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Train The TRAINER
AL LOCK
I'm hearing a lot of interest in leadership development these days. Last year, both The Economist and Fortune magazine ran articles on the importance of building leaders in organisations. Not too long ago, I was meeting with a friend who has been in the HR field for many years.
She told me that she thought many companies looked for and tried to develop leaders in a certain mold. I think she is right, many companies do just that. And I think they are short-changing themselves when they do so.
Let's take a leader like Jack Welch as an example. The former GE chief was known as a strong, dynamic leader and a tough, no-nonsense kind of guy. If a company decided to build its leaders based on that model, it would probably get some pretty good leaders. But it would also get leaders who all shared the same strengths and weaknesses, which could result in necessary tasks not getting done. In addition, it would lose out on all the top quality leaders who didn't fit the Jack Welch model.
For example, Joe Torre, current manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a man who managed the New York Yankees to four World Series titles, doesn't fit the Jack Welch model. Would an organisation that looks for Jack Welch leaders toss aside a Joe Torre? And even if it didn't, if the organisation is focused on building leaders around a certain model, won't leaders of other styles leave to find workplaces where they are more appreciated, where they fit in better?
I recently read a short editorial in which the author stated: "Leadership is leadership is leadership." I couldn't agree more. Leadership is the art of getting other people to follow you. That's it. How different leaders do that varies as much as the people they are leading, and as much as the experiences that made them the sort of leaders they are.
In my opinion, leadership is not taught. It is learned. Let me clarify that, because some people will see that as contradictory. I don't believe it is.
I cannot teach someone how to be a leader. I can share with them ideas and techniques that might work for them. I can put them in situations that require them to lead. But I can't teach them to lead. They must learn what works for them. The kind of leader that we each can be is dependent on the type of people we are, our experiences and what has worked for us, the kind of leaders that we have been exposed to in our lives, and the people that we lead.
If that is true, and my experience says that it is, the way to build leaders is to give them the opportunity to lead, to have those experiences. By providing guidance, controls, mentoring and coaching, we can avoid the "throw them in the pool and see if they can swim" trauma, but when it really comes down to it, they will learn how to lead or they won't. I believe that most people will find a way to lead that works for them (and if we provide the appropriate controls and guidance, that works for the organisation).
There are some pretty significant things we can do in terms of that guidance and those controls. First is to establish a clear set of guidelines on what is considered unethical and ethical behaviour. By setting these guidelines, we avoid having the solutions learned be solutions that are not acceptable within the corporate culture or are illegal (things such as threats, sexual intimidation, etc). Not only do these guidelines need to be clearly communicated, but there needs to be sufficient supervision to make sure that they are upheld.
Another thing that we can do is to find out about the work preferences of these future leaders. Most people do what they like to do first, and avoid doing what they dislike as long as possible. A psychometric test such as the TMS Work Preferences Index will provide a great deal of information to all involved about what strategies will be successful for this person. It can also provide information about areas of low-preference, where this future leader might need to delegate or work with a team in order to accomplish certain tasks.
Finally, we can give the future leader opportunity. Leadership opportunities for some people come in situations that they are unprepared for, where failure is traumatic and leads them to not want the responsibility of leadership again. We can control leadership experiences and opportunities to develop leaders positively, to provide feedback through coaching and mentoring rather than through failure.
Even though I believe that leadership is learned, not taught, I believe that leadership development programmes that do the things described above can have a significant impact on developing successful leaders within organisations. And not by developing one type of leader, but by developing a wide range of leadership styles that work for those individuals and those organisations. This is not about theoretical leadership. This is about leadership that has followers.
Leadership is leadership is leadership. It is not easy, and there are as many different styles of leadership as there are leaders. If people follow? You're leading.
Do you have a training question or issue that you would like to see addressed here? Please e-mail me and I'll see what we can do.
Al Lock is the Business Development and Marketing Consultant for t+b solutions ltd. He can be contacted at al@tandbsolutions.com
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