How to make organisations - business, public and political - realise that improving their leadership / interpersonal skills should be top priority?
Most organisations seem to act as if the interpersonal / leadership skills of their [future] staff come automatically with the job or person. I however strongly believe those skills can and should be trained as most graduates have only been educated or trained in their functional skills before entering their organisations.
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Arnold V.
Expert facilitating self-reliance in how to discover meaning of organisation, profound leadership, corporate culture
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As Phil Johnson mentions the awareness is increasing. But the how is another question!
In spring 2009 we ran a test seminar with students in Scandinavia. They were in the age of 21-30 and among the top Economics students (ready to finish and enter the market) in the country. An application with motivation was required and finally 15 were admitted to the seminar by selection.
The Seminar was purely based on Discovery of the Self to end with Leadership from the Self = Self Leadership. The seminar was an experiential series of workshops of their Self-awareness, not about training and skills! The Seminar stirred up a lot and the top comments by the participants was that whatever they learned at their school, this has brought them personally the most.
Very encouraging for working with the young.
In corporations and organizations we tend to look upon leadership from the leadership functions and the ones holding them. Most reach those functions because of other qualities that have no relationship with leadership. This may have prompted you to the question about leadership / interpersonal skills, obviously missing these or experiencing insufficient qualification in reality.
So while realizing the need for improvement it is mostly not the leaders who know how to go about it in their organizations. (Exceptions accepted)
I believe that Self Leadership is the prerequisite to exercising and applying an authentic Leadership (Triple A Leadership: – Awaken – Awareness – Application). With the Self, the inner is mobilized in the understanding and awareness of who I am, where I am and where to go to. Finally formulated in terms of the leadership one is able to offer. We strongly encourage to brand the personal leadership and regard the skills as the mechanics (supporting techniques) for genuine leadership.
While the need is for top talent in leadership positions, the understanding should be reached that everyone in an organization whatever the level is aware of the Self Leadership which will create a conscious culture. We are now in the times to realize this as the next in organizational evolution.
Links:
Phil J.
Authentic Leadership and Emotional Intelligence: The New Economic Currency ★ MBL is The New MBA
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This awareness is increasing ...
The Global Leadership Forecast 2008/09 researched 12,208 business
leaders and 1493 HR professionals across 76 countries. Seventy-
five percent of executives surveyed identified improving their
leadership talent as their #1 priority for better organizational results.
Warm regards, Phil
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Raghuram N.
Director - HR Shared Services at Sutherland Global Services
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Dear Max:
Great Question Max.
One of the answer probably lies in the numbers that can be gathered. What I am presenting below is just a thought process.
One approach that can be looked at is to draw out the following numbers and see if there is a correlation between:
- Tenure of the leader in the function
- Growth/ Improvement of function/ organization during their tenure
- Attrition of staff reporting to them (categorized based on their prior performance)
- Cost of Hiring incurred to fill those positions
- Number of their direct reports who have moved to other leadership positions within or outside the function during the tenure of the leader and gathering the same data points for these employees as well. This would tell us if the skills learnt from the prior manager in developing team members is being applied by these employees as well.
We would need to factor in the market situation etc while looking at growth and possibly some attrition causes being factored in and potentially any training that these employees have undergone to gain skills in the areas of leadership/ interpersonal skills development.
Hopefully, this would help demonstrate the importance of a leader's leadership skills and interpersonal skills.
Regards
Raghu
George F F.
Career, Leadership and Management Consultant
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Look for how top performing organizations (companies, etc.) address leadership skills - including but not limited to interpersonal skills. You will find lots of best practices in use today.
George F. Franks, III
Links:
Alan H.
IT Data Center Project Manager
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It's used as a pre-selection criteria to identify leaders so you'd have to work on that mindset.
Example: People who have developed this skill tell an executive that they 'get it' and took action to develop it in themselves. No one told them to and it wasn't 'given to them' in college.
Therefore the conclusion is that if they can lead themselves into developing this talent they can be trusted to lead others.
The mindset says "Followers wait for someone to give them this skill (and others) Leaders develop it in themselves. this is how we know who is a leader".
So no amount of logical numbers will change this mindset and quite frankly, that's difficult reasoning to dispute. Leaders don't need permission or to be told they need something.
Counterpoint: In the future we won't need leaders, we'll have leadership systems. Companies have marketing systems to handle their marketing, Sales systems and processes to create sales and Operations systems to handle stability and growth. I have created leadership systems for companies to create leaders and that will lead companies systematically. Please read the articles below for more information.
Links:
Jon V.
Engineering Manager at EdeniQ, Inc.
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I'm not sure I agree with the idea that to identify leaders you look for self-starters. Leadership is best identified by those who generate a vision and are great a sharing it and then inspiring others to follow them in obtaining that vision. A proactive task manager is not necessarily a leader, though having the drive + vision can identify a productive leader. Yet, a leader who is given a outlet for productivity can be just as effective.
As per the original question; I agree that the skills can be trained. I would recommend "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You" by John C. Maxwell. Additionally, to convince organizations that the need leadership training and development programs I would point to religious institutions and coporations that currently have such programs and their success rates.
I would answer this question by posing the question differently.
1) What will it take to get leaders to transform their relationship to leadership?
2) How do leaders become accountable for their interpersonal skills and actions?
3) What will it take to make this transformation in leadership sustainable over time?
Here's my answer...
A transformed leader
- Sets a compelling vision (one that inspires people and calls them into action)
- Is a person of stern integrity (follow through on the vision and honor yourself as your word)
- Lives by values that are genuine and honorable (be true to yourself and your values)
- Leads by example (people mimic the behaviors they see in leaders)
- Is the leader they were created to be
These traits take a commitment to making a difference for others, but ultimately, it starts with self.
If you want transformation in the organization, leadership should be a top priority for everyone. Every person has a leader within and a leadership role to play. Don't wait for the perfect leader to emerge or wait until you've been given the formal title of leader, you just might miss the opportunity to emerge as the "perfect leader" you were destined for.
Remember Gandhi, "Be the change you want to see". My paraphrase "Be the leader you want to see."
If nothing else, it's a place to start.
In partnership,
Chareen
Jeff W.
Engagement Manager at ProSource Solutions LLC
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I don't believe you can "make" organizations realize these things. GOOD leadership begets good leadership development. Now we must define GOOD.
If...the organization is led by a vision-centric communicator who is passionate, sincere and humble in his/her efforts to cast their vision and share information to all in such a way that everyone knows where the journey will end and how their part will enable goals, both corporate and personal, to be met...then you'll also probably have some focus on interpersonal skill and leadership development as a priority.
If you don't...you will not be able to make a lesser leader understand or agree to the value or priority of such things. These guys have a "shut up and get to work" mentality.
Jeff
Um, oh this one's a gem! The interpersonal skills thing is, in my opinion, one of the very most of the essentials. People get it by having Trust, Respect and Care for others.
The way I've chosen to do it is to yell at abusers...you know, create a scene, a stink, a really, really big issue...to get their attention.
It's my version of a WAKE-UP CALL.
Sometimes it works...other times...not so much! mdh
