Are You Overlooking Leadership Talent?

By Jennifer Jones -  1/31/14

Global leadership development should identify individuals whose influence and following make them leaders, regardless of their position on the organizational chart.

More than half of global companies define leaders not by their position on the organization chart, but by their influence and performance. Findings from the fourth annual “Global Leadership Development: Everybody’s Game” survey from AMA Enterprise also indicate that organizations need to consider broadening their approach to leadership development programs, in terms of who participates and in content.

AMA Enterprise, where the author works, partnered with the Institute for Corporate Productivity and Training magazine to evaluate a study of 1,174 senior-level business, human resource and management professionals from 37 industry sectors in 40 countries. The survey was conducted in January 2013.

The largest proportion of participants, nearly four in 10 (Figure 1), said their definition of a leader is anyone whose role allows him or her to influence a group, regardless of direct reporting relationships. According to another 14 percent, a leader is anyone, whether they manage others or not, who is a top-performer in their specific role. In all, 53 percent of respondents consider people to be leaders not according to their authority, but their impact.

In global terms, pace-setting companies now recognize that leaders can emerge from a far broader group than those at the top of the organization chart. Teamwork, collaboration and contribution to success played key roles in shaping this trend.

“With organizations flattening and workplace challenges being more complex and requiring significantly broader collaboration, everyone needs to be able to step up,” said Brad Federman, founder and president of Performancepoint LLC, a performance management and employee engagement company. “Organizations that align structure, development and strategy around contribution and leadership capability will outperform those that don’t. The bottom line is … leadership development now needs to be an inclusive effort.”

Article reprinted fro Chief Learning Officer Online, January 31, 2014

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5 Things Managers and Leaders Must Do

Communication, forward thinking, prioritization, and other skills must be learned and applied in the workplace by managers if we can expect to improve employee engagement. Employees need a manager who is willing to provide an “open” communication platform that includes feedback in a timely fashion, candid discussion on performance and appropriate behavior, a willingness to clarify expectations and use metrics to measure results, and to include the employee in the awareness and planning stages for the company’s vision.
Here are 5 Tips that we believe makes a difference in your business if put into practice: 

What comes first, the Culture or the Strategy

Well, which comes first, the chicken or the egg? The HR professional is starting to ask themselves a
similar question; “which comes first, the development of the culture or the development of the strategy.

Culture is defined as a blend of attitudes, behaviors, actions and beliefs that flourishes with a clear set of
values and norms that actively guide the way an organization operates. I like to say that it is the taste,
smell and feel we can when we come in contact with the organization. This is the origin for the term,
“a fun place to work”. The culture does define the work environment to both the internal and external
customer. Many believe that culture is the environment in which your strategy and your brand lives
or dies. I, like many others, believe that creating the appropriate culture is one of the most important
factors in determine future success.

It has been almost a decade since we feverously created our vision and mission statements. In the
majority of organizations, you will usually find the mission and/or vision statements hanging on the
walls and they probably have not been revised in over ten years. Vision, to me, is the dream of the
organization usually provided by the leadership team. It is a view of what they would like the company
to look like in the future. The Mission Statement on the other hand should be the reason each and
every employee wants to come to work and exhibit a high achieving performance on a daily basis.

We used to break the mission down into purpose. Now, many organizations are translating the purpose
into core values or statements of excellence. This is where the organization needs to associate the
values with the culture. Make sure the values and culture reflect the same meaning to everyone that
enters the building. The culture has to be genuine.

How To Track Performance for Growth

Every goal – organizational or personal – needs a deadline or target date. Without a deadline, there is no pressure to perform at top capacity. Deadlines provide a motivational “push.” Once people discover what they can do, that new level of productivity becomes a constant challenge for achievement giving your business a much needed edge.

A good tracking system is one of the most useful tools for helping individuals meet goals and grow. Progress can be demonstrated only by comparing the past and the present and tracking is the best method of evaluating both the quantity and the quality of performance for individuals, for a department or work group, or for the overall organization.

How to choose a tracking system that meets your needs:
• Appropriate measurement. Make sure the tracking tool measures each important aspect of the activity. If your goal is to reduce the number of days between the receipt and shipping of orders, you won’t be happy to discover that the time interval was cut from three days to one if you also learn that the error rate rose from one percent to eight percent. In this case, a tracking plan should include both speed and accuracy.

• Easy to use. The measurement tool should not add significantly to the workload. If every worker must spend an hour a day just filling in the report, you lose a good deal of valuable time that could have been used in more productive efforts.

• Easy to interpret. Tracking tools should present the facts visibly in a form that quickly reveals the pertinent facts. Charts, graphs, and summary reports with side-by-side comparisons to the last reporting period are easy to read and interpret. What you learn from the reports helps you decide what to do next. Make sure tracking information is used to advance the goals program.

What is the biggest Leadership Obstacle to Middle Management?

I am starting to realize that the biggest obstacle to middle management is without question, senior management. Most managers today show a greater loyalty to their department while the loyalty and respect for senior management is waning. The result becomes a real disconnect between upper and middle management. This disconnect is directly related to employee engagement.

Upper management is responsible for providing the direction of the company. This strategic responsibility is quite a task but senior management expects total commitment to the vision, mission, and strategic business objectives from their middle management and all employees and it is unreal. This lack of commitment is demonstrated in most employee surveys or employee engagement data. It is well documented that the American worker tends to trust their immediate supervisor as opposed to the company’s senior leaders.

How to Provide Direction to Middle Management:

1. Senior officers, you need get out of your office and be with your day to day decision makers - In a previous article, I noted that observation and open discussion with managers and staff are competencies or skills that senior managers tend to avoid. Senior management must eliminate the lack of trust and to do that they must inspire their management team and staff to believe in the direction, etc. Getting buy in from your middle management team is imperative for sustained growth.
2. Mentor middle management - The middle managers must feel appreciated and the best way to do that is to be mentored by a senior manager, which moves the mid-level manger toward the strategy side of the equation. The middle management of any organization must comprehend the business strategy for them to be able translate the direction that is easily understood by the entire work force. If this cascading flow of communication gets interrupted, then it becomes impossible for anyone within any organization to connect the dots resulting in employee disengagement.
3. Develop middle management - It is well documented what skills and competencies are needed for managers to be high achievers; but when I talk to most middle managers, they tell me that they have had little or no formal training. We are entrusting the success of our companies to people who do not know what it takes to provide positive feedback, cascading communication channels, an engaging work environment and everything else it takes to make a successful company. We assume that exemplary performance at a lower level or specific role will automatically make them highly productive managers.

I hate to tell you but leaders and great managers are made not born. In most employee surveys and/or engagement data, we find that most concerns of employees focus on their immediate supervisor not doing what they should be doing….communicating the business strategy while translating it to define the full value of everyone’s role, responsibility, and actions needed to create a successful company.

With the rapid departing of the baby boomers and disengagement still hovering around 30 percent, isn’t it time to focus on developing your future leaders. This leadership must be developed in the middle of the company and mentored upward so that the strategy and implantation will always do exactly what it is intended to do……bring the desired results.

Now is the time for senior management to act and gain success in their company through developing their management and then the middle management’s individual productivity results in organizational effectiveness. It’s not magic but it is a necessity.

Article written by Richard J. Hohmann Jr., Lead Coach for Innovative Leadership, a strategic partner with Fitzpatrick, Bongiovanni, & Kelly, PC, and also a member of the Collaboration Team for Leadership Management International. Richard can also speak at your next organization’s meeting, to invite him to speak call 609-390-2830. For Management Training Solutions click here: http://www.innovativeleadershipdv.com/training_overview.asp