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Leadership Development – A Strategic Need?

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Leadership is vital for any organization’s sustained success. A great leader at top makes a big difference to his or her organization. Everyone will concur with these statements. Experts in human resources field mention the importance of leaders at all levels, and not just that of the leadership at the top. Rightly so. It is not without reason that companies like 3M, Proctor & Gamble, GE, Coca Cola, HSBC etc. have known to put in place processes for developing leaders continuously.

Mention this subject, however, to a line manager, or to a sales manager, or any executive in most organizations and you will probably deal with diffident responses.

Leadership development -a strategic need?

The subject of leadership is dealt with in a general way by many organizations. Leadership is usually understood in terms of personal attributes such as charisma, communication, inspiration, dynamism, toughness, instinct, etc., and not in terms what good leaders can do for their  organizations.  Developing leaders falls in HR domain. Budgets are framed and outlays are used with indicators like training hours per employee per year. Whether the good intentions behind the training budgets get translated into actions or not, is not monitored.

Such leadership development outlays, that are based on only good intentions and general ideas about leadership, get axed in bad times and get extravagant during good times. If having great or good leaders at all levels is a strategic need, as the above top companies demonstrate and as many leading management experts assert, why do we see such a stop and go approach?

Why is there skepticism about leadership development programs?

The first reason is that expectations from good (or great) leaders are not defined in operative terms and in ways in which the outcomes can be verified.

Leaders are expected to ‘achieve’ many things. They are expected to turn laggards into high performers, turn around companies, charm customers, and dazzle media. They are expected to perform miracles. These expectations remain just wishful thinking. These desired outcomes can not be used to provide any clues about gaps in leadership skills and development needs.

Absence of a comprehensive and generic (valid in diverse industries and conditions) framework for defining leadership means that leadership development efforts are scattered and inconsistent in nature. Inconsistency gives bad name to leadership development programs. This breeds cynicism (these fads come and go….) and resistance to every new initiative. This is the second reason why the objectives of leadership development are often not met.

The third reason is in the methods used for leadership development. Leadership development programs rely upon a combination of lectures (e.g. on subjects like team building, communications), case studies, and group exercises (problem solving), and some inspirational talks by top business leaders or management gurus.

Sometimes the programs consist of outdoor or adventure activities for helping people bond better with each other and build better teams. These program generate ‘feel good’ effect and in some cases participants ‘return’ with their personal action plans. But in majority of cases they fail to capitalize on the efforts that have gone in. I must mention leadership coaching in the passing. In the hands of an expert coach a willing executive can improve his leadership skills dramatically. But leadership coaching is too expensive and inaccessible for most executives and their organizations.

Leadership -a competitive advantage

During my work as a business leader and later as a leadership coach, I found that it is useful to define leadership in operative terms. When leadership is defined in terms of what it does and in terms of capabilities of a person, it is easier to assess and develop it.

When leadership skills defined in the above manner are present at all levels, they impart a distinct capability to an organization. This capability gives a competitive advantage to the organization. Organizations with a pipeline of good leaders have competitive advantages over other organizations, even those with great leaders only at the top. The competitive advantages are:

1. They (the organizations) are able to solve problems quickly and can recover from mistakes fast.

2. They have excellent horizontal communications. Things (processes) move faster.

3. They tend to be less busy with themselves . Therefore they have ‘time’ for outside people. (Over 70% of internal communications are about reminders, error corrections etc . They are wasteful)

4. Their staff (indirects) productivity is high. This is one of the toughest management challenges.

5. They are good at heeding to signals related to quality, customer complaints, shifts in market conditions and customer preferences. This leads to good and useful bottom-up communication. Top leaders tend to have less number of blind spots in such organizations.

6. It is easier to roll out programs for strategic shift and also for improving business processes (using six sigma, TQM, etc.). Good bottom-up communications improve top-down communications too.

7. They require less ‘supervision’, since they are strongly rooted in values.

8. They are better at preventing catastrophic failures.

Expectations from good and effective leaders should be set out clearly. The leadership development programs should be selected to develop leadership skills that can be verified in operative terms. Since leadership development is a strategic need, there is a need for clarity about the above aspects.

Hemant Karandikar advises companies on business & brand strategy, on business transformation, and for achieving breakthroughs in business processes. He leverages this expertise in product creation projects for companies along with his design associates. He coaches business leaders and executives for developing leadership skills. Hemant founded Exponient Consulting and Learning Leadership.

Project Execution through Successful Leadership: How to Lead Like a Fighter Pilot

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Article by James D. Murphy

Practicing successful leadership seems fairly simple – one acquires the positional authority to lead, and does so by influencing or guiding others. But too often, “leaders” assume that just because they’ve achieved total project execution under their guidance that they deserve the title. To be sure, leadership is a concept measured by benchmarked success and achievements, but it is also a long-term manifestation of your actions and influence upon others. While innate values and personal characteristics lend themselves heavily toward the development of a leader, these traits do not primarily form the core of a true leader.

In military aviation, fighter pilots work within a high-risk environment where there is zero tolerance for error in project execution, or better said mission accomplishment. The occupational health and safety of the pilots in the cockpit and ground crew rely upon a commitment to excellence and full communication throughout all levels of an operation. It is through successful leadership that the field of military aviation experiences one of the lowest error rates in any high-risk operation. Leadership throughout all levels not only communicates with and trains team members through a planning and debriefing process, but they also follow through with precision during project execution, and then work to identify improvements or root causes of error during a debriefing. When you are engaged throughout an operation, inspire others to improve upon their own actions, and exhibit behaviors that others deem valuable and seek to emulate, you are acting in a manner that defines true leadership.

Leadership is a Function of Your Behavior

Leadership by example is the most effective component of becoming a true leader. While the principles of business management are successful for directing a team toward a projected goal, ‘direction’ is not entirely the end-goal of true leadership initiatives. Successful leadership is about inspiration, and providing others with the ideas and tools necessary for crafting one’s own path to success – not merely prescribing a list of steps to follow and check off for one-off project execution. When considering the differences between leadership and management, it is important to note that successful leadership is evidenced by the provision of a transparent framework based upon good communication and full collaboration. In this way, each member of a team stays on the same page throughout an initiative and all participants reach a common goal.

A process of planning and debriefing is an essential action exhibited by leaders. When a leader fully communicates a plan of action and methods to execute this action to his or her team members, the group is prepared for success in a project. Execution through planning only covers the foreseeable obstacles, however, and leaders must additionally address contingencies. Essentially, successful leadership is not about micromanaging and assigning tasks for estimated results – it is about equipping a team with the focus and support necessary to flawlessly execute a task.

Indicators of Successful Leadership

Leadership is something developed over many years, through direct experience with a team and success in guiding individuals through a full-term mission, problem, or project execution. Again, indicators of successful leadership begin by examining one’s own personal actions. Are you exhibiting behaviors that others deem valuable and want to emulate? Strong teams are built upon trust, and leadership is dependent upon displaying forthrightness and is maintained with actions and words.

Additionally, setting the example is a key component of one’s leadership skills. Are you yourself successful in production and accomplishment, and do people tend to follow your example of being punctual and precise? Does project execution run flawlessly under your guidance, and does your team trust your decisions? Do you embody the qualities that you would want in a leader? The “Golden Rule” also applies when assuming the role of a leader – always lead others as you would want to be led by someone else. Drawing again upon the introductory thought to this article – many “leaders” think they are deserving of that title simply because they guide people to an end goal. Even if a project was flawlessly executed, it is not only the end result that defines the critical aspects of leadership; it is the thoughts and actions one employs in order to communicate with a team, identify and prepare critical actions, and execute through communication and teamwork.

Overall, leadership is more than just a word or a title. It is more than achieving a goal and calling yourself a “leader”. It is instead the long-term ability to encompass all of these elements: being engaged with your thoughts and actions, performing in a manner that encourages others to emulate your behavior, and inspiring others to improve upon their own actions.

James D. Murphy, the founder and CEO of Afterburner, Inc., has a unique, powerful mix of leadership skills in both the military and business worlds. After graduating from the University of Kentucky, Murphy joined the U.S. Air Force where he learned to fly the F-15. He has logged over 1,200 hours as an instructor pilot in the F-15 and has accumulated over 3,200 hours of flight time in other high-performance jet aircraft and has flown missions to Central America, Asia, Central Europe and the Middle East. As Afterburner’s leadership keynote speaker, Murphy has helped top business leaders transform strategy into action. Realizing that the concepts of the Flawless Execution(SM) model could be applied to business process improvement, he engaged the proven model – “Plan. Brief. Execute. Debrief.” Through his leadership, Afterburner has landed on Inc. Magazine’s “Inc. 500 List” twice. Murphy has been regularly featured in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Newsweek. For more information on Afterburner, Inc., please visit www.afterburner.com.










CSU Fresno Craig School of Business eMBA 215 ETHICAL AND REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT IN BUSINESS Professor Ida M. Jones Textbook: Managers and the Legal Environment – Strategies for the 21st Century – Authors Bagley and Savage (chapter 21) executive-compensation.pbwiki.com // created at animoto.com

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