The Next Greatest Generation Of Leaders Part 1
September 1, 2011 1 Comment
Recently, I read the finest leadership article I’ve come across in five years. Joe Klein of Time Magazine wrote an incredibly inspiring article about the leadership skills of veterans who are returning from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think Klein should be considered for a Pulitzer Prize for this incredible article. To read this masterpiece in full, click here.
I am going to provide you a series of posts with the leadership quotes from the article. They will challenge and inspire you while giving you a glimpse of leadership through a completely different lens.
“We were trained in the military never to leave a fallen comrade in the field. But do we bring them home just to leave them alone? That didn’t seem right.” – John Gallina, Co-Founder of Purple Heart Homes
“Those Vietnam guys represent around 32% of all veterans, and they didn’t get anything like the support we get…there are so many people who need help.” – Gallina
“They’re incredible, some of my best students. Two things set them apart: they’ve very disciplined, and they’re really, really serious about their work.” – Dr. Elaine Kamarick of the Harvard Kennnedy School of Government on returning war veterans.
“The returning veterans are bringing skills that seem to be on the wane in American society, qualities we really need now: crisp decision-making, rigor, optimism, entrepreneurial creativity, a larger sense of purpose and real patriotism.” – Klein
“World War I was fought by large units like battalions. World War II was fought by companies. Vietnam, by platoons. The current wars ar all about small teams who have to interact with local Iraqi and Afghan populations. That has required a different kind of soldier.” – John Nagi, Chairman of the Center For A New American Society
“Captain Jeremiah Ellis essentially became the mayor of the town (Senjaray in Southern Afghanistan) – dealing with the local shura, providing security, asking the public about the kinds of development projects they wanted, funding those projects…It occurred to me that Ellis had developed the political skills to be the mayor of his hometown in Iowa.” – Klein
“When we return home, we work on fixing up every piece of equipment except their brains. Had to do something about that.” – First Sergeant Jack Robison, Co-Founder of Outward Bound
“These soldiers had to rebuild communities and make difficult decisions under pressure. They’ve had to show incredible flexibility, never knowing whether they’re going to be greeted with a handshake or a hand grenade.” – General David Petraeus
“They’ve been exposed to experiences that are totally unique, compared with most Americans. Once they’ve seen the elephant, they surely can help rebuild Joplin. I believe they are our next great generation of leaders.” – General Petraeus
I agree with you General Petraeus. The returning veterans are our next great group of leaders. Please return tomorrow for Part 2 of this incredible series.
http://briandoddonleadership.com/2011/09/01/the-next-greatest-generation-of-leaders-part-1/
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The Next Greatest Generation Of Leaders Part 2
September 2, 2011 0 Comments
The following is Part 2 of our series of leadership quotes from Joe Klein’s incredible article from Time Magazine on the leadership skills of returning Iraqi and Afghan veterans. To read Part 1 click here.
Enjoy these quotes and insights. They have challenged and stretched me like nothing I read in years.
“(General David) Petraeus was an amazing boss. Our mission was to defeat the military bureaucracy. We were able to build border forts, using Iraqi engineers and work crews, for one-fifth the price that the American contractors were charging in one-third the time. Our proposals went right to his desk, rather than through the bureaucracy. The only thing he demanded of us was success.” – Seth Moulton
“I can pretty much spot them (current veterans returning home) on site: fit, smart, confident, and strong. They look you straight in the eye when they talk; they can be funny as hell, but their language isn’t fancy.” - Joe Klein
“We’re a group that really wants to see America become a better place. We hate the divisive politics of the baby-boom generation. They’re running the country into the ground.” – Moulton
“I saw that there were other vets who favored the war and were running for office too – and I didn’t want to work against them. We separated IAVA from VoteVets. And I’ve got to say that if Pete Hegseth, a Republican, who started Veterans for Freedom, ran for office, I’d work for him. I’d work for any veterans running for office because I know their values.” – Paul Rieckhoff, a veteran and a Democrat
“They feel closer to one another than they do either political party.” – Klein
“One thing about the military was, it forced you to learn. If you were willing to learn, you could rise fast – so we all became avid readers, and we carried that through back home.” – John Gallina
“In the military, it’s never about you. It’s always about something bigger.” – Lewis
“The toughest part of leadership is telling people they have to do something that involves pain.” – former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens
“We had to do that every day: ‘At 0100 we’re going to stage a raid. The enemy is heavily armed and waiting for us. I can’t promise you we’re going to accomplish this without casualties. But we need to take out this cell of snipers.’ You just don’t find many politicians willing to get people to do tough things.” - Greitens
“I just don’t believe that politics needs to be total combat. I’ve seen total combat. I wouldn’t want to give up my privacy and expose my family to the craziness the system seems to require. My kid is not a prop. Anyway, most of my friends feel politically homeless. But I do believe that we have something important to contribute. We know how to lead.” – former Marine and current president of CNAS Nathaniel Fick
Yes you do know how to lead Nathaniel. Yes you do.
http://briandoddonleadership.com/2011/09/02/the-next-greatest-generation-of-leaders-part-2/
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The Next Greatest Generation Of Leaders Part 3 – How To Build A Leader
September 3, 2011 0 Comments
This post of final installment of a 3-part series on the leadership skills of those returning from active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. The nine quotes listed below come from Joe Klein’s article in the recent Time Magazine. To read Part 1 and Part 2, please click the hotlinks.
“The main reason why I chose West Point over Yale is that it was a complete experience, not just academically but a serious challenge – and in leadership as well. You get real responsibility very quickly: in Germany, I was 22 and leading 30 people who didn’t have a college education. And I had to make it work. Most of the college grads I know who didn’t join the military don’t know 30 people without a college education.” – Liz McNally
“These are the most diverse and extraordinary people I’ve ever met. I’d love to see the values and ethics of the military spread into the general population.” – Dr. Richard Young
“People have the wrong impression of the military. It is extremely entrepreneurial. I had more freedom to make decisions there than I do at Citibank. My commander would tell me what needed to be done, and then it was up to me to figure out how to do it.” – Wes Moore
“We were taught to write a five-paragraph memo. I still use it whenever I have a major decision to make…Situation: What’s the problem? Mission: What’s our strategy for solving it? Execution: What tactics are we going to use? Support: What are the logistics; how may troops and what sort of equipment will we need? Command: What other organizations will have to be involved.” – Moore
“It’s difficult to leave the military and not come out bored. There’s a significant letdown, which is a big part of the psychological problems so many of us have. In civilian life, you miss the sense of excitement and purpose and camaraderie.” – Moore
“No decision you’ll ask them to make (in business) will be harder than decisions they’ve already experienced.” – Brian Stann
“There was a lot of looting and chaos (in Haiti after the earthquake). Other relief agencies don’t like those sorts of situations, but we’d seen a lot worse. We know how to do chaos. We’re Marines.” – William McNulty
“I rented a chainsaw, and within 20 minutes it felt like I was back in the service again (after the Alabama tornadoes). We shared a common language and knew how to organize ourselves to work efficiently…We’re used to sleeping on the ground; other people aren’t…Our generation of vets isn’t really into joining organizations life the VFW or the Legion, but we do have a need to share our stories and experiences. When we go out on these disaster-relief mission, it’s very therapeutic – and we’re doing something tangible and immediate to help people.” – Ford Sypher
“You’re a Marine captain. Figure it out.” – David Callaway to Seth Moulton on how to organize medical relief in Haiti
Leaders, figure it out!!! I hope you print out and save this 3-part series. The veterans returning from the Middle East are teaching us all about leadership. What have you learned from this series?
http://briandoddonleadership.com/2011/09/03/the-next-greatest-generation-of-leaders-part-3/
Monday, September 5, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
The Truth About Leadership By Stephen Blandino on January 3, 2011 in Leadership
The Truth About Leadership
By Stephen Blandino on January 3, 2011 in Leadership
I Just finished reading Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner’s new book, The Truth About Leadership: The No-Fads, Heart-of-the-Matter Facts You Need to Know. Kouzes and Posner have studied leadership for three decades and have written some of the most well-respected leadership material around. So what makes their new book different? Admittedly, they had originally set out to write a book about leading the Millennial generation. However, as they began their research, they discovered that Millennials’ concerns and issues about leadership were not much different from their older brothers and sisters and even their parents. Essentially, age made no difference. Kouzes and Posner observed, “Good leadership is good leadership, regardless of age. It became very apparent once again that the context of leading may change a lot, but the content of leading changes very little.”
So Jim & Barry changed their focus. Rather than writing a book about leading Millennials, they chose to focus on the issues of leadership that are enduring, true, and relevant for all generations. Their research (gleaned from 30 years of work and two years of analysis of over one million responses to their Leadership Practices Inventory from over 70 countries) served as the basis of TEN LEADERSHIP TRUTHS:
Truth #1: You Make A Difference - “Everything you wil ever do as a leader is based on one audacious assumption. It’s the assumption that you matter.” In fact, research has shown that a leader’s behavior impacts why people feel engaged and positive about their workplace more than any other characteristic.
Truth #2: Credibility is the Foundation of Leadership - The four most desired
characteristics in a leader are honesty, forward-looking, inspiring, and competent. These are the qualities necessary to be credible to your followers.
Truth #3: Values Drive Commitment - ”Clarity about personal values has the most significant impact on employees’ feelings about their work and what they’re doing in the workplace…People cannot commit fully to anything unless it fits with their own beliefs.” Leaders must “build and affirm a community of shared values.”
Truth #4: Focusing on the Future Sets Leaders Apart - Kouzes and Posner observe that leaders are responsible to be “custodians of the future” and yet top executives only spend 3% of their time “thinking about, and getting others on board with, the critical issues that will shape their business ten or more years down the road.” Leaders must be optimistic, spend more time in the future, and set up a futures research team.
Truth #5: You Can’t Do It Alone - The authors observe, “The very best leaders understand that it’s about inspiring a shared vision, not about selling their own idiosyncratic views of the world.” The word “With” is a key word when leaders are dreaming and tackling challenges. They must work closely with a team.
Truth #6: Trust Rules - Amazingly, in one survey more people said they trust a stranger than they trust their boss. And yet, organizations with a high level of trust outperform low-trust organizations in total return to shareholders by 286%. When risk is high, people are willing to risk more.
Truth #7: Challenge is the Crucible for Greatness - Leaders must have grit, be willing to fail, and recognize that significant accomplishments often involve adversity, difficulty, change, and challenge.
Truth #8: You Either Lead by Example or You Don’t Lead at All - Kouzes and Posner observe that leaders must focus more on being believable rather than interesting. Actions truly do speak louder than words. The authors observe, “Quite often the greatest distance that leaders have to travel is the distance from their mouths to their feet.”
Truth #9: The Best Leaders are the Best Learners - One quote summarizes this chapter exceptionally well: “Learning is the master skill. When you fully engage in learning–when you throw yourself whole-heartedly into experimenting, reflecting, reading, or getting coaching–you are going to experience the thrill of improvement and the taste of success. More is more when it comes to learning.” Is “learning” the master skill of your life?
Truth #10: Leadership is an Affair of the Heart - Leaders are not just concerned about the bottom line…they pay attention to the human heart. Caring and loving others is the foundation of truth #10.
Question: Which truth should be on your personal growth radar?
http://stephenblandino.com/2011/01/truth-about-leadership.html
By Stephen Blandino on January 3, 2011 in Leadership
I Just finished reading Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner’s new book, The Truth About Leadership: The No-Fads, Heart-of-the-Matter Facts You Need to Know. Kouzes and Posner have studied leadership for three decades and have written some of the most well-respected leadership material around. So what makes their new book different? Admittedly, they had originally set out to write a book about leading the Millennial generation. However, as they began their research, they discovered that Millennials’ concerns and issues about leadership were not much different from their older brothers and sisters and even their parents. Essentially, age made no difference. Kouzes and Posner observed, “Good leadership is good leadership, regardless of age. It became very apparent once again that the context of leading may change a lot, but the content of leading changes very little.”
So Jim & Barry changed their focus. Rather than writing a book about leading Millennials, they chose to focus on the issues of leadership that are enduring, true, and relevant for all generations. Their research (gleaned from 30 years of work and two years of analysis of over one million responses to their Leadership Practices Inventory from over 70 countries) served as the basis of TEN LEADERSHIP TRUTHS:
Truth #1: You Make A Difference - “Everything you wil ever do as a leader is based on one audacious assumption. It’s the assumption that you matter.” In fact, research has shown that a leader’s behavior impacts why people feel engaged and positive about their workplace more than any other characteristic.
Truth #2: Credibility is the Foundation of Leadership - The four most desired
characteristics in a leader are honesty, forward-looking, inspiring, and competent. These are the qualities necessary to be credible to your followers.
Truth #3: Values Drive Commitment - ”Clarity about personal values has the most significant impact on employees’ feelings about their work and what they’re doing in the workplace…People cannot commit fully to anything unless it fits with their own beliefs.” Leaders must “build and affirm a community of shared values.”
Truth #4: Focusing on the Future Sets Leaders Apart - Kouzes and Posner observe that leaders are responsible to be “custodians of the future” and yet top executives only spend 3% of their time “thinking about, and getting others on board with, the critical issues that will shape their business ten or more years down the road.” Leaders must be optimistic, spend more time in the future, and set up a futures research team.
Truth #5: You Can’t Do It Alone - The authors observe, “The very best leaders understand that it’s about inspiring a shared vision, not about selling their own idiosyncratic views of the world.” The word “With” is a key word when leaders are dreaming and tackling challenges. They must work closely with a team.
Truth #6: Trust Rules - Amazingly, in one survey more people said they trust a stranger than they trust their boss. And yet, organizations with a high level of trust outperform low-trust organizations in total return to shareholders by 286%. When risk is high, people are willing to risk more.
Truth #7: Challenge is the Crucible for Greatness - Leaders must have grit, be willing to fail, and recognize that significant accomplishments often involve adversity, difficulty, change, and challenge.
Truth #8: You Either Lead by Example or You Don’t Lead at All - Kouzes and Posner observe that leaders must focus more on being believable rather than interesting. Actions truly do speak louder than words. The authors observe, “Quite often the greatest distance that leaders have to travel is the distance from their mouths to their feet.”
Truth #9: The Best Leaders are the Best Learners - One quote summarizes this chapter exceptionally well: “Learning is the master skill. When you fully engage in learning–when you throw yourself whole-heartedly into experimenting, reflecting, reading, or getting coaching–you are going to experience the thrill of improvement and the taste of success. More is more when it comes to learning.” Is “learning” the master skill of your life?
Truth #10: Leadership is an Affair of the Heart - Leaders are not just concerned about the bottom line…they pay attention to the human heart. Caring and loving others is the foundation of truth #10.
Question: Which truth should be on your personal growth radar?
http://stephenblandino.com/2011/01/truth-about-leadership.html
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Five Steps to Addressing the Leadership Talent Shortage
Five Steps to Addressing the Leadership Talent Shortage
10:22 AM Wednesday June 2, 2010
by Sue Ashford and Scott DeRue
(Editor's note: This post is part of a six-week blog series on how leadership might look in the future. The conversations generated by these posts will help shape the agenda of a symposium on the topic in June 2010, hosted by HBS's Nitin Nohria, Rakesh Khurana, and Scott Snook. This week's focus: leadership development.)
Nearly 60% of companies are facing leadership talent shortages that are impeding their performance. Another 31% expect a lack of leadership talent to impede their performance in the next several years. Yet, in 2009, U.S. companies spent an estimated $12 billion (24% of their overall training budgets) on leadership development programs and services. By any reasonable standard, what we are currently doing to grow and develop future leaders is not working. Here are five critical attributes that we believe are necessary for developing the leaders of today and tomorrow:
The best learners make the best leaders. We must teach people how to learn leadership from life experiences. In our paper, "Power to the People," we argue that learning leadership is a function of how people approach, go through, and reflect on developmental experiences — a process we call "mindful engagement," We need to stop teaching leadership theory in a vacuum, and start teaching people how to learn leadership from real-world experiences.
Leadership as a set of principles. Business education is largely oriented toward teaching an important but narrow set of technical knowledge and skills. We need to expand our teaching to encompass a set of leadership principles that can be globally applied across situations. Doing so will build an adaptive capacity that enables people to more effectively lead in today's complex and dynamic business environment.
Reward leadership development (FINALLY!). All companies pay lip service to the importance of developing people, but how many companies actually reward (with any significance) the development of people? Answer: very few. Also, how many companies penalize managers for hoarding key talent? Answer: almost none. Yet, managers often do everything they can to avoid losing key talent to other opportunities because, as one executive put it to us the other day: "I can't afford to lose my best people."
Leadership development at all levels. In an earlier blog entry, we argued that leadership is not about position. If that is true, then why do most leadership development programs focus on senior executives? We need to expand our focus to figure out ways to efficiently and economically develop leaders throughout the organization.
Keep it simple. Leadership is complex, but leadership development cannot be. We must provide key talent with clear metrics and development priorities that provide a straightforward roadmap for realizing their leadership potential. Unfortunately, that is not the case in most companies. One Fortune 500 company that we are working with developed a leadership competency model that specifies 54 distinct competencies across 15 different leadership skills. The result? Employees are confused, and assessment data are poor. Instead, identify the three or four competencies that really differentiate top performers across different levels of the organization, and then reward and promote based on those competencies.
These are our five ideas for improving the return on investment in leadership development and addressing the looming leadership talent shortage. Do you agree? Disagree? Have other suggestions?
Sue Ashford is Associate Dean for Leadership Programming and Executive MBA Program and the Michael & Susan Jandernoa Professor of Management and Organizations at the at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Scott DeRue is an Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
(Editor's note: This post is part of a six-week blog series on how leadership might look in the future. The conversations generated by these posts will help shape the agenda of a symposium on the topic in June 2010, hosted by HBS's Nitin Nohria, Rakesh Khurana, and Scott Snook. This week's focus: leadership development.)
Sue Ashford and Scott DeRue
Sue Ashford is Associate Dean for Leadership Programming and Executive MBA Program and the Michael & Susan Jandernoa Professor of Management and Organizations at the at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Scott DeRue is an Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
http://blogs.hbr.org/imagining-the-future-of-leadership/2010/06/5-steps-to-addressing-the-lead.html
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Maximo Aton 1 year ago
The five ideas in improving leadership in the organization will be very useful. However, there is a need to highlight that leadership principles should conform with universal moral values. History has shown that there were skilful leaders like Hitler who was able to lead people into self destruction. Transactional leadership will bring change in the organization without due regard to what is really good or right. Transformational leadership and ethical leadership can lead an organization into higher ideals. When an organization is morally bankrupt, sooner or later the organization will be financially bankrupt. This has happened to once powerful Roman Empire and other big companies like Enron. Leaders with moral values are of paramount importance for continuous business success.
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Jeff Walker 1 year ago
these are great points for the for-profit and non-profit world...another world to look at, how do we develop and bring leaders into the government world (city, state, federal?). Right now most great leaders are too afraid to enter the political scene. How can we make the federal government interested/and more able to bring in leadership talent into govt service.
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Steve Swavely, Ph.D. 1 year ago
Those are 5 great principles, but I would add a critical 6th - Leadership development is relationship development. This is still an area that most companies are reluctant to address head on - which in my opinion is why 60% of companies are in the middle of a leadership shortage and another 31% have a leadership shortage on their horizon. Part of the problem is that great relationship development depends on developing high levels of self awareness, which all too often is still viewed as a "soft skill" that either can't be "trained" or is not worthy of training dollars. Thankfully, neuroscience is beginning to change that view as well as provide effective ways of increasing self awarenss beyond the traditional 360 and personality assessment.
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Marc Mikulski 1 year ago
Great post. In the public sector, especially in a unionized environment the leadership void is also being felt. Often many desire to be leaders just because it means a bump in pay, not because they really aspire to have a leadership role. What we end up with many times are people that can score well on a promotional examination and are savvy in some technical aspect of their present assignment. They are promoted to their level of their incompetence, “leadership”, with no desire to engage in any professional development and destine to remain in the status quo environment or worse to anyone’s detriment. Your five critical attributes are very relevant on what we should be doing to prepare employees for leadership roles. My issue though over the years has been how do you identify those quality potential leaders other than a written assessment in a unionized governmental setting? We identified six attributes that begins to develop a basic profile on who we should concentrate our efforts on. By no means is this informal metrics an all inclusive roadmap, but you can see what we’re striving for.
“Appreciates the Thrill of a Challenge”, identifying a willing to do things outside the scope of their position and that they’re not afraid of learning new tasks. It shows a willingness to take on more or new responsibility and not being afraid to fail.
“Possesses a Constructive Spirit of Discontent”, my personal favorite. I like to call it the “Bionic Person Attribute” a positive attitude that looks at problems as challenges and offers solutions to them, believing that they can make it better, faster or stronger!
“Demonstrated Leadership in the Past”, leverages past behavior as a forecaster of future behavior. Are they an informal leader or knowledgebase within the organization already? Do they have leadership roles outside the organization?
“Possess a Completion Factor”, this demonstrates an ability to focus on solving issues and problems and that they can follow through.
“Possess Mental Toughness” reveals if that they are prepared to be criticized and whether or not they have an iron will to stay the course and are willing to pay the price to get to the vision.
“Peer Respect” An employer can get a fairly accurate read on a person by the company they keep. By looking to see if they have peer respect an employer can get an idea of what their character and personality is like.
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Paul Krizman 1 year ago
Every company has two central assets - customers and employees. Focusing on employee leadership development is key to a buisness owner developing a entity that works for him. The idea of keeping it simple is an excellent concept - make it easy to learn and the incentive for your people to advance will be greater.
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GK 1 year ago
I agree of extending leadership development to all levels within the organization and not limiting it to the senior leadership team. Unfortunately, many organizations fail to understand this.
However, in my opinion, the corporate world needs to go beyond this. It is time we have more colleges with focus on developing leaders of consequence for taking up challenges of tomorrow.
Leadership can not be constrained just to the organization. It extends to having a positive influence on the employees, the customers, the society, and the planet.
Today, there is a need for a leader who practices the principles of mindfulness, ethics, compassion, sustainability and diversity.
In addition to developing technical skills, our education system should focus on enhancing leadership skills as well. Aspen Institute and School of Inspired Leadership are two such institutes, which in my opinion are focusing on developing young leaders.
It is essential to understand the context which demands developing leaders for tomorrow.
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Nara Venditti, Ph.D. 1 year ago
Great article! One point I would add is dipping deeper into the pool of high potential employees with diverse backgrounds.
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Jeff P Michaels 1 year ago in reply to Nara Venditti, Ph.D.
Nara you hit the nail on the head. I am facing issues where my experience is being overlooked due to it's broad scope and variety, when in reality I believe it is my greatest strength.
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Whael Matti 1 year ago
I really believe in Leadership being gained from real-life experiences and projects. Leadership training is important to understand the structure of being a leader, but work gives the insight of how this structure becomes a dynamic entity that reward all team members with different leadership skills.
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Istuti 1 year ago
Great thought to ponder on. I'd like to add that organisations(esp large ones) need to focus a lot more on holistic development of an employee rather than a siloed approach. For Example, an employee who is a finance major keeps to finance function in the organisation for most part of his career leading to limited understanding of the big picture which often comes in the way of gaining a leadership position.
All employess should be multi-skilled and adept to handle and look at a problem/issue from different angles such as HR/Financial/Operational/Customer/Administrative/Legal/Shareholder impact to be able to lead in an effective way.
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Greg Strosaker 1 year ago
I think the overall point is to assume that leadership can, in fact, be developed and is not solely an inherent trait in an individual. Yes, there are some with more natural leadership tendencies, but the necessary skills can be improved in a wider range of employees than most executives probably currently believe, if the investment is there. Your five ideas seem about right; there needs to be less air of "exclusivity" around leadership development opportunities.
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Jennifer Doyle 1 year ago
I love your point regarding teaching leadership skills to all levels - not just the top. Today's individual contributor is the situational leader of tomorrow. Everyone in a company has an opportunity to make an impact - positive or negative - and teaching all employees a few fundamentals of leadership will reap fantastic rewards for all.
That being said, I would also note that those in the organization, who do not support leadership development opportunities - whether for themselves or for those they manage, should be dealt with swiftly. Leadership development should not be an optional activity for those who enjoy it but a requirement of all employees as it directly impacts the success of the company - which is an obligation the company owes to its shareholders and Customers.
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notmd 1 year ago
you make a critical statement.. "how many companies actually reward (with any significance) the development of people? Answer: very few. "..I think we need to understand why has it been this way before we say what they should change..Many of those in current leadership roles would say they were not developed and had to fight their way to the top..The survival of the fittest..and thank goodness they persisted (in most cases)..Their empathy for someone being "hand held" into a leadership role is against their beliefs and experience..The problem is the math..The result has been fewer leaders which raises the risk that our organizations may fail..That less is more doesn't work for this equation..the more leaders the organization can select from creates the law of large numbers and increases the probability of success that more leaders exist in the organization..If your CEO starts telling you how tough it was for him/her to get to their position ,you may have an organization that follows the rules of survival..
10:22 AM Wednesday June 2, 2010
by Sue Ashford and Scott DeRue
(Editor's note: This post is part of a six-week blog series on how leadership might look in the future. The conversations generated by these posts will help shape the agenda of a symposium on the topic in June 2010, hosted by HBS's Nitin Nohria, Rakesh Khurana, and Scott Snook. This week's focus: leadership development.)
Nearly 60% of companies are facing leadership talent shortages that are impeding their performance. Another 31% expect a lack of leadership talent to impede their performance in the next several years. Yet, in 2009, U.S. companies spent an estimated $12 billion (24% of their overall training budgets) on leadership development programs and services. By any reasonable standard, what we are currently doing to grow and develop future leaders is not working. Here are five critical attributes that we believe are necessary for developing the leaders of today and tomorrow:
The best learners make the best leaders. We must teach people how to learn leadership from life experiences. In our paper, "Power to the People," we argue that learning leadership is a function of how people approach, go through, and reflect on developmental experiences — a process we call "mindful engagement," We need to stop teaching leadership theory in a vacuum, and start teaching people how to learn leadership from real-world experiences.
Leadership as a set of principles. Business education is largely oriented toward teaching an important but narrow set of technical knowledge and skills. We need to expand our teaching to encompass a set of leadership principles that can be globally applied across situations. Doing so will build an adaptive capacity that enables people to more effectively lead in today's complex and dynamic business environment.
Reward leadership development (FINALLY!). All companies pay lip service to the importance of developing people, but how many companies actually reward (with any significance) the development of people? Answer: very few. Also, how many companies penalize managers for hoarding key talent? Answer: almost none. Yet, managers often do everything they can to avoid losing key talent to other opportunities because, as one executive put it to us the other day: "I can't afford to lose my best people."
Leadership development at all levels. In an earlier blog entry, we argued that leadership is not about position. If that is true, then why do most leadership development programs focus on senior executives? We need to expand our focus to figure out ways to efficiently and economically develop leaders throughout the organization.
Keep it simple. Leadership is complex, but leadership development cannot be. We must provide key talent with clear metrics and development priorities that provide a straightforward roadmap for realizing their leadership potential. Unfortunately, that is not the case in most companies. One Fortune 500 company that we are working with developed a leadership competency model that specifies 54 distinct competencies across 15 different leadership skills. The result? Employees are confused, and assessment data are poor. Instead, identify the three or four competencies that really differentiate top performers across different levels of the organization, and then reward and promote based on those competencies.
These are our five ideas for improving the return on investment in leadership development and addressing the looming leadership talent shortage. Do you agree? Disagree? Have other suggestions?
Sue Ashford is Associate Dean for Leadership Programming and Executive MBA Program and the Michael & Susan Jandernoa Professor of Management and Organizations at the at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Scott DeRue is an Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
(Editor's note: This post is part of a six-week blog series on how leadership might look in the future. The conversations generated by these posts will help shape the agenda of a symposium on the topic in June 2010, hosted by HBS's Nitin Nohria, Rakesh Khurana, and Scott Snook. This week's focus: leadership development.)
Sue Ashford and Scott DeRue
Sue Ashford is Associate Dean for Leadership Programming and Executive MBA Program and the Michael & Susan Jandernoa Professor of Management and Organizations at the at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Scott DeRue is an Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
http://blogs.hbr.org/imagining-the-future-of-leadership/2010/06/5-steps-to-addressing-the-lead.html
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Maximo Aton 1 year ago
The five ideas in improving leadership in the organization will be very useful. However, there is a need to highlight that leadership principles should conform with universal moral values. History has shown that there were skilful leaders like Hitler who was able to lead people into self destruction. Transactional leadership will bring change in the organization without due regard to what is really good or right. Transformational leadership and ethical leadership can lead an organization into higher ideals. When an organization is morally bankrupt, sooner or later the organization will be financially bankrupt. This has happened to once powerful Roman Empire and other big companies like Enron. Leaders with moral values are of paramount importance for continuous business success.
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Jeff Walker 1 year ago
these are great points for the for-profit and non-profit world...another world to look at, how do we develop and bring leaders into the government world (city, state, federal?). Right now most great leaders are too afraid to enter the political scene. How can we make the federal government interested/and more able to bring in leadership talent into govt service.
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Steve Swavely, Ph.D. 1 year ago
Those are 5 great principles, but I would add a critical 6th - Leadership development is relationship development. This is still an area that most companies are reluctant to address head on - which in my opinion is why 60% of companies are in the middle of a leadership shortage and another 31% have a leadership shortage on their horizon. Part of the problem is that great relationship development depends on developing high levels of self awareness, which all too often is still viewed as a "soft skill" that either can't be "trained" or is not worthy of training dollars. Thankfully, neuroscience is beginning to change that view as well as provide effective ways of increasing self awarenss beyond the traditional 360 and personality assessment.
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Marc Mikulski 1 year ago
Great post. In the public sector, especially in a unionized environment the leadership void is also being felt. Often many desire to be leaders just because it means a bump in pay, not because they really aspire to have a leadership role. What we end up with many times are people that can score well on a promotional examination and are savvy in some technical aspect of their present assignment. They are promoted to their level of their incompetence, “leadership”, with no desire to engage in any professional development and destine to remain in the status quo environment or worse to anyone’s detriment. Your five critical attributes are very relevant on what we should be doing to prepare employees for leadership roles. My issue though over the years has been how do you identify those quality potential leaders other than a written assessment in a unionized governmental setting? We identified six attributes that begins to develop a basic profile on who we should concentrate our efforts on. By no means is this informal metrics an all inclusive roadmap, but you can see what we’re striving for.
“Appreciates the Thrill of a Challenge”, identifying a willing to do things outside the scope of their position and that they’re not afraid of learning new tasks. It shows a willingness to take on more or new responsibility and not being afraid to fail.
“Possesses a Constructive Spirit of Discontent”, my personal favorite. I like to call it the “Bionic Person Attribute” a positive attitude that looks at problems as challenges and offers solutions to them, believing that they can make it better, faster or stronger!
“Demonstrated Leadership in the Past”, leverages past behavior as a forecaster of future behavior. Are they an informal leader or knowledgebase within the organization already? Do they have leadership roles outside the organization?
“Possess a Completion Factor”, this demonstrates an ability to focus on solving issues and problems and that they can follow through.
“Possess Mental Toughness” reveals if that they are prepared to be criticized and whether or not they have an iron will to stay the course and are willing to pay the price to get to the vision.
“Peer Respect” An employer can get a fairly accurate read on a person by the company they keep. By looking to see if they have peer respect an employer can get an idea of what their character and personality is like.
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Paul Krizman 1 year ago
Every company has two central assets - customers and employees. Focusing on employee leadership development is key to a buisness owner developing a entity that works for him. The idea of keeping it simple is an excellent concept - make it easy to learn and the incentive for your people to advance will be greater.
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GK 1 year ago
I agree of extending leadership development to all levels within the organization and not limiting it to the senior leadership team. Unfortunately, many organizations fail to understand this.
However, in my opinion, the corporate world needs to go beyond this. It is time we have more colleges with focus on developing leaders of consequence for taking up challenges of tomorrow.
Leadership can not be constrained just to the organization. It extends to having a positive influence on the employees, the customers, the society, and the planet.
Today, there is a need for a leader who practices the principles of mindfulness, ethics, compassion, sustainability and diversity.
In addition to developing technical skills, our education system should focus on enhancing leadership skills as well. Aspen Institute and School of Inspired Leadership are two such institutes, which in my opinion are focusing on developing young leaders.
It is essential to understand the context which demands developing leaders for tomorrow.
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Nara Venditti, Ph.D. 1 year ago
Great article! One point I would add is dipping deeper into the pool of high potential employees with diverse backgrounds.
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Jeff P Michaels 1 year ago in reply to Nara Venditti, Ph.D.
Nara you hit the nail on the head. I am facing issues where my experience is being overlooked due to it's broad scope and variety, when in reality I believe it is my greatest strength.
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Whael Matti 1 year ago
I really believe in Leadership being gained from real-life experiences and projects. Leadership training is important to understand the structure of being a leader, but work gives the insight of how this structure becomes a dynamic entity that reward all team members with different leadership skills.
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Istuti 1 year ago
Great thought to ponder on. I'd like to add that organisations(esp large ones) need to focus a lot more on holistic development of an employee rather than a siloed approach. For Example, an employee who is a finance major keeps to finance function in the organisation for most part of his career leading to limited understanding of the big picture which often comes in the way of gaining a leadership position.
All employess should be multi-skilled and adept to handle and look at a problem/issue from different angles such as HR/Financial/Operational/Customer/Administrative/Legal/Shareholder impact to be able to lead in an effective way.
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Greg Strosaker 1 year ago
I think the overall point is to assume that leadership can, in fact, be developed and is not solely an inherent trait in an individual. Yes, there are some with more natural leadership tendencies, but the necessary skills can be improved in a wider range of employees than most executives probably currently believe, if the investment is there. Your five ideas seem about right; there needs to be less air of "exclusivity" around leadership development opportunities.
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Jennifer Doyle 1 year ago
I love your point regarding teaching leadership skills to all levels - not just the top. Today's individual contributor is the situational leader of tomorrow. Everyone in a company has an opportunity to make an impact - positive or negative - and teaching all employees a few fundamentals of leadership will reap fantastic rewards for all.
That being said, I would also note that those in the organization, who do not support leadership development opportunities - whether for themselves or for those they manage, should be dealt with swiftly. Leadership development should not be an optional activity for those who enjoy it but a requirement of all employees as it directly impacts the success of the company - which is an obligation the company owes to its shareholders and Customers.
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notmd 1 year ago
you make a critical statement.. "how many companies actually reward (with any significance) the development of people? Answer: very few. "..I think we need to understand why has it been this way before we say what they should change..Many of those in current leadership roles would say they were not developed and had to fight their way to the top..The survival of the fittest..and thank goodness they persisted (in most cases)..Their empathy for someone being "hand held" into a leadership role is against their beliefs and experience..The problem is the math..The result has been fewer leaders which raises the risk that our organizations may fail..That less is more doesn't work for this equation..the more leaders the organization can select from creates the law of large numbers and increases the probability of success that more leaders exist in the organization..If your CEO starts telling you how tough it was for him/her to get to their position ,you may have an organization that follows the rules of survival..
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