Contents
What is Leadership
Leadership Development
Critical ingredients in development
Role of feedback in development
Profiles of Leadership
Modern leadership issues
How leadership effectiveness is reduced
Females and Leadership
Leadership Coaching Statistics
Leadership Statistics
Evidence-Based Leadership
The role of the Leader
The leader`s role in creating the culture
Conclusions
What is Leadership?
"Leadership is not about having all the answers. It is
about knowing how to extract the answers."
Katie K Snapp
Leadership Coach and Business Consultant
Leadership Development
"The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to
where they have not been. “
Henry Kissinger
It would seem that Pareto believed that only in perfectly open societies, those with perfect
social mobility, would elite position correlate fully with superior capacity. Only under such
conditions would the governing elite, for example, consist of the people most capable of
governing. The actual social fact is that obstacles such as inherited wealth, family connections,
and the like prevent the free circulation of individuals through the ranks of society, so that
those wearing an elite label and those possessing highest capacity tend to diverge to greater or
lesser degrees.
Given the likelihood of divergences between ascribed elite position and actual achievement
and capacity, Pareto is a passionate advocate of maximum social mobility and of careers open
to all. He saw the danger that elite positions that were once occupied by men of real talent
would in the course of time be preempted by men devoid of such talent.
Critical ingredients in development
To turn intentions into actions, you need to design and
implement a leadership development plan. Include these
elements:
A model of successful leadership
Objective feedback on your leadership performance
An understanding of your natural style and its strengths and
weaknesses
Acknowledgment of the need to change in developmental areas
An understanding of common pitfalls that can lead to derailment
Rotation through different developmental assignments
Targeted training and education
Good coaching and mentoring
Role of feedback in development
Feedback is an essential part of any development plan. In the
planning stages, feedback helps you gain an understanding of
your leadership style and strengths & weakness.
Sources of feedback include :
Interviews with coworkers
360 degree ratings
Performance appraisals
Employee attitude surveys
Personality testing
Management style assessment
Teambuilding sessions
One-on-ones with boss
Video taped sessions
Assessment centers
Profiles of leadership
There are three pillars of leadership:
Visionary Evangelist
Team and consensus builder
Manager of execution
Modern leadership issues
Leaders of today's corporations must cope with a unique
set of challenges. Some of these include:
• greater demands of travel
Geographic shifts in economic power
Growth of strategic alliances
An accelerating avalanche of information and democratization of access to
information
Daily innovations in technology
Changing demographics and a changing workforce
Changing expectations of a more educated workforce
Globalization of business leading to cross cultural competency requirements
How leadership effectiveness is reduced
ELITES research has found that presidents reduce the effectiveness of
their leadership by:
Po Excessive dominance & intolerance of disagreement
Self-centered focus
Impatience for results leading to undervaluing relationships & reduced decision quality
Failure to build alignment behind organizational goals
Lack of team play (loner tendencies) & lack of emphasis on teamwork
Emotional disconnection and insensitivity
Arrogance and egotism
Suspicion of other's motives
Ignoring conflict or communication of the vision
Females and Leadership
Women in Leadership: Strategies for Change
highlights some of the key data and research regarding
women‟s progress to senior leadership roles in
organizations. This progress has been described by
some as glacially slow despite both State and Federal
legislation to remove discrimination against women and
a raft of government and organization based programs
aimed at increasing the number of women in senior
leadership roles. The focus of this report is on what has
been shown to work in organizations. The aim is not to
„fix‟ women so that they fit into existing organizational
cultures rather it is about initiatives that have the
potential to bring about the systemic changes that are
needed for long term organizational success.
Leadership Coaching Statistics
The Predictability of Coaching
How effective has executive and manager leadership coaching been? Here are some
leadership coaching statistics.
Among the benefits to companies that provided coaching to executives were
improvements in:
• Productivity (reported by 53% of executives)
• Quality (48%)
• Organizational strength (48%)
• Customer service (39%)
• Reducing customer complaints (34%)
• Retaining executives who received coaching (32%)
• Cost reductions (23%)
• Bottom-line profitability (22%)
Leadership Coaching Statistics
Among the benefits to executives who received
coaching were improved:
• Working relationships with direct reports (reported by 77% of executives)
• Working relationships with immediate supervisors (71%)
• Teamwork (67%)
• Working relationships with peers (63%)
• Job satisfaction (61%)
• Conflict reduction (52%)
• Organizational commitment (44%)
• Working relationships with clients (37%)
Leadership Statistics
66% of business leaders say they are more aggressively educating employees on their role in delivering on
the value proposition.
--Grant Thornton, February 2006
69% of business leaders say it's important to have a mentor.
--Grant Thornton's View newsletter, December 2005
75% of executives say good physical fitness is critical for career success at the executive level.
--TheLadders.com, November 2005
11% of surveyed CEOs either have or are considering establishing a charitable foundation or donor-advised
fund.
--Price Waterhouse Coopers' Private Company Services, October 2005
When dealing with suppliers, 86% of senior executives say a lack of ethical standards would be enough to
not do business with a supplier.
--Dormers /Financial Times, October 2005
33% of executive's time is spent responding to crises or problems.
--The Creative Group, July 2005
Evidence-Based Leadership
When it comes to leading teams, commonsense tactics can produce uncommonly good results.
Here are five recommended best practices from the author of best-seller "Hardwiring Excellence"
that can boost morale and improve performance, immediately and over the long term.
Projects, products and services change with the demands of the market. Senior executives, project
leaders and team members come and go. The key is to create an organizational culture that
ensures great leadership today and tomorrow.
1. Get rid of low performers.
2. Accentuate the positive.
3. Make a real connection with employees — every day
4. Say thanks.
5. Don't just recruit great employees. Re-recruit them
The role of leaders
Creating the Vision
Creating a Sense of Urgency
Vision and Values
Avoiding Elitism
The leader`s role in creating the culture:
Whether you like it or not, as a leader, you are also:
a model
a tone setter
a symbol of who gets ahead
a guardian or a designated change agent
a product of the culture
Whether you like it or not, as a leader, you are largely responsible for your
organization's culture. You need to understand the nature of that culture, how it
is created, and how it can be changed
Conclusions
What does all mentioned above mean to female managers?
Women often have better management skills than men
Women's leadership style is often more motivating and inspirational
However, women contribute to their own inability to break through the glass
ceiling in subtle ways stemming from both personality attributes and learned
management styles
Self-awareness, combined with focused mentoring and coaching, can help
women to push through the glass ceiling.
Further progress up the corporate ladder will require women to:
Conclusions
Start taking risks, focusing their energy, and letting go of the details
Continue to communicate, develop and motivate staff, and lead by example
Stop getting mired in the details, rescuing and
mothering, and wearing their hearts on their sleeves
The most effective way to remind staff of the importance of their is to create a culture
within the foundation that points to the foundation‟s successes and includes every
employee in the celebration of these successes. Even though foundations are committed
to lofty goals and the furtherance of the greater good, foundation leadership must not be
remiss in ensuring that all staff members know that their actions play a part in key
successes. Foundation leadership must not assume that the foundation‟s mission alone
will rally the staff. If staff is to be motivated to work to their top potential, they need a
unifying culture that underscores the foundation‟s vision, and this vision will guide staff
actions. Bolman and Deal put it this way: “…team building at its heart is a spiritual
undertaking. It`s both a search for the spirit within and the creation of a community of
believers united by shared faith and shared culture. Peak performance emerges as a team
discovers its soul”