jul 07 - leadership

Kasmin Cooney, Managing Director, discusses her thoughts on leadership.

Leadership

What is "engaging leadership"? How can it be defined?

There are many diverse definitions of leadership and generally speaking these have not changed much over the centuries. Engaging leadership requires a leader to have clear vision and the ability to communicate the vision to others. Effective leaders also have the ability to motivate others to embrace the vision, to move towards it and to live it to its conclusion. Innovation and the courage to move in unfamiliar territory are also hallmarks of good leaders.

Many leadership gurus’ state that engaging leaders also need sound business structures and frameworks around them in order to succeed. Whilst this is usually the case, we must not forget those entrepreneurs who have built substantial organisations where the conventional frameworks ceased to exist. It has been the vision and the ability to motivate others which has contributed to the achievement of success.

One thing that good leaders do have in common is values. These will differ from leader to leader; nonetheless, a leader and those around them need to have shared values to form a strong foundation that unites them.

One could argue that some historical leaders have had values that were less than desirable! The important thing is that both leaders and those that follow need to be in tune with each other.

Is Leadership a common form of training? E.g. already established or becoming more popular…

Over the last twenty years we have seen a lot of different trends in development. For example telephone techniques in the mid 1980’s, assertiveness and time management followed in the 90’s. The last eight to ten years have definitely seen an increase in the focus on leadership development.

What are Leadership's benefits?

Leadership training enables people to appreciate the difference between management and leadership. It generates focus and a motivation to see the leadership role as essential.

Generally a good leadership programme will encourage people to be more deliberate and self aware in their daily activity and to encourage leaders to ‘project’ their vision more clearly. Leaders will become aware of the positive traits that are essential and be able to compare their own natural inclinations with the ideal. Where there is a shortfall, knowing what is missing and why, is essential and will encourage people to develop and raise the bar.

How can "engaging" traits be acquired through leadership training? Could you name some key traits?

Traits that can be development through a comprehensive leadership development programme may include:

Awareness / processes to develop an interest in other people and a realisation that other peoples’ ambitions are also important
Awareness of the contribution that all individuals can make – everyone has potential to some level
Skills to influence
Awareness of the importance of being dependable and consistent
Awareness of the need to be trustworthy, positive and optimistic
Communication skills
Process and awareness of how to manage complex situations
Skills and processes to enable the leader to communicate complex situations simply to other people
Skills / awareness to develop the leader as a teacher
Awareness of values and value sharing
Awareness of the need not to trample on other people’s values
Skills / processes to communicate and deal with change within the organisation

Is leadership coaching a key part of this approach?

Ideally yes. The ideal blend is a modular leadership programme, for example three or four, two day modules with coaching to support the leader following each module. This ensures that leaders integrate each of the different leadership areas not just into their busy schedules but also into their thinking.

How can Leadership development help employees interact with each other / their company?

It helps people to live the company vision, be more of a part of achieving that vision and engages people to change and to be more active within the organisation. I strongly believe leadership development gives an individual leader permission to be stronger and more effective than they ever thought possible. When someone is promoted into a management position, they often do not see themselves as a leader, only a manager. Effective development takes the lid off and lets the potential out.

Leaders in turn encourage this process in their own teams.

What attributes does Leadership promote in employees?

Better communication of the vision with more focus on achieving that vision
Improved influencing skills – essential for internal / external use
Better communication skills which often get cascaded throughout the organisation
Higher levels of motivation
Improved organisational skills with an improvement of focussing on priorities (to achieve the vision)
Improved self awareness of the need to self evaluate and develop
More unity of working groups or functions within the organisation
More involvement and engagement of the general workforce through being informed and feeling part of the vision and action
People feeling more valued – resulting in higher levels of motivation

Why should companies invest in leadership training?

Organisations and individuals can become very stagnant and almost operate on auto-pilot completing a series of processes and procedures according to the calendar and time of day.

Investing in leadership development and putting processes and frameworks in place to ensure that the learning and new approach is intrinsic within the organisation can result in a complete culture change and new lease of vitality. Optimism and vitality can be very useful in any competitive arena.

Leaders and those around them should be interdependent, with a focus on collective activity, each in step with each other. This is not always in place with organisations that do not invest in leadership training.

Should leadership training be bespoke to a particular company or individual? Are there benefits to general courses ?

In an ideal world all training would be bespoke to the organisation and the delegates, this increases the level of learning simply because the content and training style is more relevant. It goes without saying that a bespoke programme over an eight day period with all the required supporting activity is more effective than a two day programme that is being attended by leaders from a broad range of organisations, with different levels of experience and expectations.

However, in saying that, public or general programmes can provide a starting point and can be effective to some degree. Sharing of ideas and understanding leadership models does have a real value and can increase awareness and skill levels.

Anyone buying in a public or general course needs to be thorough in considering the content and ensuring it is appropriate to the learners and the organisations culture. Also, attention needs to be paid to the trainer, what is their style, experience both in and out of the training room, will it be all theory etc. Ask for examples of exercise / activities; ask to speak to the training providers clients before you buy. Check out what post programme evaluation and support is available.

One thing to consider is, bespoke development can work out more cost effective in the long run. With any development, the exercise should be measured by the value of the outcomes to the organisation, not the cost of the programme.

In your opinion, does leadership training increase motivation?

A good leadership programme will motivate and inspire people to lead better; a bad one will demotivate and devalue how the individual leader sees them self.

Does Leadership development increase an individual's commitment to a company – i.e. leading to longer service?

Yes, definitely. I was with an organisation last week, where a female manager had thought before her development programme, of leaving the company after six years of service, she felt it was time for change and to focus on something new.

After attending her leadership development programme in 2006, she recognised that it wasn’t a change of organisation she needed but a change of role and new challenges. She has now achieved this by moving from an operations role to HR and when we met, she was fired up with enthusiasm for the new role.

Don't underestimate the power of developing a leader and the benefits it can bring to your organisation.