The sorry state of leadership…..

Why The sorry state of leadership is still prevailing in most organizations? is there any solution to The sorry state of leadership? 

Here are some leadership statistics to ponder

Only 1 in 3 employees worldwide trust their leaders – Gallup

58% of people said that they trust a stranger more than their boss – A Harvard Business Review survey

65% of employees would instead chose a better boss than get a pay raise – National boss day survey

57% of the employees leave because of their bosses – DDI research

70% of the employees are disengaged at work – World Economic Forum

Most employees say that the leaders they have worked with are mediocre at best and toxic at worse. But, unfortunately, being mediocre is not enough in today’s fast-changing business world.  In many organizations, leadership is simply uninspiring.  Often it is even worse – leadership is merely lame. 

There are countless examples of leaders who disappoint us.  This is true for leaders in business, politics, religion, or any other area.  Newspaper headlines are filled with business leaders who misbehaved, put their self-interest ahead of the greater good, or stole money from their companies.  In politics, most people have to vote for less evil candidates compared with other candidates.  People often wonder this is the best we have in our political leaders.  Religious organizations are replete with scandals and cover-ups – no wonder most people have lost faith in organized religion.

How did we reach here?

In his book – The Leadership Contract – author Vince Molinaro cites four main reasons for the sorry state of leadership in organizations.

1. The heroic model of leadership

We love to believe in heroes.  A solo, all accomplishing hero is great for a movie plot. But unfortunately, when it comes to leading, the “heroic leader’ model is long dead. But we still believe in it. 

A single person usually at the top of the organization knows it all and can single-handedly lead the organization to success. However, in fast-changing, globally-connected, complex organizations, this is simply impossible. 

It is also risky to put all your faith in a single individual.  It takes away the focus from developing leaders at all levels of the organization – from C-suite to frontline leaders.

2. Glorification of charismatic leaders

To compound the problem of a few heroic leaders at the top, we glorify charismatic leaders and turn them into celebrities.  Business magazines and social media have turned many CEOs into charismatic leaders with a great fan following. As a result, companies give them eye-watering compensation packages and too much power.  While charisma in itself is not bad, but worshiping charisma has a darker side.

Jim Collins, in his book “Good to Great” warned of the dangers of charismatic leaders.  None of the leaders of the most outstanding companies identified by Jim Collins were charismatic. Instead, all of them had a rare combination of humility and discipline. 

Walter Isaacson describes Steve Jobs as a “colossal asshole” who succeeded despite his destructive behaviors.  We see leaders glorified even when they are jerks.  We reward and celebrate these jerks.  Consequently, we forget what good leadership is all about.  Agreed that leadership is about getting results and not a popularity contest, but good leaders get results and engage people simultaneously.  While it may be OK to be harsh when a situation demands it, being a jerk all the time doesn’t make sense.

3.We promote technically brilliant performers into leadership positions

Most organizations tolerate mediocre leadership. One of the primary reasons is that organizations promote technically brilliant performers into leadership positions. For example, the salesperson who sells the most becomes the sales head.  The programmer who performs better than others becomes the project lead. 

There is a flawed assumption that technically brilliant people will make good leaders. However, as an employee, becoming a team leader is probably the only choice to move up the career ladder.

Read: What are the ego traps and Leadership Derailers leaders fall for?

Leading people is an entirely different ball game.  Most people fail at it as they are not trained.  Often technically sound leaders have big egos.  Hence they may not admit that they don’t know how to lead.  They don’t ask for help.  Organizations rarely support them properly in their leadership role.  Offering E-learning modules or sending them to a two-day leadership program is not sufficient. 

4.The quick-fix mentality of leadership development

We are seduced by quick fixes and overnight success in all walks of life.  Whether it is losing weight fast or getting rich quickly – we get attracted to such false claims.  Books, magazines, self-development programs promise such overnight success. But, unfortunately, it takes hard work and months and years of consistent effort to lose weight or get rich.  Chasing the latest fad doesn’t work.

Leadership is no different.  But companies still chase the latest fad in leadership development.  They want overnight results.  They send leaders to a three-day program and think that they have done enough to develop their leaders.

The leadership development industry hasn’t done enough to educate companies that quick-fix solutions are a complete waste of time, money, and effort.  Companies don’t want to hear the bitter truth, and consultants don’t want to disappoint their clients by refusing solutions that provide “quick fixes” and “overnight success.” 

The quick fixes fade away quickly. Instead, it takes consistent effort and hard work over many years to develop leaders at all levels within the organization.

 It is time to expect more from leadership.

Many years of mediocre leadership have lowered leadership expectations. The more we live with uninspiring leadership, the lower our expectations will become.   It is time to change that. 

Expect and get more from your leaders.  Develop them to go from average leaders to inspiring leaders.

Develop them with our award-winning leadership coaching program that has a success rate of 95%

NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth.  It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (a study of 11000 leaders on 4 continents).  It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders.

Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs.  We go to the leader and her team.  And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team.

Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader: Every leader is different.  One size fits all approach doesn’t work. Instead, individual development areas for each leader are aligned to the business strategy.

Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team. As a result, it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture.

The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development.

Cost-Effective: Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short-duration leadership program at any reputed B school.

Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth: as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members.

Pay us only after we deliver results! : We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis.  What does it mean?  If the leaders don’t improve, you don’t have to pay us.

Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today

Click the button below.

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Reference

The leadership contract – The fine print to becoming a great leader by Vince Molinaro

Your Executive Leadership Development – Sink, Swim, or Set up for Success?

Executive leadership of any company has immense responsibility on their shoulders to steer the entire company.  Executive leadership’s collective effectiveness determines the success or failure of the entire organization.  In a company with 1000 plus employees, it is not unusual to see an executive leadership team (ELT) of 30 odd leaders.  What are you doing to develop your executive leadership team development?..

The Executive Leadership Team

In most companies, the board of directors occupies the top level of the organization and often includes the company founders and independent directors. In addition, the Board of directors usually has an advisory role.

The highest-ranking executive leadership position in any organization is the CEO or the Chief Executive Officer.  Sometimes the titles may be different – MD (Managing Director) or something else, but the function is similar.  The people who directly report to the CEO constitute the C-suite.

A list of designations that are in the C-suite usually includes the CEO, the COO (Chief Operating Officer), the CFO (Chief Financial Officer), the CIO/CTO (Chief Information/Technology Officer, the CMO/CRO (Chief Marketing/Revenue Officer), the CPO (Chief Product Officer), the CXO (Chief Experience Officer), the CHRO (Chief Human Resources Officer), etc.

The next level of corporate rung consists of people who report to the C-suite.  These titles often include designations like Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, and Vice Presidents of specific functional areas.  The C-suite and the people who report to the C-suite make up the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) at any company.

A lot is riding on your Executive Leadership Team!

The executive leadership team, ELT, has the unenvious job of steering the organization in today’s VUCA (Volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) business world.

A lot is riding on the ELT!

Executive leadership – business results expectations

Below are some of the many expectations from the ELT

• Defining the vision
• Crafting the strategy to achieve the vision
• Do a SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis
• Steer the company through PEST (political, economic, social, technological) changes
• Survive and thrive in the VUCA world
• Deliver profitable growth for all stakeholders

This is just the execution side.

Executive leadership team – people expectations

Here are some of the many expectations from ELT on the people side

• Communicate the direction down the line
• Attract, retain and engage the top talent
• Exhibit behaviors that are inclusive, respectful, supportive
• Inspiring and providing meaning and purpose in their work
• Listen to and act on employee’s inputs
• Hold everyone (including themselves) accountable to high standards of performance.

ELT is expected to keep up with the fast-changing and highly competitive business environment and meet the ever-increasing expectations of customers and employees.

Executive leadership development

I often ask the top leaders in organizations we consult for – How many people are on your ELT?   For one of the clients, that number was 32.   Then I ask, how many total employees are in the organization.  For this client, the number of employees was over 1500.  So 32 people are responsible for inspiring, motivate, hold accountable, and deliver results for all stakeholders through a total of 1500 employees.  That sheds light on the ELT’s responsibilities.

Regardless of its size, the Executive Leadership Team is responsible for providing leadership to the entire organization. As a result, this ELT has more impact on how the organization performs than any other group. And hence it is critical to have executive leadership development programs and solutions that include training and coaching.

My next question is – So, what are you doing to develop your ELT?  Often there is silence!  Then they will reply that we sent some of the leaders to an executive leadership training program at a B-school!  Sometimes that happened quite a few years ago. Others talk about the e-learning platforms and executive leadership training courses and solutions available to the leaders for their development.   Then there is also executive leadership coaching – a one-on-one personal approach to help the leaders grow.

Most of the time, such sporadic and disjointed leadership training is a waste of time and money. However, it is also dangerous as it gives a false sense that the company has executive leadership development solutions in training, coaching, and e-learning.

Executive leadership training is NOT working!

An estimated $100 billion is spent worldwide on executive leadership development programs.  Are they working?  How do we know that executive leadership development programs are working (or not)?  Here are some eye-opening numbers from two different surveys in 2016.

The first survey was by Mckinsey and included 52,000 leaders worldwide.

86 percent of leaders rated themselves as inspiring and good role models

What did the employees think of these leaders? The answer is in the 2nd survey!

A 2016 Gallup survey on employee engagement found that.

82 percent of employees see their leaders as fundamentally uninspiring.

What a stark contrast!  86% of the leaders rated themselves as inspiring.  Only 18% of their employees agreed, 82% clearly disagreed!

The same survey found that only 13 percent of the global workforce is engaged. In addition, 24 percent of the employees are actively disengaged.  Similar numbers are reflected in Gallup’s annual employee engagement surveys, year after year.

CEO and C-suite tenures are shrinking.  The traditional approach to leadership is outdated.  There is a huge skill gap in the approach and style of leadership required for the rapidly changing business environment of the 21st century.

Executive leadership development – Is it a top priority?

Leadership effectiveness drives business performance.  As the ELT provides leadership to the entire organization, it has more impact on its performance than any other initiative.  Their development is critical.  It may be the difference between surviving and thriving.  It is essential for sustainable growth in the long term.

This requires the continuous leadership development of the ELT.  Their development has to keep up with the rapid changes as growth and profitability are at stake.  Executive leadership training is also essential for the sustainability and survival of the organization.  Their collective leadership effectiveness determines the success or failure of the entire organization.

Executive leadership development is not an event, and it is a continuous process.  And it starts with the top! The CEO, the C-suite, and then cascade down to the ELT.

Read: Developing leaders vs. leadership development

To quote Peter Drucker –

“You cannot manage other people unless you manage yourself first.” 

Good organizations don’t leave that to chance.  They engage in systematic executive leadership training that involves the entire team.  And it is a continuous process that lasts anywhere from 2-5 years.  It doesn’t stop after there.  The leadership development is cascaded down to the next level.  The world never stops changing, and executive leadership development shouldn’t either.  Progressive organizations continuously measure results.  The CEO, C-suite, and the executive leadership team drive the entire process and lead by example.

The collective effectiveness of your ELT

Most leadership development focuses on developing individual leaders.  Organizations rarely focus on the collective leadership effectiveness of their entire ELT.  If you can capitalize and utilize the collective intelligence of your executive leadership, it is an enormous competitive advantage. Individual leadership development is necessary but not sufficient.  Today, most work is done in complex, interdependent teams.  The days of a single heroic leader are all but gone.  Unfortunately, organizations still are unaware of measuring and developing the collective effectiveness of executive leadership through training and coaching.

Ineffective methods of executive leadership cascade down!

Here are some of the critical issues that plague the executive leadership

• Lack of transparency
• Politics and selfish behaviors
• Poor listening
• Lack of trust and collaboration
• Clear direction and commitment
• Lack of accountability
• Lack of courage to discuss tough issues
• Inability to admit and learn from mistakes

These factors reduce the collective effectiveness of the ELT.  And more often than not, the collective executive leadership performs well below the average intelligence of the individual members.  Hence, it is essential to measure executive leadership training and coaching effectiveness, focusing on their collective development.

To quote Peter Drucker again.

“Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and underperformance. Everything else requires leadership.” 

How effective is your executive leadership?

As part of the ELT, you cannot leverage and scale the organization until you develop the leaders.  The best way to develop others is by being a role model.  Going through the process yourself.  Understanding how it works.  And inspiring others with your behavior to become better leaders.

It is imperative that organizations simultaneously work on developing leaders individually and leadership development collectively, especially for the executive leadership through training and coaching.

Here are some questions to ponder to gauge the collective effectiveness of your SLT

• How effective is your ELT?
• How do you know that? (hint if you do not measure it, then you don’t really know!)
• How does it compare with a peer group?
• Is your ELT developing faster than the pace of change in the VUCA world?
• What behaviors are the ELT members role-modeling?
• What kind of organizational culture is it creating?

The level and consistency of the executive leadership’s collective effectiveness make the difference between an organization’s success and failure.  Often organizations focus on individual leadership effectiveness. Individual effectiveness is necessary but not sufficient for outstanding business performance. The organization cannot perform at a level higher than the collective effectiveness of its executive leadership.

The problem with executive leadership development

When asked, leaders always agree that leadership effectiveness (both individual and collective) is a primary contributor to business performance and success. In surveys after surveys, the majority of CEOs consider leadership development as their top priority.  And yet, leadership development is often relegated to the human resources department, which often struggles for attention and relevance amid competing priorities. To complicate matters further, most organizations that focus on leadership development focus on individual effectiveness and ignore the huge potential of collective leadership effectiveness.

Executive leadership Development – A huge and untapped competitive advantage

Collective leadership effectiveness and intelligence of ELT is a huge untapped potential in most organizations.

To quote Peter Senge –

“We usually dumb down when we come together. We act at the lowest common denominator. “

Most executive leadership teams’ collective intelligence and performance are well below the average intelligence and performance of the individual members.

In most ELTs, you can observe poor listening, lack of transparency, silo mentality, political caution, self-interest ahead of greater good, mistrust, withholding of opinions, lack of psychological safety, etc. —undermine the collective effectiveness. A

As a result, most leadership teams function collectively well below their members’ average intelligence. Yet, for today’s complex, global, and interdependent tasks, collective intelligence is required for breakthroughs.  As a leader, you cannot scale the organization until you understand and perform your role in developing other leaders.

Achieve sustainable growth in the NEXT normal by leveraging Executive Leadership Development

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFnGhtNC7o0[/embedyt]

The best executive leadership program

We help our clients develop leaders individually and collectively through executive leadership training, individual coaching, and team coaching.

We offer guaranteed and measurable results, or you do not pay!

• Stakeholder centered coaching programs

Our leadership and team coaching programs are stakeholder-centered. It means that the leader’s team members are involved at every step of the 12-15 month process. First, the team members share anonymous feedback on the leader’s strengths and improvement areas. Based on the feedback, the leader selects improvement areas that are specific and customized to the individual leader. Then the team members give their inputs and suggestions on how the leader can improve – month after month. The leader implements these suggestions during their day-to-day work with the team members. They also anonymously rate the leader’s improvement via three surveys during this 12-15 month process.

• Benefits cascade to the entire team

Watching the leader make all the efforts to improve eventually spills over and cascades down to the team members. The best way to lead is to lead by example. With this process, the leader leads by example, and the impact spills over to the team. The entire team gets better. And the transition from leader development to leadership development takes root.

• Start with executive leadership coaching

We also advise our clients to cover all the leaders in an entire executive leadership team and then cascade down throughout the company. For a relatively smaller organization, the entire company may go through the process in one shot. For a larger organization, it may take 3-5 years. But it is really impactful. And helps the organization to transition from leader development to leadership development. It also has a multiplier effect as many leaders and their teams are improving simultaneously.

• Less time and money than sending people to a short duration B school program

Our coaching program that lasts from 6-12 months costs less than sending the leader to an episodic, short-term program at a reputed B-school. It also takes much less time away from work. We come to the leader (in person or virtually) and spend approximately 1-2 hours per month during the 6-12 month process. The rest of the time, the leader applies the learnings at work with their team.

• Guaranteed results or you don’t pay

In fact, we guarantee measurable results. We offer a no-growth no-pay clause for our leadership interventions. It means that if the leader does not improve, you don’t have to pay us. Who decides if the leader has improved? It is through three anonymous assessments of the leader’s improvement by their own team members.

Stop wasting money on developing leaders and start implementing leadership development in your organization today! Let us help you with leadership development and a culture of leaders at all levels in your organization. Why should you trust us?

• We are the largest leadership coaching network in the world.
• In 2020, Global Guru ranked this program the number 1 coaching development program globally!
• It is 95% effective in a study of 84,000 leaders on 4 continents
• And best of all – we work on a no-growth no-pay guarantee

Read: Which is the best leadership development program?

Schedule a no-obligation conversation to find out more.

Click the button below.

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References:

Mastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results

Business coaching is one of the best tools available for the growth and success of small and medium enterprises.  

Business coaching context:

  Starting a business is not easy.  Sustaining and growing is even more difficult in an ever-changing VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) business environment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 70% of the small businesses (with 500 or fewer employees) fail within the first decade.  Most fail to reach annual revenue of $10 million, and the minority reach $100 million in annual revenue.  

Why is business success elusive?

  In the last two decades, the way we do business has changed drastically.  Think about the trends and disruptions

• Globalization of markets and supply chain
• Internet, smartphones, worldwide connectivity
• Rapid changes aided by technology
• Global competition and continuous change
• Changing customer needs and high expectations

  These factors impact businesses in both positive and negative ways.  Small and medium businesses that anticipate and adapt to these changes usually survive and thrive.  Businesses that fail to change their strategy and approach may suffer or even go out of business.  

Business coaching for business success

  Many factors account for a business’s success (or failure): the right product, the right time, good marketing, unique niche, or even plain luck.  However, one factor that consistently predicts the long-term success of any business is the quality of the leadership in the company.  To grow the company, the leaders need to grow. So it starts from the top – the owners, the promoters, and the top management team (CEO, CXO, etc.).  The impact of good and not so good leadership can easily be seen in the business performance over the long term.  Obviously, the owners and promoters of the business are the driving force in small and medium enterprises. Therefore, the company cannot grow beyond its own growth.  Business coaching is one of the best tools to support business owners, proprietors, CEOs, and senior leadership teams.  

What exactly is business coaching?

  The job of a CEO or a business owner is not easy.  At a lower level, an employee can discuss things with their supervisor. But, who does a CEO bring his issues to?  Where can the business owner reflect his ideas, get clarity, and get support – in a confidential conversation?  Obviously, a business owner cannot discuss his worries, concerns, fears, plans, problems, etc., with their employees.  It is ironic and sad that the person whose development will have the largest impact on the company usually cannot ask anyone for help. In addition, business owners are constantly bombarded with urgent issues.  When do they get time to think, plan and reflect without being interrupted?  Without the time to think and reflect, the business owner can make rash and reactive decisions that may impact the owner’s effectiveness and the business performance. That is where a business coach comes in.  Business coaching creates a pause, a safe and confidential environment for the leader to think, reflect, and re-organize priorities.    Read: CEO coaching – the what why and how of it    

Business coaching – Why do we need it?

  Most business owners are self-made. However, they are also hands on.  

Many business owners have difficulty in transitioning from owner operated business to a professionally managed business.

  What brought them to this level of success in business stops them from reaching the next level of success. Business coaching provides the mindset, skillset, and toolset to help the leader make this transition.   Think of the Olympics or any professional sport.  Every successful athlete or sportsperson has a coach. From school level athletes all the way to professional level sports, everyone has a coach. This is true even for those who are the best in the world. But, if they are the best in the world, why do they need a coach?  The coach provides an outside perspective, holds the athlete accountable, and supports them continuously.    No athlete would ever think of “doing it alone.”  It is not possible to compete at any level without the help of a coach.  Why should business be different?  In a highly competitive, constantly changing, and disruptive business world, it is difficult for a small or medium business owner to do it all alone.  Just like the athletes have a sports coach, business owners hire a business coach to help them and their business reach higher levels of success and avoid the pitfall that is part of a competitive business environment.  

How can the business coach help?

  The business coach can help with one or more of the following areas of business skills.

• Create a shared vision
• Set the right strategy
• Design and implement processes
• Hire the right talent
• Lead and inspire employees
• Stay ahead of continuous change
• Build partnerships within and outside
• Get more work done efficiently from the team

  Business coaching can also help with developing the leader individually

• Provide an outside perspective and act as a sounding board
• Understand own strengths and improvement areas
• Gain clarity and decide on improvement areas
• Create, commit and make progress on your action plan with small, consistent actions
• Get satisfaction and fulfillment from your career
• Survive and thrive in the next normal and a VUCA world
• Future proof your leadership skills
• Become a coaching leader

Business coaching has gone from “remedial” to essential.

  Two decades ago, most business owners wouldn’t dare to admit that they had hired a business coach!  Most people would look down on them.  Why do you need business coaching?  Don’t you know your own business?  Is there something wrong with you?  Are you not smart enough?  Business coaching was looked upon as “remedial.”  It was needed to “fix” an incompetent leader or business owner.   Today, we have come around a full circle.  In industry meets and around the conference tables, business coaching is discussed openly.  Small and medium business owners routinely ask one another if they knew a good business coach and if they could provide their references.  Smart business owners are taking advantage of business coaches to grow and stay ahead of the competition.  Business coaching has become essential and is considered a competitive edge.  

Most of the Fortune 500 companies use coaching to develop leaders and to improve performance and productivity.  Why should small and medium business be left out? 

How to select the right business coach?

  In sports, the top players seldom become great coaches.  What is the main reason?  Coaching requires a different skill set.  When you are a player, you do things yourself.  When you are a coach – you have to use many skills like motivating, reflecting, building relationships, instilling discipline, supporting growth, accountability, and many more. While good working knowledge is necessary, it is in no way sufficient to make a good coach.   Here are some of the criteria and questions to ask to select the right business coach  

• Can the coach support you?
• Will the coach challenge you?
• Can the coach collect and deliver honest feedback?
• Does the coach have a structured and validated process?
• Does the coach maintain confidentiality?
• Will the coach help change the leader’s behaviors AND the team’s perception?
• Does the coach practice what he preaches?  Role models the right behaviors?
• Does the coach have relevant experience in coaching?

  For more details on selecting the coach, please read my article How to find the best executive coach for you or the leaders in your organization    

A majority of the owners don’t get the business coaching they need:

  According to many surveys, 90% of the small business CEOs don’t get the business coaching they really need.  There may be many reasons for this.  Many business owners are not aware that business coaching exists.  Some other owners believe in the old paradigm that they are weak or incompetent if they ask for help.  Others don’t know where to find a business coach or how to evaluate business coaching.  

Without proper business coaching, the business owners and top leaders perform well below their potential.  And consequently so does their business!

Get the best business coaching today.

  We bring a tried and tested process for business coaching that has a 95% effectiveness rate.  We offer our New Age Leadership – NAL Triple Advantage Business Coaching. That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth.  It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (a study of 11000 leaders on 4 continents).  It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders. Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs.  We go to the leader and her team.  And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team. Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader: Every leader is different.  One size fits all approach doesn’t work. Instead, individual development areas for each leader are aligned to the business strategy. Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team. As a result, it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture. The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development. Cost-Effective: Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short-duration leadership program at any reputed B school. Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth: as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members. Pay us only after we deliver results! : We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis.  What does it mean?  If the leaders don’t improve, you don’t have to pay us.   Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today SCHEDULE NOW!      

Competency framework-based leadership development -Why is it NOT working? And what can you do to make it work?

For the last three decades, organizations have increasingly used the competency framework for leadership development.  An estimated 80% of the large organizations use competencies to design and implement their learning and leadership development activities.

At the same time, the numbers on the effectiveness of leadership development initiatives are shocking and depressing. 

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The promise of competency framework based leadership development:

Here is the promise of using a competency framework for leadership development

• Identify the specific competencies (a combination of knowledge, skills, attitude, and traits essential for successful job performance) of successful leaders in a particular organization. 
• Then define and refine these competencies to develop a competency framework (a list of competencies).
• This competency framework then becomes the benchmark against which the company selects, develops, rewards leaders.  If a leader possesses many of the competencies on the list, they have a higher chance of succeeding in their roles. 
• Leaders are assessed based on the competency framework.  Any gaps are identified.  The goal of leadership development is to close these competency gaps. 
• All the learning and leadership development activities are designed to enhance one or more of these competencies. 

How competency frameworks are defined

If a company, ABC widgets, wanted to adopt a competency framework, here is the typical process they would follow, usually with the help of an external consultant.

• Study what do the best leaders have in common
• Analyze performance management, 360-degree feedback, leaders’ behaviors, interviews, etc.
• Prepare a draft list of competencies specific to the organization
• Get inputs, buy-in, and confirmation from top executives (CEO and the C-suite)
• Finalize the list of competencies to be used organization-wide

This list of competencies or the competency framework becomes the holy grail against which all leadership development efforts would revolve.

On paper, this process seems logical, reasonable, and scientific.

Why hasn’t competency-based leadership development worked?

While the competency framework provided a structured approach to talent management, competency-based leadership development hasn’t lived up to its promise.  The statistics on the effectiveness of leadership development initiatives are both shocking and depressing.

• In a recent survey, 80% of the CEOs thought leadership development initiatives in their own organizations had a little business impact.
• Kristi Hedges, a Forbes  magazine contributor, wrote in her aptly titled article – “If you think most leadership development is a waste of time, you may be right.”

Despite being used for three decades, competency-based leadership development has yet to deliver on the promise of improving the effectiveness of leadership development.

Read:  Is your leadership development effective? Or is the money going down the drain?

Authors Zenger and Folkman (in their book The Extraordinary leaders) list these four flaws in the competency-based leadership development movement.  They present these findings based on large-scale studies of thousands of leaders in various organizations with diverse geographical locations.

Competency frameworks are too complex

It is quite common to see competency frameworks in organizations consisting of a dozen or more competencies.  Each of these competencies has four to six associated behaviors.

These behaviors are different for different levels of leaders.  Most companies have three or more levels – individual contributor, manager, function head, division head, etc.

Think about your organization.  What is the total number of competencies?  How many total corresponding behaviors do you have to be aware of? 

How many different levels of leadership do you have to differentiate competencies for?  Just do the math, and you will see that there may be dozens of competencies and hundreds of behaviors to understand and develop.

It is practically impossible to track and develop such a large number of behaviors for the individual leader, their manager, and the talent development team.

Competency frameworks are based on incorrect assumptions

Here are some incorrect assumptions about competencies

Each company has a distinctive competency framework:  While there are some differences, the behavioral competency frameworks in most organizations are largely similar with just different semantics.

Each competency is discrete and distinct:  Nearly all competencies are linked to other similar competencies.  When a leader gets better in one competency, there is a spillover effect in one or more of the other competencies.

All competencies are of equal importance:  Traditional way to develop leaders is to improve upon the competencies the leader got a low score. Unfortunately, this assumption of removing weaknesses is ineffective.  It is much better to leverage two or three strengths that the leader possesses. 

The only exception is if the competency gap is a “fatal flaw” that is so glaring that it distracts from the leader’s strengths.

Competency frameworks have unintended consequences

As the competency framework is complex and cumbersome, there are some unintended consequences.  Here are just a few of the unintended consequences.

• It becomes a check-the-box activity for the leader and the talent development team.
• The focus is on removing deficiencies. The focus should be on leveraging a few strengths.
• It is a cookie-cutter approach that tries to fit everyone in similar boxes.  In a rapidly changing world, having an entire team of identical people could be disastrous.
• Complacency – Leaders who get better than average scores within the organization become complacent. Companies end up with a lot of average leaders instead of aspiring them to become outstanding leaders.

Poor execution of the competency framework

Competencies aren’t selected based on rigorous research: The competency framework should ideally be created based on solid research that differentiates the top performers in a particular organization.   However, this doesn’t really happen. 

Consultants bring a standard list of competencies, eliminate a few low-priority competencies based on organization, and share the list with the top executives in the C-suite. 

The CEO and the C-suite executive tinker around with the framework till they are satisfied.  The consultants are usually happy to oblige.  If a CEO says that a particular competency is important, it is simple and easy to add.

It focuses on what brought success in the past:  Even when based on thorough research, competency frameworks focus on past successes.  It tells you what made leaders successful in the past. 

As we all know, in today’s VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous – world companies are continuously undergoing transition. What worked well in the past is rapidly getting obsolete. 

Companies have to adapt and change quickly.  Adhering to a backward-looking competency framework may be a trap that may jeopardize future success.

Hiring and developing is still not competency-based:  Although the human resources department is the custodian of competencies, they seldom find their way into the hiring process.  With too many competencies and even more associated behaviors, it isn’t easy to integrate a competency framework in hiring and designing developmental activities.

How to get competency frameworks right

Here are some tips to get the competency framework right.

Identify and develop the right competencies

Which are the competencies that really matter?  Has your organization done thorough, rigorous, and validated research to define which competencies matter?  If that is not the case, it is best to use a standard set of well-researched and validated competencies.

We offer the GLA 360 instrument, which measures the 15 top competencies of today’s global leader.  These competencies include a focus on both tasks and people.  They also include timeless competencies to model past successes and emerging competencies to ensure future success.

Read: Measure 15 competencies of today’s global leaders with Global Leadership Assessment GLA 360

Compare scores with the Global norm group

Many organizations rate their own leaders on their standard competency framework.  Then a leader’s score is compared with average scores for all leaders within the organization.  This gives leaders a false sense that they are OK if they score above average. 

If you are the best student in your own school, it is good.  But when you compete at a University level, you are just one of the many best students of their own schools. 

It raises the bar of performance.  Don’t let them get complacent. Challenge your leaders to aspire to be the best.

Compare your leaders to a global norm group of leaders.  Our GLA 360 helps your leaders compare where they stand against the global group of leaders.

Leverage strengths except in the case of  “fatal flaws.”

Do you remember your last performance management review?  Your boss probably complimented you, albeit briefly, about your strengths.  Then immediately, he/she went on to discuss your “weaknesses” and advised you to improve upon them.  Even for 360-degree report debriefing, the focus is on remedying weaknesses instead of leveraging strengths.

This is an inefficient approach to leadership development.  To quote Albert Einstein – if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.  It is easier and more efficient to teach a fish to swim better and faster than to teach it how to climb a tree!

Similarly, it is more effective for leaders to get better in their strengths instead of focusing on the improvement areas.

However, there is one exception.  It is when the leader’s weakness is a “fatal flaw” or a “bottleneck.”  Here is an example of a fatal flaw.  When I say the name Bill Clinton, what comes to mind? 

Although he was an extremely effective and popular president, the first thing that comes to people’s minds is his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

A fatal flaw casts a shadow on everything else a leader does.  In such cases, it is important to work on the bottleneck or the fatal flaw.  In all other cases, it is more effective to focus on leveraging the leader’s strengths.

Enroll and involve the leader’s team in leadership development

The leader’s team members are in the best position to judge whether the leader has changed her behavior.  Whether or not the leader is improving. 

They can also provide valuable inputs about what behaviors the leader should start or stop to improve a particular competency. Involving team members increases accountability and helps leaders improve quickly and efficiently.

Our NAL triple advantage coaching process is team-centered.  It is highly efficient, with a success rate of 95%.  It is based on the 15 competencies of today’s global leaders and it guarantees measurable leadership growth.

Read: A Coaching program with 95% success rate

Conclusion:

While the competency framework is a good start, it has severe practical limitations.  Competency-based leadership development hasn’t lived up to its promise. Some workarounds will overcome the flaws and enhance the effectiveness of your competency-based leadership development initiatives.

We offer a GLA 360 assessment, which measures the leader on the top 15 competencies of today’s global leader.  We also compare the leader’s ratings to a norm group of global leaders.

We also offer stakeholder-centered coaching for developing your leaders.  While most leadership development fails to deliver measurable results and business impact, our approach guarantees it!  If your leaders do not improve measurably, you don’t have to pay.

Read:  What are the best executive coaching programs? Which are the top executive coaching firms?

Choose the right competencies and right approach to develop your leaders

We offer our New Age Leadership – NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching that delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth. It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study or 11000 leaders on four continents). Companies ranging from startups to 150 of the Fortune 500 use this process to develop their leaders.

NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

We offer our New Age Leadership Triple advantage coaching that delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth.  It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study or 11000 leaders on 4 continents). 

It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 of the Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders.

Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs.  We go to the leader and her team.  And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team.

Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader: Every leader is different.  One size fits all approach doesn’t work.  Individual development areas for each leader aligned to the business strategy.

Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team, and it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture.

The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development.

Cost-Effective: Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short-duration leadership program at any reputed B school.

Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth: as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members.

Pay us only after we deliver results! : We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis.  What does it mean?  If the leaders don’t improve, you simply don’t have to pay us.

Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today. No obligation and no sales pitch

SCHEDULE NOW!

Reference:  The Extraordinary Leader by Zenger & Folkman 

Qualities of a leader – based on validated research

Qualities of a leader.  Instead of compiling a random list of leadership qualities, I will discuss fifteen leadership qualities based on research on real leaders in large organizations across the six continents.

A leader’s two primary responsibilities

To understand the qualities of a leader, let us first think about a leader’s job.

Any leader has basically primary responsibilities – and both are interrelated.

1. Deliver results by getting work done to achieve the organizational goals
2. To retain those people by looking after their wellbeing.

Task & people focus

The first point refers to the qualities of leaders to deliver results or task competencies.  The second point refers to the leadership qualities and competencies to engage, inspire and retain people. In other words – people competencies.  If a leader only focuses on results, she may lose people.  It is a short-term gain for a long-term loss.  If a leader only focuses on people at the cost of business outcomes, the leader is not doing her job and may not remain a leader for long.

Think about some of the best leaders you have worked for or worked with.  What did they do?  Think about some of the worst leaders you have worked with or worked for.  What did they do?  The chances are that they struck the right balance between caring for people and focusing on business results.  Good leaders support and empower people, hold them accountable, and inspire them to achieve business goals.

The 15 qualities of today’s global leader

This list is not a random compilation of the miscellaneous qualities of a leader.  These qualities come from our Global Leadership Assessment GLA 360, which measures today’s global leaders’ essential competencies.  These qualities of a leader are based on research on real leaders in actual companies.

The research included actual leaders in real companies.  The study included CEOs of Fortune 100 companies.  It also included global thought leaders in the area of leadership.  It included geographically diverse leaders and executives on six continents.   You can safely say this list includes real-life leadership qualities and real-life competencies required for success in today’s global business world.

These 15 qualities are grouped into 5 clusters.

1. Qualities of a leader:  The Communication cluster

The first cluster of leadership qualities is about communication and includes three competencies. 

1. Integrity

To quote Warren Buffet – I look for three things when hiring people.  Integrity, intelligence, and energy.  But if they don’t have the first – don’t bother about the other two.

People are constantly assessing whether the leader is trustworthy and reliable.   If the leader doesn’t have integrity, people won’t trust the leader.  If they don’t trust the leader, they won’t believe in what the leader says. 

Integrity is a fundamental leadership quality.  It is timeless.  A hundred years ago, people expected their leaders to have integrity. 

Decades ago, Dwight D. Eisenhower called integrity the supreme leadership quality.

“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.”

I am willing to bet that integrity will be an essential leadership quality even a hundred years from now.

Leaders themselves have to be honest and ethical in dealing with people at all levels and all the time.  They have to clarify their values and lead by example to live their values.  They are willing to take a stand for what they believe in.  They also have to hold others to high levels of integrity. 

2. Vision

Vision is what separates a leader from a competent manager.  Leaders have a clear picture in their minds for where they want to take people.  They want to bring followers to a place that is much better than the current place.  Leaders share and articulate this vision so that it inspires followers to sign up for this arduous journey.  A good vision influences people to put in the hard work needed to achieve the vision for the greater good of all.  A good leader creates a strategy and prioritizes the tasks to make the dream a reality. 

“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.”  Warren G. Bennis

3. Communication

Effective communication is an essential leadership quality.  Often people think that communication is about speaking.  Communication is a lot more about genuine listening.  It is about understanding others’ perspectives, even when leaders disagree with that perspective.  Good leaders also have an excellent quality of asking people for feedback on how they can get better and then act on that feedback.  They don’t get defensive when someone criticizes them.  They keep an open mind and consider everyone’s ideas, opinions, and perspectives.

“The art of communication is the language of leadership.” James Humes

Read: How to become a better leader? What does it take?

2. Qualities of a leader:  Engaging people cluster

The second cluster of leadership qualities is about engaging and inspiring people and includes three competencies. 

1. Supporting people

A good leader inclusive and treats people with dignity.  Good leadership quality treats everyone with respect irrespective of their gender, race, age, or culture.  Good leaders ask people what they need to do their best work.  They provide all the tools and training required for people to do their jobs well.  They provide timely and constructive feedback, coach and mentor people to lead them to a path of continuous improvement.  They give credit, praise people, and recognize good work.

“You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life.” – Zig Ziglar.

Good leaders have a positive energy that charges people up. They never miss a moment to support people and develop their confidence.

2. Collaboration

Most of the work done today requires the diverse expertise of multiple employees.  Good leaders have a collaborative approach, not a competitive one.  Good leaders view co-workers, suppliers, and customers as partners.  They build cohesive teams, both within the organization as well as with external parties.  They reprimand behaviors that undermine teamwork and collaboration.

The term frenemy describes today’s business environment very well.  A frenemy is a friend plus enemy.  Many companies today are competing in certain areas while collaborating in other areas. One such example is Apple and Samsung.  While they compete for patents, technology, and customers in some areas, Apple is also the largest Samsung customer for smartphone screens.  Good leaders build partnerships and create a network of relationships within and outside of the organization to achieve the current business goals and steer the company in the right direction for future growth.

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” Michael Jordan

3. Share leadership

The 20th-century paradigm of leadership was power and control.  Leaders have to share power and authority with others in today’s flatter organizations that need to be nimble and agile.  Good leaders defer to others who have more expertise and technical knowledge.  They keep an eye on the greater good of all instead of hoarding power for themselves.

They work with others instead of having a silo mentality of getting into fiefdoms.  They take inputs from all to arrive at a decision instead of steamrolling their way.  They work on breaking silos and creating opportunities for cross-functional teams to work together.

“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”  —Ralph Nader.

Read: Your Executive Leadership Development – Sink, Swim or Setup for Success

3. Qualities of a leader:  Inclusion cluster

The third cluster of leadership qualities is about people inclusion and has three competencies. 

1. Empower others

The primary job of a leader is to get work done through others.  Good leaders make it easier for others to do their best work.  They build people’s competence and confidence.  They give people space and the freedom to do their work in a way that best suits them.  They provide enough authority for people to make their own decisions.  They have faith in their people.  They allow them to make mistakes and learn from them instead of jumping in and micromanaging people.

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”  —Jack Welch.

2. Global mindset

Today we live in a flat world that is hyper-connected.  Advances in technology and supply chain have made it possible for companies to produce goods and services anywhere in the world. It is cost-effective and sells it anywhere in the world where it is most profitable. 

Globalization impacts all businesses.  A good leader continuously makes an effort to look outside of the organization, look at the larger picture, gain the experiences and exposure needed to succeed in a global and interconnected world.  They understand trends, incorporate them into decisions, and help others understand the threats and opportunities created by globalization.

Globalization is a fact, because of technology, because of an integrated global supply chain, because of changes in transportation. And we’re not going to be able to build a wall around that. Barack Obama

3. Appreciate diversity

Good leaders appreciate the contribution of a diverse workforce.  They celebrate diversity of age, gender, ethnicity, ideas, and personalities.  They can make people valued and appreciated for who they are and what they bring to the organization.  They value the importance of diversity of ideas and opinions.  They have the uncanny ability to motivate people from all backgrounds.  They make a concerted effort to understand and engage with diverse groups of people.

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. ~Audre Lorde

4. Qualities of a leader:  Delivering results cluster

The fourth cluster of leadership qualities is about achieving business outcomes and includes three competencies. 

1. Leverage technology

Technology has transformed how business gets done.  It has drastically changed how we live and work.  Today, a successful leader has to keep up with technology and leverage it to improve productivity, speed, and service.  They have to hire and empower people who have the right technological expertise.

Jeff Bezos at Amazon is one example of a leader who understands technology and leverages it to help the organization succeed.

“Once a new technology rolls over you, if you’re not part of the steamroller, you’re part of the road.” Stewart Brand

2. Customer focus

Any business that does not focus on satisfying customers will soon be out of business.  Good leaders see the organization and its operation from the perspective of customer’s needs. They inspire others to attain high levels of customer satisfaction.  They listen to the customer’s voice.  They understand that customers do have other options and value their inputs to deliver better products and services.

“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”  Sam Walton

3. Deliver results

Leaders are ultimately accountable for delivering business results.  A good leader has a get things done contagious attitude.  There is a continuous focus on reducing costs and cycle time, improving customer satisfaction, and delivering better products and services.  Good leaders focus on providing value to all stakeholders – customers, employees, vendors, and investors.

“Results matter! They matter to your credibility.” Stephen R. Covey

“Whether it’s Google or Apple or free software, we’ve got some fantastic competitors, and it keeps us on our toes.”  Bill Gates

5. Qualities of a leader:  Managing change cluster

The fifth and final leadership qualities cluster is about managing change and includes three competencies. 

1. Personal Growth

A good leader understands their own strengths and improvement areas.  They focus on continuous learning and self-improvement.  Learning and development are part of the job.  Good leaders are humble enough to know that they don’t know everything.  They involve others who complement their improvement areas to get things done.  In a world where the change is rapid, and the half-life of many education programs are five years or less, continuous learning and personal growth are essential leadership qualities.  Good leaders role model learning and personal growth.

Improvement begins with I.    Arnold H. Glasow.

2. Anticipating Opportunities

While a leader’s job is to deliver present results, they also have to anticipate future growth.  They have to “see around the corners” and see trends and inflection points ahead of time to avoid threats and exploit opportunities.  Good leaders invest time, money, and effort to keep updated with future trends.  They also inspire other people to do the same.  They develop new ideas and plans to stay ahead of trends and take advantage of opportunities.

Kodak and Nokia are an example of companies where leaders could not anticipate future opportunities despite tell-tale signs.

“Opportunity is everywhere. The key is to develop the vision to see it.” Anonymous

3. Managing Change

Change and disruptions are part of the 21st century globally-connected and technology-enabled business world.  Hence managing change is a critical leadership quality for today’s leaders.  Instead of embracing the status quo, the leader should challenge the status quo.  Change is the only constant.  A leader should see the change as an opportunity and not a problem.  A good leader inspires employees to drive change and innovation continuously.  New ideas, experimentation, and implementation are how the leader ensures to manage and utilize change.

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”  Will Rodgers

In Conclusion

These are the 15 qualities of a global leader today.  How do you or the leaders in your organization rate on these top 15 qualities of a leader? A straightforward way to find out is to administer a 360-degree feedback assessment.  We offer GLA 360, which is multi-rater feedback of the leader on these 15 qualities.  It compares the leader’s scores with a norm group of global leaders for benchmarking the leader’s qualities.

Learn more about GLA 360  

GLA 360 allows the leaders to know about their strengths and improvement areas.  We offer leadership coaching to help the leader leverage their strengths and develop in their improvement areas.

NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

We offer our New Age Leadership Triple advantage coaching that delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth.  It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study or 11000 leaders on 4 continents).  It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 of the Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders.

Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs.  We go to the leader and her team.  And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team.

Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader: Every leader is different.  One size fits all approach doesn’t work.  Individual development areas for each leader aligned to the business strategy.

Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team, and it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture.

The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development.

Cost-Effective: Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short-duration leadership program at any reputed B school.

Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth: as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members.

Pay us only after we deliver results! : We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis.  What does it mean?  If the leaders don’t improve, you simply don’t have to pay us.

Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today

Click the button below.

SCHEDULE NOW!

What is a learning organization?

A learning organization is a group of people working together to enhance their capacities to create results they really care about.  – Peter Senge

In fact, Peter Senge popularized learning organization in his groundbreaking book – The Fifth Discipline – published in 1990.  Peter Senge was a visionary who saw how the world was changing and why learning was a key driver or performance, way ahead of its time.  In 1990, many of today’s technologies were in their infancy – internet, world wide web, smartphones, cellular connectivity, and computing capability. The enormous advances in these technologies have drastically changed the way we live and work.

[lwptoc]

Do we need learning organizations?

Today’s business environment has been aptly described by the acronym VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.  The speed of change is fast and getting faster.  Rapid change and disruptions are the norms. There are uncertainty and ambiguity around strategy and implementation.  Work is complex and needs cross-functional teams with diverse expertise.  The world has become flatter, and competition is global.

The average tenure of an S&P 500 company is shrinking. So are product cycles. So are competitive advantages.  Yesterday’s business models are already outdated or will be soon.  Kodak, Nokia, Blockbuster, etc., are just a few of the examples of companies who held on to their extremely successful business models just a little longer than they should have.  They tried to change, but it was too little too late. 

The high cost of not learning

The half-life of any degree is estimated at 5 years and shrinking fast.  Half of what a fresh graduate learns in a degree program will be outdated in 5 years or less.  Think about the employees in your organization. What would happen if they didn’t learn anything new since they joined the company?  Would it impact performance?  Could you still keep up with a competitor that focuses on organizational learning and invests in employee development so they keep up?  Creating a learning organization needs time, money, and relentless efforts.  But the alternative is worse.  Consider the classic dialogue between CEO and CFO

CFO asks CEO – What happens if we invest in developing our people, and then they leave us?

CEO replies – What happens if we don’t, and they stay?

In today’s VUCA business environment, investment in learning is essential to survive and thrive. However, relentless focus on results at the cost of ignoring organizational learning is penny-wise and pound foolish.

Learning organizations have a huge competitive advantage.

To survive and thrive in a VUCA world, organizations must adapt, explore, experiment, and innovate.  And none of this can be done without continuous learning both at the individual and the organizational levels. Learning faster than the pace of change is essential to survive and thrive.  Learning organizations can respond to change quickly. They can unlearn and relearn quicker to stay ahead of disruptions.  They unlearn outdated or ineffective practices and develop innovative products, services, and business models to meet and exceed customer needs better than the competition.  They can address problems quickly and efficiently.  They also tend to attract and retain the best talent.

Individuals and organizations must continuously learn and adapt or risk becoming obsolete. As a result, individuals may become unemployable, and organizations may go out of business. 

Benefits of becoming a learning organization

Most of the work done today is complex. It requires contributions from multiple team members with diverse expertise.  A learning organization can utilize the collective intelligence of these diverse teams.  It unlocks individual employees’ potential and aligns their efforts to learn, change, innovate, and grow.

There are several benefits of creating a learning organization.  Here are a few of them

• Attract and retain talented employees
• Enhances an employees’ sense of purpose and engagement
• Reduced employee turnover
• Open sharing of knowledge
• Learning from mistakes
• Better teamwork and collaboration
• Increase ability to change and adapt
• Continuous change and innovation
• Better problem solving and decision making
• Improved efficiency and productivity

When employees learn, they grow and thrive, which in turn helps the company grow and thrive. Conversely, when the learning stops, both employees and the organization stagnate. 

Leader’s role in creating a learning organization

The first step towards building a learning organization is to create a learning culture.  According to Russell Sarder, the author of the book – Building an Innovative learning organization – there are four components of building a learning culture.

1. The right leaders
2. The right people
3. The right behaviors
4. The right resources

Transforming the culture to a learning culture takes time, effort, and commitment from the top management.  But the rewards of such a culture are worth the effort. 

The right leaders

The leader who wants to create a learning organization must have a vision.  The leader must sincerely believe that learning is a key competitive advantage. Be a promoter or learning every day.  Communicate the value of learning to everyone in the organization.  Paint a picture of how learning will allow the organization to achieve its vision and mission.

If you are a leader, you are always leading by example.  Whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not, whether you want it, you are leading by example!  What kind of an example are you setting for others to follow?  What behaviors are you role modeling to others?  Eventually, these behaviors cascade down and create a culture for your team. 

What behaviors should a leader role model create a learning culture? 

Be a lifelong learner.  Be open to new ideas.  Be teachable.  Be curious.  Ask questions and listen carefully.  Learn from everyone, especially those who are at a lower level of the corporate ladder.  Share what you learn.  Encourage others to share ideas, feedback, suggestions openly with other team members.  Make learning collaborative, not competitive.

The right people

To transform the culture into a learning culture, you need the right people. These people have both the right mindsets and the right skills. In addition, they should have a track record of having a learning mindset and delivering organizational learning. Today organizational learning is a complex issue that requires expertise from a variety of fields. In addition, there are a variety of tools and methods that need specific expertise.

Online learning, blended learning, instructor-led learning, off-shelf courses, custom-designed courses, microlearning, mobile learning, instructional design, learning management systems are just some of the many aspects of organizational learning today.

To manage it, you need experts from various fields – Instructional design, administrators, content creators, marketers, computer experts, and more.

To oversee all of it, you need a position of CLO or chief learning officer.  Learning technologies are constantly changing.  The right people will ensure that the organizational learning keeps up with and leverages technologies to help the employees learn – anytime, anywhere, on any device – in a way that engages them and challenges them.

The right behaviors

Eliciting the right behaviors from employees is a task that is both challenging and rewarding.  The right behaviors create the right culture where engagement and performance can flourish.  The wrong behaviors create a toxic culture with a vicious cycle of disengagement and underperformance.  Culture change starts with the top leaders and cascades down from there.  It is a long-term commitment by the senior leadership team.  The top leaders need to lead by example and role model the right behaviors for others to follow.  Just lip service doesn’t do the job. 

The leaders themselves have to be humble and teachable.  They themselves have to demonstrate a commitment to continuous learning and change.  They have to create an environment where people can speak up, express opinions, and bring up problems without fear of being embarrassed, ridiculed, or punished. Leaders have to create an environment of psychological safety. 

Read Leadership development plan example template – a real-life case study.

Learning, change and innovation cannot happen unless employees feel psychologically safe.  They feel comfortable challenging decisions, expressing opinions, giving candid feedback, and admitting mistakes so everyone can learn from them. 

Besides, the leaders have to understand the learning needs and the learning style of their teammates.  This can be done through well-structured one on one meetings.  This one on meetings works best when they are short, informal, and frequent.  Many organizations are changing their performance management meetings between the managers and subordinates (that happens once in a quarter or even a year) to performance conversations that happen weekly fortnightly or at least once a month. 

The right resources

All organizations aspire to become learning organizations. However, to translate these good intentions into concrete results, organizations need to allocate proper resources to learning. 

Progressive organizations understand that learning is not something that you besides work, but see learning as an integral part of work.  Hence they give learning due importance.  They allocate time and budget and provide resources.  They hold leaders accountable for business results and learning. Learning is part of their KRAs and KPIs.

The first critical resource is money.

One example of a company that prioritizes organizational learning and allocates money is General Electric (GE).  GE includes learning and development spending on their line-item budget year after year. So instead of just paying lip service to “learning is important,” they put their money where their mouth is! 

For any company wishing to become a learning organization – money has to be allocated on an ongoing basis for various resources, some of which are listed below.

• Deigning and purchasing – Internal and external learning programs
• Training rooms, equipment, and material
• E-learning and mobile learning
• Learning management systems
• Various software and technologies that aid learning
• Administration, monitoring, and evaluation of the entire learning operation
• Travel and accommodation

The second critical resource is time.

Employees need time away from work to engage in learning activities.  They also need time to assimilate and apply the learning to their jobs. In addition, they may need to collaborate with peers, attend follow-up sessions, and try new things at work.  All of these require unconditional understanding and support from the employee’s manager. 

Managers need to help employees discover what they need to learn (with or without the learning department’s help). The managers have to be open to try new approaches, allow mistakes, and learning from them. Unfortunately, many managers treat learning as secondary and business urgencies of primary importance.  For them, training is important but never urgent.  Business priorities supersede learning programs.  In such an environment, there is little room for employees to learn and for the organization to become a learning organization.

Is your company a learning organization?

Here is a questionnaire to reflect and evaluate how your organization is doing in its quest to become a learning organization.  (Reference – Building an innovative learning organization – Book by Russel Sarder). An honest self-evaluation provides a good idea of where you currently are and what you need to do to progress.

• Do we continuously discuss, evaluate and improve our processes and work on improving them?
• Do leaders openly acknowledge errors and mistakes and work to rectify them?
• Do employees ask questions, offer different perspectives, and challenge decisions when appropriate?
• Do managers see themselves as taskmasters or facilitators whose job is to help employees do their best work?
• Do people listen to and respect the ideas and opinions of others at all levels?
• Do employees feel safe enough to take risks, even if it means making mistakes and failing?
• Do leaders and employees openly share information?
• Do leaders and employees work to reduce bureaucracy and redundant procedures?
• Does the company value learn enough to allocate a learning budget even in tough times?
• Do people help one another succeed
• Has HR put learning as part of the leaders’ and employees’ KRAs?
• Do leaders allocate enough time to employees for learning programs and follow-up activities?
• Does the company offer a wide variety of learning options to reach all levels and suit learner tastes?
• Do senior leaders themselves serve as role models for learning?
• Do you extend learning and sharing with customers and vendors?
• Does the organization learn from the best practices of other companies?
• Do you assess and improve learning programs regularly?

What factors hinder organizational learning?

What are the factors that hinder organizational learning?  Two culprits that kill organizational learning are ego and fear.

The detrimental impact of a leader’s ego

For leaders with egos – it is always about winning.  They put personal gains ahead of the greater good.  As leaders move up the career ladders, they often get only positive feedback, inflating their egos. As a result, the amount of critical and corrective feedback reduces.  This continuous positive reinforcement combined with a lack of negative inputs is bad for the leader’s further development.  Often successful leaders fall into this trap and suffer from ineffective habits that derail learning, engagement, and performance. 

We offer 360-degree assessment to make the leader aware of their behaviors and their impact on the teams.  We also offer our NAL triple advantage leadership coaching that delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth.

Read Qualities of a leader – based on validated research. 

The grave consequences of fear

Fear and learning are incompatible.  Fear shuts down blood flow to the neocortex – the thinking part of our brain.  Fear gets compliance, not commitment.  And yet, many organizations and leaders are stuck in the 20th-century paradigms of command and control.  They still think that carrot and stick is the best approach to leading people. 

Instead of commanding leaders, they have to transform into facilitating leaders.  Instead of motivating by fear, they need to support dialogue, openness, transparency, and learning.

For organizational learning to thrive, leaders have to create a climate of psychological safety. They have to be aware of their behaviors and their impact on organizational learning. What is the current level of psychological safety on your team?  How do you create a climate of psychological safety? 

Create a culture of psychological safety and organizational learning

Creating a culture of psychological safety and organizational learning starts with leadership.  We coach leaders with guaranteed and measurable improvement in behaviors.  Here are some details

Increase your teams’ transparency, dialogue, candor, and psychological safety with our team coaching and team assessments. We offer Marshall Goldsmith coaching in India, the middle east, and southeast Asia.  It is the best coaching program in India because it is the same executive coaching process used by Marshall Goldsmith to coach CEOs of Fortune 500 companies worldwide. We guarantee measurable leadership growth or don’t pay at all. 

NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching.

That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth.  It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (a study of 11000 leaders on 4 continents).  It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders.

Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching

Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs.  We go to the leader and her team.  And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team.

Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader: Every leader is different.  One size fits all approach doesn’t work. Instead, individual development areas for each leader are aligned to the business strategy.

Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team. As a result, it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture.

The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development.

Cost-Effective: Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short-duration leadership program at any reputed B school.

Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth: as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members.

Pay us only after we deliver results! : We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis.  What does it mean?  If the leaders don’t improve, you don’t have to pay us.

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