TOO MANY BOSSES, TOO FEW LEADERS: NURTURING

RAJEEV PESHAWARIA

FREE PRESS; 222 PAGES

PART 3: NURTURING THE MOST VALUABLE INTANGIBLE ASSET

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Whether you are a senior manager or CEO, or at the beginning of your journey to leadership, it is important to understand the value of 2 vital and interrelated senior management responsibilities:

-         Leadership development

-         Succession planning

For excellence in these areas, leaders must be prepared to challenge some conventional wisdom.  The first is the choice of the HR leader and the understanding of the HR function.  If HR leaders keep their eyes and ears wide open, they will discover things that are sometimes difficult for business leaders to perceive.

Leadership is not a matter of formulaic techniques.  It is extremely important that the leaders fully understand their emotions and their values.  Most leaders already know more about leadership than they actually practice.  What need to be done is to focus on helping leaders find deeper levels of authentic energy to:

-         Inspire their staff

-         Build trust

-         Create management

-         Give hope

-         Help others reach deep within themselves to bring out their best

Intrinsic motivation is always powerful than extrinsic motivation.

George Kohlrieser

Professor of Leadership at IMD Switzerland

-         For leaders to be effective, it requires understanding loss, pain, frustration, fear, and uncertainty that so many people have or are going through.  It means recognizing when people are suffering and grieving over something

-         High performing leaders are able to appropriately experience, and show compassion to those who are in some stage of grieving

-         Leaders must dare to care

One of the top reasons why organization do not achieve their full potential is that they do a poor job of succession planning, and bringing their next leaders from outside.  According to Tom Gardner, the founder of Motley Fool, outsiders do not understand the culture of the organization.  It’s not that the organization don’t have their next leaders within them.  It is that senior management does not create the conditions required for those leaders to show their leadership potentials.

The thing to do is to create development plans for each possible successor which includes a mix of training, coaching and mentoring, and assignment rotation.  Given the uncertainties of business today and the powerful forces shaping our lives, companies should expand their chances of producing future leaders by giving everyone a similar development diet and letting the cream rise to the top on its own.  Create meaningful development programs and options that will allow employers to show their strengths.  Another good way to select future leaders is to have a robust 360 feedback system.  At the end of the day, leadership is intrinsic.