PRESENTATION
Every.Black
Caribbean – Masterminds Meeting via Zoom
Tuesday 24th
May, 2022 from 7.00 p.m.
WHY
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT?
For years it has been
recognised that leadership development has enormous power in both shaping and
changing the culture and strategic direction of an organisation.
Some of the ways we can
achieve this objective is through, training, leadership coaching, mentoring, whole
person growth which sustains organisational outcomes. Leaders are not necessarily Managers and not
all Managers are necessarily leaders. This is why leadership development can be
an organisation wide initiative, and an integral part of the organization's
culture. To achieve this, employers must
make availability tools and other resources, appropriate technology,
opportunities for learning and growth, creating an environment where
“Sharpening the Saw” (Habit 7) is the norm. There are numerous leadership
development process and framework to choose from. E.g, FranklinCovey, Ken
Blanchard, John Maxwell, Dale Carnegie to name a few. These companies mentioned here all feature
amongst the Top 20 Training Companies globally.
Leadership Development in
Organisations boosts employee engagement. It increases the organization's
ability to deal with gaps in the talent pool.
It reduces the headaches and costs associated with turnover. There are
costs associated with turnover. The
recruitment process is time consuming and time means money. The time it takes to advertise, prepare for
interviews, the actual interview process and the time of the panel, the time it
takes to train the new hire all of these are costly. To repeat that process in quick succession is
even more costly, so getting it right the first time is an imperative. High rates of turnover can also negatively
impact the quality of your customer experience both internal and external. Be
mindful that great leaders attract, hire and inspire great people.
Talent management and
retention is important. Let us look at
some reasons why we should invest in developing leaders;
It Improves the bottom line,
our financial performance improves; if we offer the enabling environment, we
have the ability to attract and retain talent; people are looking for good
employers, employers of choice to be exact. With a well-developed team you are
more likely to achieve your strategic objectives utilizing cutting edge
technology, tools and processes such as the Balance Scorecard and 4 Disciplines
of Execution (4DX) etc. A further
benefit is the ability to increase success in navigating change, which in our
dynamic business environment has become the norm. Change is the only constant. Where leadership development is a given, we
experience minimal disruption, we are able to retain good staff and a positive
organisation culture emerges. People are
inspired to come to work, because there is something other than a healthy
salary to be had.
Research shows that
leadership development is one of the most pressing issues facing organisations
today. It has been touted that there is
a shortage of “Ready now leaders”. The
positions are available but the talent, skill and experience needed to fill
these positions is usually lacking.
Leadership development
calls for a holistic approach to development.
It is the development of the whole person body, mind and spirit. It is
about personal effectiveness which leads to team effectiveness and ultimately
organisational effectiveness.
Some leadership competencies that are
needed are Emotional Intelligence, popularized by Daniel Goleman, 4 components (Self
Awareness, self-management, social
awareness and relationship management), Competence/Job Knowledge (Commercial
Acumen, sound Business Judgment) , Strategic Thinking, Decision Making,
Excellent Communication Skills, written and oral, Creativity & Innovation,
ability to embrace diversity, equity and inclusion, Planning, execution through others, inspiring
others, Visionary, Personal integrity
(trustworthy, honesty, ethical standards) Other critical skills are coaching
and mentoring.
In organisations where the
opportunity to grow and develop does not exists employees, feel stifled and
they stagnate. Where the modus operandi
is to micromanage, hovers over people’s shoulders, employees are not engaged, prospective
leaders lose their creativity.
Innovation is non-existent and this result in a sterile environment of
highly under motivated people, doing just enough to earn that pay check while looking
for the next opportunity to get out.
How employees are lead, makes a huge
difference in the quality of their work life. Team members should be clear on
what the goals of the organisation are, and how this cascaded into what every
member of the team does. People need to understand the importance of what they
do, how their work contributes to the achievement of organisations goals. Communication skills and use of appropriate
technology can provide the inspiration for managers to convert strategic plans
into action that achieve the desired results.
There is merit in developing leaders at all levels of the organisation.
We should all aspire to lead learning organisations. With the use of the
internet and LMS complete learning journeys can be established for each
employee taking into account their competency/skills gaps.
The Board and senior management are
responsible with input from their executive teams for the strategic direction
they do not execute to bring about the success; they are only part of the
equation. They provide guidance, they
set direction, make the resources available, sets the culture for the
organisation. It is the people who have
been hired to perform the various tasks, to explore, innovate and create that
make it happen. The quality of leadership is the differentiator. We cannot
afford to pay scant regard to leadership development, it is required if we are
to make progress in our businesses and achieve a return on our investments. The command-and-control style of leadership no
longer works. It is a highly motivated, well trained, skillful, Tec savvy,
resourceful, disciplined and committed workforce that is needed.
Managing performance starts at the
hiring stage followed by the orientation and onboarding process. New hires must understand why they are
employed, what is expected of them, what are the standards, what are the goals,
the targets, the objectives of the organisation and the objectives of their
specific jobs. If there are organisation
specific processes, that information must be shared and appropriate training
given, they may also be given the opportunity to adopt more creative ways to
arrive at the stated outcome.
New hires and those who hire them
need to be aware of the leadership skills needed for the job at hand and for
the execution of the strategic goals of the organisation. This speaks not only to skills for the present,
but capacity to develop skills needed for the future. We need to be clear on what the competency
gaps are in our organisations? We need
to understand that we need “X” and what we have is “Y”. How do we reverse that?
We should be in a position to
identify competency gaps in our top performers by utilising scientific tools
such as psychometric assessments of which there are a variety, such as Saville
Wave, DISC, Profiles, and Myers Briggs etc.
These, if used properly are not only useful for the purpose of
recruitment but also to determine where the gaps are in terms of skills. That
knowledge will enable us to establish “learning journeys” utilising various
medium to upskill and upgrade the talented individuals on our teams. FranklinCovey in addition to its standalone
solutions also offers access to it material in various modalities via an annual
subscription process titled All Access Pass. (AAP)
In order to attract and retain good
talent we have to be prepared to invest in developing our people. The fear or concern is usually that we train
people and they leave. I want to suggest
in small islands states such as the Caribbean countries that when we train
people we enhance the capacity of our workforce, who become global citizens and
repatriate funds to their respective islands.
Consider not training people, and reap the cost to our businesses in not
realizing their full potential. I also want to suggest that if we spend sizable
sums on leadership development on any one individual e.g., a degree programmes,
or professional qualification we should BOND that individual for approximately
3 years. Then we are likely to realize some direct value from our investment.
There are a number of modalities by
which we can inculcate a culture of learning in our organisations, exchange
articles, books, hold group discussions on issues pertaining to business,
forming mastermind groups, cross training, peer training, coaching, mentoring,
setting up accountability partners within the work place, partial financial
support for relevant degrees, allowing employees to take turns to chair
department meetings. Leadership
development can be viewed as an incremental process. We get to learn on the job, from each other
and from the experts.
It is not uncommon for highly
qualified millennials and other skilled employees to want to move from job to
job approximately every 3 years. But the onus is on the leadership to provide
that enabling environment where good workers want to continue to contribute. Provide the necessary equipment, treat people
equally and fairly, reward excellent performance, ensure resources are
available and distributed equitably, dispense with bias and favouritism, keep
team members engaged, foster a culture of open communication and feedback,
facilitate the achievement of work/life balance, etc.
During challenging times, the first
area that is usually under resourced is training and development. Some organisations during this COVID
pandemic took the opportunity to keep their team members motivated by offering
virtual training. Effective training
serves as an excellent means of keeping team members alert, engaged, motivated,
focused and goal and results oriented.
Those who did not take that opportunity may actually feel that they have
stagnated and, in some instances, reversed gains made prior. For some, the process of relearning has to
begin. The good news is that if the
mindset is one of growth, then hopefully the learning curve will be short and
the damage/setback in efficiency, lack of goal and target achievement, and poor
customer service will be minimal.
I want to repeat here for emphasis,
that research conducted by FranklinCovey globally indicates that due to lack of
Leadership Development including coaching and mentoring “There is a lack of
ready now leaders”. What are we doing to
reverse this trend? This is where
Leadership Development can save the day, particularly in this era of “the great
resignation”, I ask you to play your part, do it for yourself, your valued team
members and the viability and sustainability of your business. I THANK YOU
