Exceeding Expectation: the principles of outstanding leadership

This month saw The Work Foundation publish the results of a two-year qualitative study of outstanding leadership. The researchers conducted over 250 interviews with leaders, their managers and their direct reports in six UK organisations. The research has uncovered clear differences between good and outstanding leadership resulting in the presentation of evidence to support a systemic, people centred approach to high performance leadership. Emerging from the analysis are nine themes and three principles which characterise outstanding leaders:

1. They think and act systemically
2. They see people as the route to performance
3. They are self-confident without being arrogant

So, can these nine themes and three principles be learnt? Yes, undoubtedly they can – the 77 leaders interviewed were not cloned, neither did they have equal measures of skill or ability. One of the common factors for the 77 is their individual recognition that they continue to learn, develop and evolve as leaders.

One of the most thought provoking points in the report executive summary is the implication in this sentence: “Some of the outstanding leaders featured in the research did not originally have a people-focused approach, but realised the impact they were having on people and therefore adjusted their style accordingly.”

Think about your own leadership approach and think about your organisation and its policies and procedures, especially performance management linked processes. Do they allow for up and coming leaders to examine their own impact, realise implications (either individually or supported by coaching) and make adjustments and re-invent themselves as outstanding future leaders?

Or in the current economic environment is this just not possible and is the zero tolerance approach to mistakes adopted by many organisations the way forward?

We are interested in your experiences and your views.....

Leaders – are they born or made? A viewpoint from Potential2Achieve.

It’s a question that has been debated by some of the greatest experts on Leadership for many years, often resulting in polarised opinion. Let’s start by quoting Dr Brent Smith, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School who, when asked the question by MBA students and members of the press seeking learned opinion, will reply with “well, it’s a little difficult to make a leader unless he or she has been born!” Of course, Brent will then follow that statement with the output of his analytical research and sage advice.

Here at Potential2Achieve we too have an opinion on this topic. At the heart of Potential2Achieve values we believe that there is untapped wisdom and capability within everyone that is waiting to be discovered and applied. So, in that context, of course leaders are made. It is very tempting to say at this point “but it all depends” because in reality there is a dependency on the organisation that the leader is a part of to have defined what makes a leader.

In our experience organisations are generally very good at setting the expectations of their leaders in terms of their managerial output. For example, Performance Management process completed on time and in alignment with a set distribution curve, Employee Engagement survey results to improve x% year on year. However, rarely do organisations define what they require in behavioural terms from their leaders and it is rarer still that organisations align those behaviours to their external brand.

At Potential2Achieve when working with organisations to assist the process of developing leaders we start with understanding the external brand. What are the beliefs and values that underpin that brand? How do leaders, at all levels in the organisation need to behave to be role-models of that brand? Do the policies, practices and procedures of the organisation support and contribute to the value of the brand? Do the people within the organisation have the skills, capability and knowledge to bring the brand to life? Once the leader can understand the leadership “system” they are working within, they can then evaluate for themselves if they wish to be a leader. If there is a match between the core values of the organisation and the core values of the leader then the making of the leader is a much simpler matter.

Tell us about your experiences of leadership systems and your views on whether leaders are born or made.