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LEADERSHIP PERCEPTION
Leadership is the buzzword for the current generation of business owners – and every HR department in the country is primed to be on the look out for individuals capable of demonstrating powerful leadership skills to steer a business to commercial success.
However, before a company goes about recruiting staff who can exhibit strong leadership skills, it is important to define what constitutes leadership and, also, what are the core skills and
attributes that go towards making a real leader?
Definition of leadership
“The quality of leadership, more than any other single factor, determines the success or failure of an organisation” Fred Fiedler & Martin Chemers: Improving Leadership Effectiveness
“Leadership is all about people. It is not about organisations. It is not about plans. It is not about strategies. It is all about people motivating people to get the job done. You have to be people centred” Colin Powell (the first black Secretary of State in US history)
The above two quotes are representative of a myriad of purported defining statements which pinpoint what we mean by leadership. Joe Adams who runs seminars themed around the use of psychometric profiling to identify future business leaders and is a branch chairman of ACE (Academy for Chief Executives) and Director of EAGB (Executive Association of GB), defines leaders by two key characteristics: “firstly they are going somewhere and secondly, they are able to persuade other people to accompany them on the journey”.
Leadership Qualities
Although the above concept of leadership is clearly useful, senior HR professionals still need to know more. Essentially they need to identify exactly what qualities inspire confidence.
A study from a group of International chief executives examined the key components of employee satisfaction and found that trust and confidence in top leadership was the single most reliable predictor of employee satisfaction. When asked how trust and confidence had been gained, it was discovered that effective communication was deemed to be the key factor responsible. Joe Adams goes on to define additional defining factors which enable an individual to demonstrate sound leadership skills as follows:
Empower people
It’s not just about effective communication. The art of good leadership also entails a willingness by leaders to replace themselves by empowering people to lead directly.
Lecture less / listen more
Good leaders lecture less and listen more because they understand that, by being able to talk and contribute their own ideas, staff will have deeper insight, be more motivated and take real ownership of tasks. Further, good leaders will keep their people informed and ensure that all tasks are understood, supervised and accomplished. The best leaders will invest time in getting to know their people and will actively create conditions where people can share information and interact with others. The leader’s role is to help the team understand the overall goals to be achieved and to communicate his / her vision as to how to hit those objectives.
Be consistent
Inconsistency is not an option for an effective leader and is in fact the fastest route to losing the respect of your workforce. Making sound and timely decisions comes with the territory but so too does taking responsibility and, when things go wrong, not blaming others. Consequently, a good leader should always demonstrate a willingness to accept the need to ‘know ones self’ and to adopt a positive attitude to ongoing self-improvement.
Do, don’t just tell
“Lead by example and others will follow” is a phrase often used but it is a critical quality for any respected leader.
Identifying leaders
A recent influential survey reveals that 85% of senior management cite staff as a business’s most valuable asset. The survey - conducted by HR solutions business Success Dynamics - questioned CEOs, Managing Directors and Company owners on their existing views regarding “People Power” within the organization. In an economic climate where HR directors are keen to maximize their investment in human capital and refrain from incurring hefty recruitment costs unnecessarily, finding leaders is just one element of the challenge. The other fundamental requirement is learning how to keep them. This will be especially relevant during the so called credit crunch when businesses simply cannot afford to lose their key players or expend valuable management time seeking out replacements.
If staff in general represent a business’s most valuable asset, think then how much importance can be attributed to those members of the workforce that demonstrate strong leadership skills. But whether you are looking to appoint or simply retain leaders – what is the most effective strategy to adopt?
The answer to both lies in improving the company’s understanding of people and improving the way they work together, and one means to achieve this is by the implementation of psychometric profiling tools. The survey mentioned above highlights the growing interest in psychometric profiling to enhance a company’s recruitment process, with as many as 71% of respondents agreeing that their current recruitment practice could benefit from the use of this type of management tool.
Improved insight into both individual and team personality traits will enable a company to realise the true potential of existing staff and to nurture those demonstrating real leadership potential - as well as recognising the desired traits for future recruits to ensure the company’s continued success in identifying emerging talent. Just as important is the need to ensure that true leaders are given the opportunities to fulfil their potential by being placed in the right team environment to flex their leadership muscles. Psychometric profiling can often reveal personality traits that management observation alone may miss due to environmental, team or opportunity factors.
Joe Adams concludes “Leadership is not confined to the work place, which confirms that ultimately, leadership is about understanding people and recognising how to win the respect and trust of colleagues to encourage them to share the journey with you. Given this is the case, it makes absolute sense for HR Directors to invest in an enhanced understanding of his / her people (both existing and new recruits) and the way in which they work together if true leaders are to be identified and then given the opportunity to work their magic on the organisation”.
Sponsored by UK trade & investment. Available from www.ukinvest.gov.uk/ceobriefing