just, honest and supportive manner. Leadership cannot be claimed neither, it is awarded to you by those around you.
There are many examples of good leadership vs bad leadership.
Let me share an old war story of a general and his soldiers. Legend has it that a man riding on a horseback came up on a battlefield and saw exhausted soldiers digging defense trenches while their commanding officer barked orders and threatened punishment if they did not complete the job in time.
The man on horseback asked the commander why he was not helping the soldiers dig if the work was that important, to which the commander replied: “I’m in charge! The men do as I tell them. Help them yourself if you feel so strongly about it”.
To the surprised of everyone, the man dismounted from his horse and helped the soldiers dig side by side until the job was completed. He then congratulated the soldiers for a job well done and approached the puzzled commander. The man said: “Next time your rank prevents you from supporting your men, you are to notify top command and they will provide a more permanent solution”. Upon a closer look, the commander recognized the man as General George Washington
Take a moment to imagine with me that kind of leadership replicated throughout an organization. What type of organization will it be? What would it feel like to work in such an organization and do business with its employees?
A successful organization is one where all employees embrace and breath the same leadership air into their lungs, regardless of job titles. For this to happen, the board of directors and executives need to walk the leadership talk.
We cannot expect an individual to excel in all leadership competencies from day one. Rather, skills are developed over time, as a leader continues to strengthen their leadership muscle.
Guest blog, penned by Awatif Yahya, founder of AWE Horizons, LLC
The Biggest Mistake in Leadership Development is...
The biggest mistake in leadership development is waiting to do it.
Too may (all?) organizations wait until they promote someone to a leadership position and then start to apply leadership development. And that’s for the lucky folks. Most organizations don’t offer any kind of development to their new leaders and instead let them struggle to figure it out all on their own. I know that’s what happened to me the first time I was promoted to a managerial role. I was flattered that the organization thought I had the potential to lead a department of eight at the tender age of 25, but then I panicked because the only “training” I had was modeling the good leaders I had had in my life and anti-modeling (yep, I made up a new word) the bad ones. I was flying by the seat of my pants. This was especially terrifying because at least two of my employees were old enough to be my mother.
This approach is really unfair to the individual and detrimental to the organization.
There are plenty of things we learn through the school of hard knocks – not to speed through a yellow light, not to cheat on an exam, not to lie on our resume… and most of the time the only person we hurt is ourselves.
Often, in the midst of the pain, we’ll think, “If only someone had warned me…” But in the workplace, there are other individuals that are impacted when a new leader is rattling around trying to find their footing. And without good guidance, new, unskilled managers can really do damage.
Don’t know the difference between constructive and critical feedback? Perhaps you’ll figure it out when your employees start to defect. Don’t recognize your personal bias in a performance review? The HR department can bring you up to speed when one of your employees lodges a complaint. Think it’s OK to hang with the boys (but not the women) after hours? Lesson learned. Lesson learned. Lesson learned.
What’s truly unfair to the new leader is that the organization is expecting him/her to also take on new functional responsibilities like scheduling, project planning, budgeting, and more. This is too much to ask of a new leader all at once – to be functionally responsible for a department and to change their behavior at the same time. As a training and development professional for decades, I know that the hardest thing to “train” someone to do is to change their behavior. Yet organizations consistently drop the ball on shaping individuals’ leadership behaviors early on.
This is detrimental to the organization as well because when push comes to shove, the new manager will need to focus on their functional responsibilities – it is what they will be judged on after all; and in all likelihood, it is what got them promoted in the first place. So without a focus on leadership and interpersonal skills early in one’s career, there is a lot of heavy lifting that is required of a new leader – and any failings impact both the individual and the organization.
The Solution is Early Leadership Development
In a perfect world, leadership development would begin the moment a new employee walks in the company’s door. They would be handed their HR paperwork and a development plan for the next 3 to 5 years. Not only would this approach benefit the organization by ensuring everyone has “baseline skills” (of your choosing) such as business writing, giving and receiving feedback, understanding how the company makes (and keeps) money, and more, but think of the impression made on the new hire! “Wow. This company is investing in me from day one? Amazing!”
In today’s business environment, a need for and a confidence in employee’s self-leadership skills is critical. I’ve seen a number of articles lately that discuss company’s monitoring their employees while they are working at home. This seems perfectly reasonable if your company has not set and trained for a certain standard of behavior. It’s like trusting your child to stay home alone for the first time. The parent who hasn’t trained for good decision making and responsibility is a lot more worried than the parent who has.
In the long-term, the company that has trained for leadership skills at the start of their employees’ careers will have a ready and capable pipeline of leaders who can fully focus on their functional responsibilities because their leadership abilities are standard-operating-procedure by the time they are promoted.
At The Training Doctor we specialize in preparing your employees for future leadership roles. Apply early and often, for best results. Give us a call to discuss your needs. It never hurts to ask… is another truism my mother taught me.
Three Keys to Develop Leadership Skills - for Small and Medium Sized Businesses
Developing leadership skills is often an afterthought at small and medium-sized companies.
When companies start-up, and then launch into growth, there is little time to think about how the company will sustain itself long-term – survival is the immediate focus. Once things are humming along smoothly, many company founders begin to relax their control and would like to enjoy the fruits of their labor but then realize there are few other leaders in the organization because they haven’t thought to groom them.
Thus begins a period of attempting to promote leaders from within or hiring potential leaders from outside the organization; rarely does either approach work well. When potential leaders – who have not been groomed to ascend in the organization – are promoted, they often lack the full complement of skills needed to lead because the owner / founder has been filling the decision-making role(s) for so long. As a point of pride, rarely does a newly appointed leader admit they are in over their head or ask for more support from the owner / founder. Instead, these leaders often leave within the first year of their appointment.
When more fully capable leaders are brought in from outside the organization, they may find they are butting heads with the owner / founder because they are introducing new ways of working – informed from their external experience. Leaders brought in from outside the organization often fail faster than internal candidates, frequently leaving organizations in a matter of months. A 2019 study conducted by PriceWaterhouse Coopers found that successors to long-serving CEOs have short tenures and are often forced out of office. (Here is a recent example from AutoNation who replaced an “outsider” CEO after only four months.)
Every small or medium-sized business owner / founder should have a needlepoint sampler in their office that reads “The true mark of my success is to be able to walk away from this business and for it to continue to thrive.” Adopting that mindset early on enables future leaders to be brought up from within the organization. This is the best scenario because they have organizational knowledge and relationships with others in the organization.
If you hope to exit your business without having to sell or close it, here are three ways to ensure you build a capable leadership pipeline.
First, begin leadership development earlier rather than later. Think of youngsters who begin T-ball at age five. There is no telling who among them will be a star athlete come high school or who will go on to a college or professional career; but rarely will one begin softball / baseball as a high schooler and go on to great success. When the skills and responsibilities are taught early and practiced for a decade or more, it is more apparent who is capable of further success.
Second, include everyone in leadership development opportunities. Don’t presume to know who among your workers will be a future leader – assume everyone will be. This will ensure you are more egalitarian about leadership development and, in the long run, will help your organization the most. Central to this approach is ensuring that there is a mix of learners in every offering. For example, a course on feedback skills should include individuals from all departments and all levels within the organization. This comingling nurtures relationships among everyone in the organization (a key capability of a leader) and enables every one – in every role – to be capable of giving back to the organization. Continuing with the sports analogy, when every new player is nurtured with the assumption that they are capable of becoming a stellar athlete, some will demonstrate a natural talent or drive to move to the “senior-leader team,” but everyone on the team will have increased their capabilities.
As an example, consider Tom Brady’s career vs. Johnny Manziel’s. One was a ninth-round draft pick and the other a Heisman Trophy winner. One went on to a stellar career and one flamed out after two seasons in the NFL. Presuming who will be a leader is often a losing proposition – in sports and in business.
Finally, don’t make the development of leadership skills another “thing” people have to do. Integrate skills development with real-world responsibilities. For instance, if a department holds weekly meetings, rotate the responsibility for facilitating the meeting. Why must the leader of the meeting always be the manager? Everyone should be able to follow an agenda, keep conversations on-topic, summarize decisions, and make sure action items are claimed. This type of development ensures that when one does become a leader, they already possess the ability to manage a meeting. There are a myriad of other skills which can be developed in this way, without an onerous (and often contrived) training process.
In order to develop the skills of your organization’s future leaders, make a list of the ten skills you feel are critical to success, such as communication, an understanding of financials, customer service, etc., and identify ways to work the development of these skills into everyday work responsibilities. Assume everyone has the ability to lead, start early in people’s careers, and do formal training in mixed groups so that people can build relationships throughout the organization. These simple but important steps will help to ensure a ready and capable leadership pipeline for any organization.
Note: This article was previously published by Forbes.com.
Helping Small and Medium-sized Businesses to Prepare for the Next-Era of Leadership
Free 4-day Event
Every business - small to supersized - has changed significantly since the start of 2020.
Leadership teams are turned upside down.
Companies are being forced to downsize, right-size, and sometimes capsize.
Your company’s future depends on having strong a leadership plan in place as you adapt to the workforce that lies ahead.
We are here to help, with a series of leadership conversations. All FREE.
Meet with fellow business people, hear from experts with long tenures in developing organizational leaders, ask the questions you need answered.
Check out our roster of speakers
Patricia Carl
June 3 3:00 pm EST
Re-imagining / Redesigning Your Leadership Team
Patricia Carl has 20+ years’ experience in Human Resource leadership for both private and public companies, across multiple industries. As President of Highland Performance Solutions, she coaches and consults with executives in order to help them build high-performing teams.
Lee Eisenstaedt
June 10 3:00 pm EST
What Skills Are Needed in the Next 3 - 5 Years?
Lee has been the Chief Operating Officer of a number of top companies included 22 years with the SC Johnson family of companies in the U.S. and Western Europe.
Lee has authored four books, co-authored one, and is a frequent contributor to Forbes.com
Jeff Harmon
June 17 3:00 pm EST
The 5C Method to Create Sustainable and Scalable Leadership Development
Jeff Harmon has over 20 years of experience building relationships to equip and mobilize leaders to achieve their most important goals.
He helps company leaders to identify their strengths as well as the strengths of their team.
He is the author of “Become a Better Leader, 10 Minutes at a Time.”
Nanette Miner, Ed.D.
June 24 3:00 pm EST
Creating a Master Plan for Leadership Development
Dr. Nanette Miner founded The Training Doctor in 1991 to help organizations to grow and thrive by a developing worker capabilities. She is on a mission to help organizations to sustain their success through developing their future leaders from the moment they walk in the door.
It's Time for All Hands on Deck
Many companies are going to find themselves with a different leadership landscape when business is able to resume and employees are able to return to work.
In addition to the usual pressures of competition and the relentless pace of technology, I predict that many companies are going to experience a shift in their leadership roster either because the Boomers (and some GenX), who were close to retirement decided “enough is enough,” and choose not to come back to work after the Covid-19 crisis, or because organizations will have to greatly reduce their workforces as they come back online, and the easiest way to downsize and remain solvent is to not bring back the more experienced, higher-salaried personnel.
So what can an organization do to identify its future leaders and successfully return to profitability?
Identify Successors
If your organization faces the situation where senior leaders choose to retire, ask those individuals to identify their replacements. They will have the most knowledge regarding who on their team is capable of taking the reins. It’s a good idea to also ask the self-selected retiree if they would come back for three or four months to ease the transition.
If you are choosing to let the senior leader go, again, ask them who on their team would be most capable of stepping up. Also ask them for the top three to five priorities for their department, at this time. This will enable you to pass this knowledge on to the next leader and also allow you to keep track of the priorities yourself.
Begin Mentoring
The best-case-scenario would have been for your company to utilize mentoring already, but if that is not the case, begin a mentoring program immediately. You need a way to transmit institutional knowledge as well as business acumen from more seasoned workers to the younger ones, and the best way to do that is through personal relationships that can adapt immediately to changing pressures.
Circulate a Skills Assessment
Now is the time for all-hands-on-deck; trouble is, most organizations have become so silo’d that they don’t know what individuals are capable of doing (vs. what they are being paid to do, today). Start with a simple survey using Google forms or a subscription survey tool, if your company has one. You’ll want to be able to collect individual responses – not aggregate responses. Ask for name, email, phone number, department, current role (e.g. marketing / graphic designer), and the top 5 skills (fill in the blank) they use in their current role. THEN ask them for 5 additional skills they are capable of deploying. You may find your graphic designer is also great at copy editing or has experience in SEO. To really get the most from this assessment, also ask each individual what soft skills they excel at – because leadership capability is heavily dependent on soft-skills.
If your company comes back online with a reduced workforce, this assessment will enable you to move people around, if necessary, rather than simply eliminating a role based on its title.
This article is admittedly practical and how-to. It does not venture into the best ways to have these conversations or the need for empathy and compassion at this time. It is purely focused on the organization as an entity.
Leadership Pipeline Assessment
If you’d like to assess what your organization’s current leadership pipeline looks like (and indicates for your future) click on the Leadership Pipeline Assessment, at the top of the screen, in the blue bar. It contains 13 questions and will only take about a minute to complete.
Mea Culpa - Is it really better to ask for forgiveness?
The number of “apology ads” I’ve seen on TV in the last month is astounding. It’s caused me to wonder – as a company, is it really better to ask for forgiveness from your customers than to do the right thing, or behave the right way, to begin with? Is the message we are learning “do your own thing, until you get caught, and then apologize and carry on as usual?”
Wells Fargo is apologizing for violating our trust by opening over 2 million fake accounts in order to hit their sales goals. One of their ads (seen here) begins by saying “We know the value of trust…” later in the commercial they promise they are “holding ourselves accountable to find and fix issues proactively…” Finally, they declare that they are halting the business process (sales goals for branches) that caused the bad-behavior in the first place.
Facebook apologized for unknowingly allowing the personal information of tens of millions of users to be leaked and/or manipulated by advertising; possibly impacting the 2016 US elections. In their apology ads the company says it will do “more” to make you feel safe and protect your privacy.”
In Uber’s apology ad, the new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi , looks straight in to the camera and says “we have new leadership and a new culture.” He states that as a company, “one of our values is to always do the right thing.” Is that a new thing, which started with you, Dara? Or was that always in place but now you’ll take it seriously?
Apologies that Miss the Mark
Wells Fargo stating it has ended the business process that caused the “problem” is simply addressing the symptom – what is the root cause of an organization that is unethical, views cheating as necessary to maintain one’s job, and has little regard for its customers?
In the case of Facebook and Uber, their ads don’t even really claim responsibility; they simply say “Oops, something went south. We’ll fix it.” And Uber’s “responsible CEO” made no appearance at all – they sent out the new guy to apologize for past transgressions.
Here’s Rolling Stone’s take on the limp apologies:
Hi, America. We were awesome for a long time. Here are some culturally representative shots of people like you smiling and enjoying our services. After repeated denials, we recently had to admit to violating your trust, but the unelucidated bad thing doesn’t have to come between us. We promise: we fixed [all] that. You will now wake up feeling refreshed in 3,2,1…
The Burning Question
What role did leadership play in creating these damages in the first place? And what role could leadership development play to get these companies back on track? Teaching individuals to be better leaders after the fact is not the best approach; what about the future leaders of these companies? When does their development begin? And more broadly, of course, the future leaders of any company, because a scandal or business transgression could indeed happen to any company.
Go Forward
A multi-faceted leadership development curriculum – offered over the long-term, to everyone in the organization – would benefit from a groundswell of workers who understand ethics, risk, team work, communication, self-management and more. If companies are not solely reliant on leaders to set the course, then everyone is a leader. That’s what we need going forward.
Much ado about Leadership, er, Management, no, Leadership - what's the difference?
We've seen three articles recently that have taken up the "leadership" vs. "management" controversy and, in particular, the role that training plays in this "battle."
According to Paul Glover, in The Changing Face of Training,
"Statistics show that 50% of all front line managers who are promoted to the next level fail at that new job, and some even return to their previous lower-level positions. They fail because they don't have the training to be a manager instead of a worker. Sure, they may receive training on machinery or processes, but soft skills - the ability to communicate, supervise, and work in a team - get overlooked."
And Sebastian Bailey, President of Mind Gym Inc., says,
"Businesses tend to over-invest in leadership and concentrate on developing leaders but not managers."(HR Magazine, August 2012)
Finally, Michael Leimbach and Barb Taruscio of Wilson Learning, state,
"What's the difference between consistently successful companies and those that fail? To sustain success through good times and bad takes more than good products and marketing and finances - these are necessary but not sufficient. To pull these elements together and outperform the competition year after year requires great leadership. This is the one asset that makes all the difference: leaders with imagination, know-how, and highly effective management skills to encourage, inspire, and elicit high performance from a well-trained workforce." (Training Magazine, July / August 2012)
These authors go on to describe successful companies as driven by leaders "who have both Form (the skill and knowledge to produce results) and Essence (character to inspire and lead with values and clarity of purpose).
Perhaps it's time to assess your management (or leadership) development curriculum and see which way you lean? It seems it is not simply a matter of semantics. Each of the quoted authors makes a distinct point that management and leadership require different skills. Does one encompass the other? Can one learn one without the other? Is it possible to be a successful company with one set of skills but lacking in the other? All good questions to ask of your organization's current leadership and to contemplate when dissecting your current management / leadership curriculum.
This just in!
Recent findings released by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the United Kingdom reveal that three-quarters of employers report a lack of leadership and management skills in their organizations. Bill Willmott, head of public policy at CIPD states, as a potential cause, "Too many employees are promoted into people management roles because they have good technical skills, then receive inadequate training and have little idea of how their behavior affects others."