Leadership is a verb
There have been some excellent posts on LinkedIn recently about leadership; it truly seems to be the big buzzword and discussion point these days. One recently impressed me by Paolina Marlina entitled "Six Things Great Bosses Constantly Remind their Teams". I liked it because it was all about how leaders can make a difference by actually doing something. I recommend it.
It seems that finally leadership is getting the exposure that it deserves. As John C Maxwell says, "Everything stands and falls on leadership". I've tried to unpick this, but I can't take it down any further; it's like doing a root cause analysis and finally getting to the core of the matter. There was very little "leadership " industry" before the 1990's. In the 2 or 3 decades prior to this, there was a plethora of books, information and courses on management, but not a lot on leadership. What leadership guidance was around more often than not came from the military, which had, across the world, and (for what should be) obvious reasons, been studying this for decades, probably longer.
Today, however, if you were to go to Amazon.com and enter "Leadership Books", you will have a choice of 187.865 choices to learn more about leadership. Go to Mr Google and enter "Leadership" and you will be delighted to have 781,000,000 results to go through. Good luck!
With all this material available to us, why then is the overall standard of leadership so, so.......so ordinary in Australia today?
Firstly, those in leadership positions overwhelmingly don't study leadership. For over 25 years working with leaders at all levels across many industries, when I have asked, "When did you last read a book/listen to a CD/ go to a seminar on leadership the answer generally varies between "never" and "not for a long time".
Leaders, it seems are labouring on the (mis)understanding that the role is all about them. For many, sadly, this is true. Among the many leadership models around, the most profound and effective is that of Servant Leadership. Leaders should exist to serve, teach, develop, and support their people, and put the needs of their followers in front of their own. Poor leaders talk about "Me" and "I", effective leaders talk about "Us' and "We". When things are going great, the good leader talks about, "Your efforts" and "Our achievements", not about what a great job of leading he/she has done. The only time the effective leader talks about himself it is to shoulder the blame for poor outcomes or performance, because after all, "Everything stands and falls on leadership". John Addison, the ex CEO of Primerica and author of :Real Leadership" says a leader should be a lighthouse, and shine a light on his/her people.
Thirdly, industry doesn't prepare people for leading. Yes I can already hear the cries of, "Not true, we have a terrific Emerging Leaders program" or similar. Well that's great if you do, but mostly businesses do little or nothing to prepare staff for the rigours and demands of leadership. Putting people who are already leaders through leadership programs is too late. Yes, better late than never, but still too late. Leadership talent needs to be identified early, and encouraged and developed prior to the person actually taking a leadership role.
As an ex military man, I was schooled from my first days in the service that as an officer, it wasn't just my job, it was my duty to ensure the welfare of my soldiers was addressed before my own. In a food queue, an officer NEVER eats before his troops. No exceptions, NEVER. On operations, I always made it clear that I and my leadership team always led from the front, often standing soldiers down from patrols and taking their place so they could rest if their need was apparent. While the troops slept, it was the officers who were getting around to the sentries, checking their welfare, alertness, and morale. Leaders do these things in the military because these are the right things to do, not because their actions will result in a bonus or promotion.
In the Australian Army (and many other armies), a Private soldier must complete two courses totalling ten weeks formal training before he/she can even be considered for their first promotion, this after a minimum of 12-24 months as a well performed private. When a vacancy arises and the selection panel make the decision to promote a candidate, he/she will be prepared to perform in their new rank. For every level of promotion thereafter, the soldier will go through the same cycle of experience in rank, training and formal coursework to be prepare to make the jump to the next rank. Nothing is perfect, and occasionally underperformers slip through the net, but generally those in rank are prepared for the rank and the challenges of leadership that they will face. Compare this to the haphazard approach to promotion still endemic in industry; "You've been a terrific salesman, Phil. Congratulations, you're now the Sales Manager." No wonder recent surveys indicate that as many as 70% of people in leadership positions in industry suffer some level of Imposter Syndrome, whereby they do not feel qualified or competent to perform and are waiting every day for the tap on the shoulder.
In summary, let's work out how we can prepare our people for leadership. Firstly, let's start a dialogue in our companies about leadership. Let's get everyone talking, thinking, and learning what leadership is and what it means. Darren Hardy, the recently retired editor of Success magazine has said that a major factor in achieving competitive advantage in todays workforce is the ability of companies to develop more, and more effective leaders.
If we can effectively prepare people for leadership, once they assume their roles they must be supported with ongoing, on the ground coaching, and ideally have a mentor to whom the new leader can talk to and seek advice as required. And, let's not confuse coaching and mentoring - they're not the same thing.
The concept of servant leadership needs to be better understood. The motto of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the famous British institution that has prepared leaders such as Montgomery, Wavell and Churchill over several centuries is "Serve to Lead". Some leaders just get this; an awful, lot don't.
Leadership is a doing thing, just reading all those books won't make anyone a leader. Too much leadership training today is about theory, models and ideas. While these have some value, it is the ability to get leaders to actually lead that makes the difference, and the organisations that can achieve this will be the organisations that will thrive. Leaders need to get out there, make decisions, make mistakes, learn and grow. The reason is plain:
Everything stands and falls on leadership.
