HR Headaches – Addressing Leadership Capability and Effectiveness
In last week's blog, I set out why Leadership Capability and Effectiveness continue to be a headache for People Teams. This week I'm looking at what organisations should prioritise for long-term gains.
A long-term plan for brilliant leadership capability and effectiveness.
1. Be clear about what great leadership looks like in your organisation.
This isn’t about carbon copy leadership with a lack of inclusivity; it’s about saying what you expect to see from your leaders.
Culture and leadership fail hardest and quickest when the leaders aren’t operating or behaving in a way that supports the desired culture or leadership capability. Be clear about what the standard is.
2. Recruit and promote people into leadership roles based on their desire and behaviours to lead.
No more looking at tasks and technical capabilities. Look at their behaviour, attitudes, and capacity to grow. Understand their desire to progress into a leadership role because they want to lead people, not just to achieve the next grade.
We must find new solutions to create career paths for talented people who don't want to lead and create greater openness about that.
Alongside this, for those with a desire to progress with team or departmental leadership or those who are unsure but want to try, we must support active development ahead of promotion and during the early stages of the role should they get appointed.
3. Change the way leadership roles operate.
Too often, the leader is busy doing a task-based job for the team rather than doing work that enables the team.
To create the capacity to lead, the balance must be tipped towards the team rather than tasks. This is how we move away from “I’m too busy today to do that 1:1, I need to write this report” to “In that 1:1 today, I can ensure Tracey has everything she needs to complete that report next month”.
We need to help leaders understand that their leadership role is about enabling their teams to be at their best and to do their best work.
4. Role model it!
Senior leaders, including the People Team, must lead in the way set out in points 1, 2 and 3.
The most cost-effective way to improve leadership capability and effectiveness in your organisation is to have your senior leaders behave in a way that demonstrates the leadership approach you want to achieve.
We mirror what we see; they set the standard, good and bad.
Self-awareness for that top team is essential, and as only 10-15% of people are truly self-aware, helping them to really understand their impact on leadership capability and effectiveness is critical.
To do this, build feedback loops, conduct reviews of impact and create a safe place for those leaders to recognise where they are and own their evolution.
5. Creating a safe environment
Directly linked to the point above, it is critical that psychological safety exists and is fostered throughout the organisation. This doesn’t just apply to teams but also to leaders.
Understanding where and how this doesn’t exist is a priority; call this out in a supportive way and identify a plan to resolve it.
These should not be punitive plans; as part of a psychologically safe workplace, all people, including leaders, need to be able to understand their learning points and then be supported to evolve.
Enabling your senior leaders to cope with criticism and feedback and be open to how they are impacting the success of their people and, therefore, the organisation is key.
6. Continually develop your leaders
Even a leader who has a passion for leading will need development. They need development that is personalised to where they are in their own development journey. Leaders need to be supported to meet the standard you've set and then to be nudged to continue learning and evolving.
Your organisation, the whole world, in fact, is not static, so why on earth would someone’s leadership capability be? Leaders need to keep learning, and they need the right intervention to support them at different points throughout their careers.
We’ll run one-off programmes for leadership development that take a one-off or project-based approach. This often makes it easier to get the budget sign-off but often fails to provide a long-term sustainable approach to continued leadership learning and development.
There is absolutely room for development programmes, as these give focus and attention to the learning, but creating space for experiential learning, coaching, peer development and mentoring as a continual process will add greater value.
7. Take care of their well-being.
It’s not an easy task being a leader, especially a leader who is behaviourally led.
That type of leading takes an emotional investment, and getting vulnerable with people can be uplifting but also exhausting.
There are many things that leaders face, and these can all impact their well-being, so ensuring that your well-being offering has them in mind is critical. This is where peer support and coaching are incredibly useful as part of your well-being strategy.
You also need great leaders of leaders. They need to be role models and someone who takes care of them in the way you need them to take care of their own teams. For most leaders, as with colleagues, the relationship they have with their own leader has a significant impact on their well-being and capability to lead.
8. Recognise and celebrate the importance of great leadership.
When leaders are doing a great job of leading, this should be recognised as this will reinforce its importance to the organisation.
This isn’t about handing out badges. It is about the fabric of your organisation. These great leaders are the ones who should be getting promoted and prioritised for opportunities, and it should be clear to the organisation they are getting these opportunities because of how they lead.
9. Ensure that your Diversity, Inclusion and Equity goals are reflected in your approach to leadership.
This is about representation and deliberately taking action to truly see diversity, inclusion and equity throughout the leadership of your organisation.
Act on identifying potential leadership talent at all levels and all backgrounds, focusing on the desire and potential to lead. Give them the support and development to prepare them for future opportunities and the tools they need to be successful when appointed.
This is also about creating better flexibility for leaders at all levels and demonstrating its value. Show it can be done by breaking down the barriers to more flexible roles by deliberately creating senior-level roles that are job shares, part-time and compressed hours. Embedding behaviours into your organisation that celebrate working like this, not looking for a way to say no.
OK, I never said it was going to be an easy one, but if the strategy and energy of the Executive Team and People Team focused on getting this approach to leadership and leadership capability just right, then wouldn’t the other headaches faced become easier?
What if you stopped worrying about an annual appraisal process but appointed leaders who could set a clear direction for their team, who could facilitate the team to identify their contribution and who gave great feedback regularly? If they could also bring the team together to assess progress, identify areas for improvement and celebrate success, oh, and that leader was accountable for that – wouldn’t that add more value than getting the appraisal process right?
Better leaders in a safe and supportive culture need fewer policies and procedures; they create a more productive and successful working environment that leads to less of the wrong kind of interruptions for the People Team.
I’d love to hear what you think about these focus areas for improving Leadership Capability and Effectiveness in your organisation. Are these the right priorities, and are they achievable?
I can help you accelerate your new and promoted Senior Leaders to success.
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