What's the problem with Leadership Development?

Managers do things right – Leaders do the right thing.
Richard Pascale  

Mahatma Gandhi, Attila the Hun, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela and Margaret Thatcher—are all notable leaders in their own right who did the right things for their context—but obviously with very different approaches.

Try to substitute one into another situation and it would be unworkable. Imagine Attila the Hun trying to care for the sick, or Margaret Thatcher trying to lead a marauding horde (actually, I can imagine that!)

So why in this 'plug and play' world do we talk about leadership skills as a set which can be learnt and transposed into very different situations?

Read many of the management books—they tend to go along the lines of 'this amazing leader did something special. As a result the company did well. Therefore if you do something special (that is the same thing)—your company will also do well'.

Unfortunately though, what we find is that just doing what others have done rarely produces the same results. Why? Because the leader, situation, timing, product, market, people, indeed the company, are different. Inevitably the results will be different.

Why is this important? Well, because traditional ways of developing leadership skills have been incomplete at an organisational and personal level. Several approaches tend to be used such as:

• copying what others have done, commonly through benchmarking
• attending broad programmes with a range of other leaders
• embarking on a personal discovery journey, quite often with the help of a psychologist
• having a coach / mentor

Let’s just look at some of the shortcomings:

Copying (including benchmarking)

Copying is a great way to learn. It is relatively easy and risk free. You watch what someone else does, check to see that it works OK and then emulate them. The trick really is to build on the success of the person you are watching.

There are at least two problems with this from a leadership perspective:

• If you copy someone else, you are unlikely to be acting as yourself—you will not be authentic.
• This approach can take an incredibly long time—in fact in many cases years.

In terms of improving your skills, much will be learnt, usually in the management or process areas, but it too can take years.

Broad programmes

Usually these provide great opportunities to eat good food, hear good stories and network. Nothing wrong in any of that!

But in terms of learning from others, the most likely take away is 'that’s interesting (but quite different from the position we find ourselves in)'.

If you do find a really interesting company to learn from, the chances are that you will go down the benchmarking route.

Embarking on a personal discovery journey

Personal discovery is a really useful and interesting process, but it can take a very long time to understand:

• who you are
• what your strengths are; and
• how these might be applied to your situation.

Strangely, many of these interactions result in the realisation of the person undertaking the journey that they are in the wrong place. This might be a good outcome for the individual leader—but it is unlikely to be seen as an unqualified success by the company!

As a result, a criticism can be that engagement with the company’s objectives can be missing.

Having a coach / mentor

This is usually rated as one of the most important elements in leadership development and one that is highly recommended.

The leader gets one-on-one support to explore ideas and hone skills.

The two problems with this approach are cost (and as a result scarcity) and jealousy (or exclusion).

Since it is one-on-one, you are paying (even if the mentor is in-house there is an opportunity cost) for someone’s exclusive time on an hourly basis.

The jealousy part is seldom discussed, but what can happen is that people see a senior person meeting on a regular basis with a coach or mentor. If these people do not know what is being discussed, they can feel excluded from the confidence of the person – who might be seen to increasingly rely on their coach. They can become part of the 'out group'.

So what do most leaders do for their development?

Unfortunately far too many leaders ignore their own development. It is always easy to find an excuse for not attending any development sessions. There is always work to be done!

But this is a dangerous option. When so much is changing on a daily basis, this can mean that skills become outdated or stale.

If this is the case, then what hope is there for leadership development?

The good news is that, in most cases, the leadership capability needed to build the skills of its leaders already exists in the leadership team of the organisation itself. By definition, these people understand the context in which the company operates.

The problem that most leaders face, however, is that they are inundated with other demands on their time: they get bogged down with meetings and managerial and operational responsibility. This tends to mean that they do not get the time to develop their own skills, let alone contribute to the development of others.

How do the leader and the organisation overcome this problem?

Glad that you asked!

We have developed a program which focuses the power of leaders to help each other, through facilitation. It integrates the leadership development of the individual with the needs of the organisation.

The program provides the time and space, combined with techniques and approaches to allow leaders to co-develop in an extremely time-efficient way.

Participants also get to identify their best authentic leadership style.

So in short – it allows leaders to 'do the right thing' in relation to their own development and that of the company.

© 2009 Fast Track Leadership. All rights reserved.