John Wooden quotes – 21 timeless and memorable lessons from the legendary coach
John Wooden quotes – the coach with the highest winning percentage in the history of US college basketball and his wisdom through his quotes.
John Wooden was an American basketball player and head coach at the University of California UCLA, Los Angeles. He won ten NCAA national basketball championships in a 12-year period as head coach at UCLA, including a record seven in a row. No other team has won more than four in a row in Division 1 college men’s or women’s basketball. Within this period, his teams won an NCAA men’s basketball record 88 consecutive games.
Although he was the coach with the best winning percentage, John Wooden never talked to his players about winning! He always talked about hard work, character, integrity, and improving daily. John Wooden was 99 when he died. He impressed his former players, admirers, and those who felt mentored by him with his humble enthusiasm and zeal for life.
1. If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes. Wooden
2. A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.
3. The best competition I have is against myself to become better.
4. We can have no progress without change, whether it be basketball or anything else.
5. Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
6. Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.
7. If you are afraid to fail, you will never do the things you are capable of doing.
8. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
9. Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.
10. Nothing will work unless you do.
If you are enjoying reading these John Maxwell quotes, you will love the following quotes
John Wooden lived his life based on his principles
He not only preached but practice what he preached. He lived his life based on his principles.
One of my favorite John Wooden quotes – “All of life is peaks and valleys. Don’t let the peaks get too high and the valleys too low.”
John Wooden quotes 11-21
11. The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.
12. Don’t mistake activity with achievement.
13. Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you capable of becoming.
14. If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?
15. Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.
16. It takes time to create excellence. If it could be done quickly, more people would do it.
17. You are not a failure until you start blaming others for your mistakes.
18. Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.
19. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
20. You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
21. Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.
Check out bonus John Wooden quotes below
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Lessons for leaders: Henry Ford FAILURE story & bad leadership
Many of us have heard about the legendary leader Henry Ford assembly line and the Model T car’s success story. The success story has a lot of lessons for leaders. What to do to be a successful leader – persistence, hard work, and thinking outside the box.
But there is also a relatively unknown and darker story of Henry Ford’s bad leadership and equally spectacular failure! And therein lie critical lessons for leaders. These lessons for leaders are about what not to do as a leader.
Leadership success often leads to ignoring feedback and some poor leadership behaviors, ultimately leading to failure. A good 360-degree feedback tool combined with leadership coaching is the most effective way to ensure that leaders become aware of his/her bottlenecks, take ownership of their behaviors and their impact, and work to improve their behavior.
The Model T, the Henry Ford assembly line success story, and lessons for leaders
Until the 20th century, the first automobiles were hand made, clunky, and expensive. Only the rich could afford to own one. October 1, 1908, was a noteworthy date in the automobile industry’s history. When the first Model T, the car, rolled off the assembly line and revolutionized transportation forever. The assembly line became synonymous with Henry Ford and his ingenuity. The Model T was the first affordable car for the mass market, and it kept selling and selling. It took seven years for Ford to sell its millionth Model T. Just a year and a half later, it sold its two-millionth. By 1920, four million model T’s were sold!
Over the next quarter of a century, it made Ford Motor the most successful automobile company globally. It also made Henry Ford America’s second billionaire after John D. Rockefeller.
That is the success story of the legendary Henry Ford, his innovation vision, and his leadership. Many of us have heard about this success story of Henry Ford, the assembly line, and the Model T., The lessons for leaders from Henry Ford’s success story, are persistence, tenacity, and hard work.
Image courtesy – Henry Ford museum
The flip side of success and the lessons for leaders
But there is also a relatively unknown and darker story of Henry Ford’s bad leadership and equally spectacular failure that took the company to the brink of bankruptcy! There are lessons for leaders in his failure story as well. These lessons for leaders lessons in poor leadership and are not what NOT to do as a leader!
During the 1920s, subtle but sure trends emerged that were dangerous to the Model T’s dominance. However, Henry Ford was in denial. Henry Ford stuck to the assembly line and mass production concept. Ford famously declared, “History is more or less bunk.” But history was about to happen to him.
Following the depression of the 1920s, the wealth of Americans grew at a rapid rate. By 1920, more than half the population lived in cities instead of living near a farm or in a rural community for the first time. Working-class Americans enjoyed more leisure than ever before, and some companies implemented the two-week vacation policy. Hollywood was turning out motion pictures that engrossed audiences. Sporting events also captured the nation’s imagination, especially Babe Ruth’s sixty home runs in 1927. Popular culture, style, and fashion were coming to the United States.
The winds of change in the automobile industry – a lesson for leaders to stay ahead of change
This cultural and social transformation also affected the automobile industry. Automobiles, originally just a means of transportation, became a status symbol for the upwardly mobile Americans. Most of what we own is not on display. No one knows your salary or your financial assets, and we consider it impolite in our culture to ask. Only people invited to your home know what it looks like and can guess what it cost to furnish it. Your automobile, by contrast, is on display wherever you drive. It is visible, mobile, and communicates your status everywhere you drive it!
A leader in denial who refuses to change – a classic example of poor leadership behaviors and the lesson for leaders
Henry Ford refused to believe that an automobile was anything more than an appliance. His favorite slogan about the Model T was “It takes you there, and it brings you back.” The factory that was producing the Model T was the same as it had been for years. The way he was producing it—the moving assembly line, interchangeable parts, extreme specialization of labor—was by 1925 the same as it had been for years. His pricing strategy also remained the same. Model T came in only a single color – Black. Henry Ford wrote in 1922 that “any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants – as long as it is black.”
The desires and expectations of consumers were changing in the 1920s. Ford’s sales in 1925 were flat compared to 1924, although the car market grew rapidly. Ford’s market share declined from 54 to 45 percent, a sign of danger. Ford chose to ignore it. But the legendary leader Henry Ford was in denial of the reality. He was ignoring feedback and avoiding facing reality. It often happens with many successful leaders; Ford cushioned himself from reality by surrounding himself with “yes men” who told him only what he wanted to hear and not what he needed to hear!
General Motors beat Ford by listening to feedback and being responsive – an important lesson for leaders.
General Motors, on the other hand, had the answer to the needs of the changing market. Instead of following the Henry Ford assembly line concept and producing the same model in a single color, they customized. Not only did GM differentiate its cars through colors but also through a policy designed to exploit the automobile as a status symbol. The cars in GM’s line were Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac. Fortune magazine in the 1930s characterized the options of GM models as: “Chevrolet for the hoi polloi, … Pontiac . . . for the poor but proud, Oldsmobile for the comfortable but discreet, Buick for the striving, Cadillac for the rich.”
Unlike Ford, GM also introduced an annual model change for all its cars. With the annual model change, driving last year’s model became a comment on your status in the world. General Motors adapted to the feedback and the changing tastes of the consumers. It poised GM to thrive for the next few decades!
Delivering the bad news to a leader who won’t listen
The sales department told Henry Ford that Model T sales were slipping. Unless they substantially changed the car, it would soon stop selling. The Henry Ford assembly line that brought them success was now an Achilles heel. Ford said the car was fine—the problem was an incompetent sales department. This is a typical poor leadership behavior of ignoring feedback and blaming others.
Imagine that you are a Ford executive. The truth is obvious for all to see. How do you clearly communicate to the boss, a genius, and a successful leader, that change is needed?
Poor leadership behavior – Punishing the messenger.
The man who finally decided to “bell the cat” was Ernest Kanzler. He was a senior executive at Ford and also the brother-in-law of Ford’s only child, Edsel. He wrote a seven-page memorandum and delivered it to Ford on January 26, 1926. Kanzler spoke the unpleasant truth. His reward was the same as for many people who do so. He was fired. The fantasy that you can render the message untrue if you get rid of the messenger is a powerful one.
Punishing the messenger is one of the often fatal poor leadership behaviors of successful leaders. By the mid-1920s, Ford was living in a world of his own. There was irrefutable evidence that his strategy was failing. Ford nevertheless told The New York Times late in 1926, “The Ford car will continue to be made in the same way. . . . I am not governed by anybody’s figures but by my own information and observation.” Ford was suffering from classic “ego traps” that successful leaders often fall prey to.
The Achilles heel of successful leaders – Denial of reality
“What will Ford do next?”—the answer came as quite a shock to almost everyone. Ford decided to shut down the Model T plant at River Rouge completely. The plant remained shut down for nearly a year to retool it to make a new Model A. This left General Motor’s Chevrolet with no competition for an entire year! Sensing the opportunity, Mr. Chrysler also entered the automobile market with his Plymouth model. Ford remained steadfast in his denial of what the automobile market had become. After killing off the Model T, he created the Model A. Although Model A was a technically improved product, there would be no “car for every purse and purpose” and no annual model change.
No one could have predicted the catastrophic fall of Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company.
This marked the end of the market leadership of the Ford Motor Company. Occasionally over the next decade, it would beat GM in sales. However, except for three years (1929, 1930, and 1935), Ford trailed GM in the automobile’s market share by a wide margin for eight decades to come! Henry Ford never changed. Successful leaders often become superstitious – they hold on to doing the same things that originally made them successful. Not changing is a recipe for disaster. In 1945, by the end of World War II, his company was at the edge of bankruptcy. Henry Ford II, Henry Ford’s grandson, eventually saved Ford when he took the company over later.
Bad habits of good leaders (Poor leadership behaviors) – lessons for leaders
Henry Ford exhibited many of the 20 bad habits that hold back further success – that Dr. Marshall Goldsmith lists in his bestselling book – What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”.
Not listening: Successful leaders often disregard others’ ideas and are unwilling to listen to others. It is not only disrespectful to the team members but also harmful as it was with Henry Ford.
Telling the world how smart we are: Successful leaders suffer from this tendency to show off. The need to show people we’re smarter than they think we are. It is unnecessary and annoying to others.
Making destructive comments: The needless sarcasm and cutting remarks that we think make us witty. Ford was known for such sarcastic comments and practical jokes that may be funny to him but insulted others.
Making excuses: The need to reposition our annoying behavior as a permanent fixture, so people excuse us for it.
Clinging to the past: The need to deflect blame away from ourselves and onto events and people from our past, a subset of blaming everyone else.
Punishing the messenger: The misguided need to attack the innocent who are usually only trying to help us. Henry Ford did it to Ernest Kanzler, who was just a messenger of the bad news.
It is not just the arrogant leaders who fall prey to these bad leadership habits. The most humble leaders often fall prey to many of these bad habits when they constantly get positive reinforcement. When a leader hardly ever gets real, truthful, and unfiltered feedback that may help them stay grounded, it is easy to fall prey to one or more of these bad habits.
How can leaders stay grounded and avoid the bad habits that derail their careers?
A good 360-degree feedback tool combined with leadership coaching is the most effective way to ensure that leaders become aware of his/her bottlenecks, take ownership of their behaviors and their impact, and work to improve their behavior.
One of the most effective tools for leaders to stay grounded is to get regular and anonymous 360-degree feedback from all the team members with whom the leader interacts regularly. This allows the leader to see himself as others see him. Any difference in perception between how the leader sees himself and how others see the leader is an area where the leader may be blindsided and addressed through leadership coaching. The 360-degree feedback should be administered to ALL leaders at least once a year. It is one of the best tools to identify strengths and improvement areas for leadership development.
Global Leadership Assessment (GLA360) for your leadership team
The Global Leadership Assessment (GLA360) is a 360-degree feedback tool based on extensive research and designed and tested by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith. He has been awarded and recognized worldwide and is considered the #1 Leadership Thinker and the Executive Coach to Fortune 500 CEOs. The research included the CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, global thought leaders and their inputs, and international business executives of multinationals on six continents.
A statistician creates most assessments. In contrast, the GLA 360 is created based on inputs by the leaders and for the leaders. A real-life leader, in all likeliness, will know a lot more about leadership than an academician or a statistician. You are assessed on competencies that have made real leaders in multinationals successful. You are compared with actual leaders, which gives a more accurate assessment helpful in the real world.
The GLA 360 measures the following 15 competencies that matter to real leaders on 6 continents. It shows leaders the areas they need to develop to succeed in a competitive business environment.
Helping successful leaders become more successful – lessons for leaders
Making leaders aware of their strengths and improvement areas through 360-degree feedback is only the first step. The next step is to help the leader leverage their strengths and improve weaknesses through leadership coaching. Why is coaching important in leadership development? How is it beneficial? Leadership coaching is the most effective way to ensure that leadership improvement takes place. That leader takes ownership and responsibility for her behavior and results. Executive education and training programs help in creating awareness for change – however, behavior change requires customized solutions and consistent follow-up and accountability, which executive coaching provides by its design.
World’s number 1 Executive Coaching program designed by World’ number 1 leadership thinker
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 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 don’t have to pay us.
Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today
The statistics on the effectiveness of leadership training and executive education programs are both shocking and depressing! Despite a plethora of executive education and leadership training programs and many consultants offering them, most executive education and leadership development programs waste time and money! Why does leadership training fail? Because there is a fundamental problem with them! Read on to find out what this problem is and how to fix it.
A fundamental problem with leadership programs
Executive education and leadership development programs have a fundamental problem. What is it? They often assume that leadership knowing equals leadership doing!
Unfortunately, knowing is not the same as doing! Neither in life nor in leadership. We know many things, but we only consistently do a minuscule of the things we know!
Let me give you an example that I often use in my training sessions to drive home this point. “How many of you have attempted to lose a few pounds?”
Often many people raise their hands when I ask this question. During adulthood, most of us have put on a few extra pounds that we want to shed.
Knowing is NOT the same as doing!
Then I ask – “Do you have any suggestions for me to lose a few pounds around my waist?” And I get a lot of suggestions like – eat more fruits, more raw vegetables, cut down on sugar, exercise more, eat mindfully, join a gym, take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk 10,000 steps daily, and on and on.
Most of them are usually excellent and useful suggestions. I then say – “Thank you for the lovely and useful suggestions!”. My next question is – “How many of you consistently implement one or more of these suggestions regularly?”
Very few people raise their hands in answer to this question! Knowing how to lose weight is not the same as doing it consistently enough to get the desired outcome.
There is high awareness amongst Americans about weight loss. Diet books are popular and are often on the list of best-selling books.
Americans are buying more and more diet books than ever, and yet there are more obese people in America today than ever! People simply do not lose weight by reading a diet book!
More diet books are sold than ever, yet more Americans are obese than ever!
Leadership is no different. The fundamentally flawed assumption in leadership training and executive education programs is that attending a course for a few days and knowing about some leadership skills and tools will translate into job leadership behavior change. Unfortunately, leadership development doesn’t happen this way.
“Leadership awareness may happen in a training program – leadership development occurs when a leader is at her work, interacting with her team! “ – Tushar Vakil.
Approach leadership development like a fitness regime and fix why leadership training fails
We should approach leadership development like a fitness regime. If we want to get fit, a one-week routine at the gym once or twice a year, just doesn’t work!
We should approach leadership development like a fitness regime. If we want to get fit, a one-week routine at the gym once or twice a year, just doesn’t work!
We need to work out regularly, probably daily. The exercise routine should be customized based on our individual needs and not a standard curriculum of one size fits all. Our diet regime should be designed similarly. Despite the help and despite the good intentions, we will fail to go to the gym.
Failing, dusting ourselves off, and getting “back on the wagon” should be part of the fitness routine’s design and shouldn’t come as a surprise. Why?
That is how human beings learn and form habits. Losing weight and keeping it off is a process and not an event – and so is leadership development! It takes time, effort, and commitment.
Hiring a personal trainer for our fitness regime increases our chances of losing weight and getting fit by a wide margin. How wide a margin? Research studies have shown that hiring a personal trainer increases your success rate by a whopping 1100%!
“Personal trainer” for your leadership development – to fix why leadership training fails
Using Marshall Goldsmith’s stakeholder-centered coaching process, our leadership coaching program is like hiring a personal trainer for your fitness regime! Here, the coach is the “personal trainer” for our leadership growth! He will help you shed leadership fat and build some leadership muscles.
The leadership coach will help us reduce or eliminate leadership bottlenecks and build on our leadership strengths. And best of all – it guarantees results. If there are no improvements in leadership behavior, there is simply no charge. Period!
Executive education and training programs help in creating awareness for change – however, behavior change requires customized solutions and consistent follow-up and accountability, which executive coaching provides by its design.
Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth
Would you like to develop leaders in your organization? We use Marshall Goldsmith’s stakeholder centered coaching process to deliver measurable and guaranteed leadership growth.
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 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
Here are 23 Tony Robbins quotes that are insightful and inspiring.
Here are 23 Tony Robbins quotes that are insightful and inspiring. Anthony Robbins, fondly known as Tony Robbins is a best-selling author, public speaker, life coach, business strategist, and philanthropist. He is also the guru of personal development movement and has impacted more people around the world through his books and programs than any other person.
Tony Robbins quotes are simple, insightful, and derived from experience in delivering actual results for millions of people worldwide. Read them, learn, assimilate, and apply!
Quotes from Tony Robbins: Best quotes 1-10
Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade.
In life, you need either inspiration or desperation.
It is not what we get. But who we become, what we contribute … that gives meaning to our lives.
Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.
It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.
I’ve come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.
Success is doing what you want to do, when you want, where you want, with whom you want, as much as you want.
Trade your expectation for appreciation and the world changes instantly.
A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.
When you are grateful, fear disappears & abundance appears.
Best of Tony Robbins quotes continue below
IF YOU ARE ENJOYING READING THESE JOHN MAXWELL QUOTES, YOU WILL LOVE THE FOLLOWING QUOTES
Tony Robbins is so popular that Netflix did a series on him called Tony Robbins – I am not your guru. Check it out on Netflix
Quotes by Tony Robbins: Best quotes 11-23
People who succeed at the highest level are not lucky; they’re doing something differently than everyone else.
The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment.
If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results.
In life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action.
It’s what you practice in private that you will be rewarded for in public.
It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.
If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.
Life is found in the dance between your deepest desire and your greatest fear.
Persistence overshadows even talent as the most valuable resource shaping the quality of life.
People who fail focus on what they have to go through; people who succeed focus on what it will feel like at the end.
Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life’s deepest joy: true fulfillment.
The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.
If you don’t set a baseline standard for what you’ll accept in life, you’ll find it’s easy to slip into behaviors and attitudes or a quality of life that’s far below what you deserve.
I hope these Tony Robbins quotes inspired you. Looking for more inspiration?
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What are the ego traps and Leadership Derailers leaders fall for?
Leadership in the 21st century is quite different from how leaders got results in the 20th century. The command and control paradigm has been replaced with inspire and empower. But there are residues of the 20th-century leadership paradigms and of control and power are still prevalent. Let’s call them the ego traps. Having too much ego can prove to be disastrous in one’s career growth and can be a derailing factor. A study by the Harvard Business Review also suggests that two out of every five CEOs fail in their initial months of leading an organization.
In her book “EGO vs. EQ” Jen Shirkani rightly points out those leaders who become successful in taking their career paths ahead are those who manage the ego traps using their emotional intelligence.
In today’s VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) business world, a leader’s role is more as a facilitator, and not as the person with the most knowledge or expertise. In a fast-changing world, it is simply not possible. A leader’s job is to inspire and facilitate the best performance from the entire team. To do that, the leader needs to keep her ego traps in check.
According to Jen Shirkani, below mentioned are the eight common ego traps that most leaders fall into:
Ego Trap One: Ignoring Feedback You Don’t Like:
For leaders to have an insight into where they stand, they need to learn to accept and hear the truth as it is. It can often be hard for someone to hear negative feedback even if it stands true about them. What drags them into the trap is ignoring such honest feedback that can be unpleasant for the leader, but that provides the leader with ample opportunities to improve and develop. The leader’s inability to take such honest and constructive feedback drags them into an ego trap.
Ego Trap Two: Believing Your Technical Skills Trump Your Leadership Skills:
It is a common misconception that only technical skills play a crucial role as one moves up the hierarchy. As an executive, one needs to have technical skills and abilities, but leadership skills are even more important. For becoming a good leader, one must understand the need for having what Shirkani calls ‘Emotional intelligence.’ Self-awareness, self-control, and empathy are some of the common skills that a good leader must possess. Relying solely on technical skills is disastrous for a leader’s performance and career.
Ego Trap Three: Surrounding Yourself with More of You:
It is often challenging when trying to build a good executive team. Good leaders can see strengths, vision, and zeal in candidates that are different from that of their own way of thinking. People with varying values, strengths, and thoughts try to bring the best solutions in the way they think and often be challenging. Avoiding this factor could put your Organization at risk of having more blind spots resulting from surrounding yourself with more of you. This is likely to prevent you from foreseeing the challenges because your team’s vision is the same as that yours.
A leader getting involved in his subordinates’ work and overseeing their work may believe it to be a helping hand which in reality is not. What they expect out of their superior is not the helping hand rather “the need for a leader.” By letting certain minor things come their way, a leader lets himself/herself go out of control by pushing away the major responsibilities that are expected of them. This, therefore, makes the leader fall into the ego trap four: Not letting go out of control.
Ego Trap Five: Being Blind to Your Downstream Impact:
This ego trap arises as a result of “Prioritizing one’s own needs over the needs of the others and the Organization at large.” Such a leader will not know the consequences of their decisions and their effects on others. The most common attributes or characteristics of leaders becoming prey to this type of ego include- shifting their priorities, deviating from their set goals or objectives, lack of uniformity in the way they work, scheduling last-minute meetings, etc. As a result, Employees feel disrespected and become dissatisfied.
Ego Trap Six: Underestimating How Much You’re Being Watched:
Leaders are constantly being watched by the employees and subordinates. The way leaders present themselves is often followed by their subordinates. They tend to follow the leader’s manners, conduct, even writing or presentation style. Following or reciprocating their style is not a bad thing. But as a leader, one must not underestimate it or give a negative connotation to it. As a leader, one must not be under the impression that “there exist different rules for all.” Being a leader and an employee, the duty is to lead the team and believe that the team is watching him/her.
Ego Trap Seven: Losing Touch with the Front Line Experience:
A leader is said to have fallen into this trap when he/she is totally disconnected from the team. It forms a wide parity between the front-line environment and the physical environment. Lack of connection with the team, no proper communication, etc., happens due to the same. As a senior executive, it is all too easy to become disconnected from the troops. A common sign of this ego trap is ‘having employees working in locations that have never been visited.’
Help your leader’s overcome their ego traps with leadership coaching
Ego Trap Eight: Relapsing Back to Your Old Ways:
The greatest ego trap is what we call “ego relapse.” This is the most dangerous ego trap that pushes a leader into a pitfall. This ego trap occurs when a leader shifts from “high-ego to high-EQ behavior,” thereby projecting his/her potential to be self-aware, empathetic, and self-disciplined—only to slip or fall back into the same high-ego behavior displayed in the past. The most common sign of this ego trap is that the leader knows best when to act mindful and jump back to his previous choices. By doing so, a leader is under the trap of Relapsing and is losing the employee’s trust and worth.
A person at the top of the hierarchy believes that skills and hard work alone are important factors. Falling into such an ego trap will always result in employee disengagement, lowered morale, increased turnover, or decreased motivation.
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 of 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 don’t have to pay us.
Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today
What are the top elements of leadership development? Why these top elements of leadership development should be a part of your leadership development programs?
How has leadership development changed?
Over the last three decades, we have clearly moved from the industrial age to the information and communication age. Leadership has changed to keep up with these changes. In the industrial age, leaders relied on their position and power to “command and control” others. Today, a leader is more a facilitator of highly skilled and interdependent employees doing complex work.
Dr. Paul Hersey defined leadership as:
“Working with and through others to achieve objectives.”
Why are the top elements of leadership development important?
Irrespective of the business that an organization undertakes, Leadership development is definitely an important aspect. The quality of leadership in a company is the single most effective predictor of long-term success. Good leaders help productivity, performance, and profits. Poor leaders are a drag on engagement, productivity, and performance.
Leadership development critically impacts the overall functioning of an organization. Here are some important indicators and top elements of leadership development:
An improved retention rate of employees and effective recruitment
Improved skills among the employees and enhanced productivity
Promotes better employment
Leadership development programs positively impact the ROI (Return on investment)
Plays a pivotal role in shaping and improving the corporate culture
Develops role models within the organization and also helps in the identification of potential leaders.
“The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.” -John Maxwell
There is a plethora of leadership development programs and activities that help improve the skill sets of leaders. Leadership training programs, E-learning, B-school curriculum, and many more. What are the top elements of leadership development that should be included in any leadership development program?
Steps to Developing a good leadership development program:
1. Identifying the right leadership improvement areas :
Every individual, every leader, every company, and every situation is unique. Standard cookie-cutter programs that “teach” everyone the same leadership skills don’t work. Such programs may increase the intellectual knowledge around the concepts of leadership but result in little change of behavior at work. In other words, the training remains theoretical with no practical application. Identifying individual leadership development needs that are aligned to the organizational goals is the key element for an effective program.
2. Identifying the right participants:
Well-defined criteria to select participants in leadership development in a necessary and important element for success. Most companies evaluate employees on the basis of past performance, and future potential. Employees are classified into either nine boxes, or four boxes, based on their past performance and future potential.
As high performers and high potentials deliver better business results, they are the starting point and the main focus group. Then the program may be cascaded to include others.
Another top element of a successful leadership development program is to start from the topmost leader and cascade leadership development down. When the top leaders practice what they preach, it has a cascading and a multiplier effect on other employees, which in turn helps the performance.
3. Keeping track of the right metrics:
Having a progress tracker is of utmost importance. Progress levels should be tracked down for each goal set out and each activity performed.
Some of the metrics tracked by most companies are:
The number of participants
Number of training programs
Percentage of employees covered
Post-program evaluation by participants etc.
While these metrics are necessary, they are not sufficient! The real measure of the effectiveness of any program is actual application at work – real behavior change in the leader, as observed by the leader’s team members.
5 Must include top elements of leadership development program:
The five most important skills that an effective leadership development program must include are:
1. Communication: Top elements of leadership development program
By definition, leadership is getting work done with and through others. Communication skill is the most important pillar of leadership development training. It is not a skill that leaders can learn by just reading, watching a video, or listening to a presentation. In a leadership role, communication happens at all levels and all the time. It can be through large presentations, one-on-one conversations, phone calls, text messages, videoconferencing and, emails, etc. Leaders spend the majority of the time communicating. Thus, having good communication skills plays a vital role in the development of effective leadership.
2. Accountability: Top elements of leadership development program
We hold leaders accountable for their actions since that is the most important factor that decides the team’s performance. They are not the only contributors to the success factors. Having trained the leaders on this can ensure that they can define accountability. In this way, they can ensure uniformity through constant fulfillment of the commitments, producing positive results. Leaders have to hold themselves and others accountable to the goals and the results. Without accountability, a brilliant strategy and a fabulous plan will surely break down.
3. Change Management: Top elements of leadership development program
Organizations are not static; rather, they are dynamic. T Changes in the marketplace, employee turnover, company growth, and countless other factors contribute to ongoing changes. Therefore, leaders must expect and prepare themselves for constant change, which requires training the leaders to manage change effectively whenever it happens. Thus, it is a crucial aspect of a good leadership development program, especially in today’s VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) business world we work in.
4. Influence & Negotiation: Top elements of leadership development program
Effective leaders inspire, persuade, encourage and prepare others to help drive their vision into reality. By learning to negotiate and influence, leaders take on the roles to influence the employees to achieve the best results. Leaders must use this skill to build relationships, align priorities, and find a win-win situation that ultimately leads to the best results.
5. Coaching: Top elements of leadership development program
Of the variety of leadership development programs and methodologies available today, leadership coaching is THE MOST effective leadership development tool. It is one of the most important skills that a leader must have to derive the true potential of the employees the leader leads.
One of the best ways for the leader to learn how to become a coaching leader is to undergo coaching themselves.
A leader is always leading by example, whether she knows it or not, wants it or not, believes it or not, or likes it or not! – Tushar Vakil
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 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 don’t have to pay us.
Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today
Here is a real-life leadership development plan example template and how you can use it to create an organization-wide leadership development program that is impactful and delivers measurable results
Case study: Agilent Technologies, leadership development plan
How do Human Resources, talent management, or leadership development professionals develop and implement an impactful organization-wide leadership development plan and have a measurable return on investment?
The planning and implementation of Agilent’s coaching program named APEX (Accelerated Performance for Executives) – has some valuable lessons for any company that wants to invest in its leadership development and get a guaranteed and measurable return.
They coached over a hundred leaders using the worldwide pool of coaches over two-and-a-half years. 95% of the leaders who went through the program showed improved overall leadership effectiveness, as measured by the anonymous feedback from raters.
The worldwide leadership development plan example
Agilent Technologies, a spinoff of Hewlett Packard, deployed a worldwide corporate leadership development program for their high-performing and high-potential senior leaders. Key features included were –
Defining their leadership competencies
Customized 360-degree feedback for their leadership competencies
Using executive coaching as a part of leadership development
An international network of external coaches
Measurement of coaching effectiveness
An interesting clause of “pay for results.”
Leadership coaching and “pay for results” clause
The “pay for results” clause ensured leadership growth for the leader, or else the coach would not get paid (except for incidentals).
Hewlett Packard had previously used coaching as part of leadership development but in an unstructured and uncoordinated way. Multiple vendors and individual coaching practitioners had different coaching approaches and different price points.
Read: How to find the best executive coach for you or for the leaders in your organization
Defining Agilent Global Leadership Profile
Agilent defined a set of competencies and profiles across all management levels – first-line managers through top business leaders. Over several months and through an iterative process comprising managers’ inputs, review of documents, discussions, and refinements, a Global Leadership Profile was developed. A senior manager then checked and confirmed this profile in each of the company’s divisions in the US and abroad.
Initial Objectives of the APEX coaching program
Along with developing the leadership profiles, an initial draft of the leadership coaching was also being developed. They outlined the initial objectives of the coaching program as follows –
Focus on senior managers and executives – Participants of the APEX coaching included VPs, GMs, directors, and BUHs.
Global reach – the program should be accessible by all Agilent locations in sixty countries. Ideally, provide local coaches that speak the local language and understand the local culture.
Flexible and user-friendly To make it easy for them, they created end-users a menu of options. The user can choose from 2 to 3 local coaches and avail multiple coaching options at different levels and budgets. They simplified everything for the user to hire a coach and make the payments.
Accountability – As the company was investing in the employee’s development via leadership coaching, the participants would have to show measurable growth in leadership effectiveness as rated by their subordinates, peers, and superiors.
The final version of APEX – the cultural based leadership development program plan example
Critical factors for developing a leadership development program may include many factors. Over several months and after going through several iterations, they outlined a final version of the APEX coaching program that included
Several coaching options
General description of each option
A global coaching pool of qualified coaches
Guidance for the 360-degree feedback process
Creating intranet pages with all these details
The official launch of the program and internal marketing
Educating HR and leadership development team within the organization
It was also decided that APEX will not be used for career planning or remedial coaching. The purpose of APEX was to improve leadership behaviors only. And this is critical for any leadership development plan example. Keep career planning or performance management separate from leadership developmental activities.
Five Coaching Options
Five coaching options were made available, and the names were coined using the mountain-climbing analogy.
Base Camp
Multi-rater GLP assessment
2-4 hour face-to-face coaching
Review report and create an IDP
No, check-in with stakeholders
n/a
No results guarantee
Camp 2
Multi-rater GLP assessment
Six months of telephone & in-person coaching
One mini-survey as follow up assessment
Coach has a telephone check-in with key stakeholders
n/a
Guaranteed results
Camp 3
Multi-rater GLP assessment
Six months of telephone & in-person coaching
One mini-survey as follow up assessment
Coach has a telephone check-in with key stakeholders.
Coach conduct up to 12 interviews with key stakeholders on the leader’s behaviors and shares the report.
Guaranteed results
High Camp
Multi-rater GLP assessment
One Year telephone & in-person coaching
Two mini-surveys as follow up assessment.
Coach has a telephone check-in with key stakeholders
n/a
Guaranteed results
Summit
Multi-rater GLP assessment
One Year telephone & in-person coaching
Two mini-surveys as follow up assessment
Coach has a telephone check-in with key stakeholders.
Coach conduct up to 12 interviews with key stakeholders on the leader’s behaviors and shares the report.
Guaranteed results
Team coaching
Multi-rater GLP assessment
Group coaching sessions
Two mini-surveys
Participants cross-check with one another.
Participants conduct interviews with one another.
Guaranteed results
There was also an option to upgrade to the next higher level option with no penalty. Besides, several add-on options were made available, including additional interviews, instruments, and team and group-based experiences.
The most popular option was the High Camp. Many line managers nominated their entire team for team coaching.
Results-Guarantee Clause of the leadership development program
All but one APEX coaching program options including a unique clause of guaranteed results. The leader didn’t have to pay until the entire coaching program was completed and only if the leader had improved as assessed by the leader’s stakeholders via the min-surveys. There was a “leader qualification” process to gauge the leader’s commitment to avail of the no-growth no-pay option. The coaching program manager conducts a brief interview with the potential coachee leader to assess specific needs and assess genuine interest. This also helps the program manager recommend suitable coaches. Participating leaders have a choice of coaches and also have a sense of ownership in their development process.
Internal marketing
The following efforts of internal marketing and easy access helped spread the word about the APEX program.
Availability of all relevant details and documents on the intranet
Presentations to HR and leadership development team within Agilent
Word of mouth publicity of the measurable results and results guaranteed clause.
Involving the stakeholders in the leadership development program
It was a known fact that regular follow-up with key stakeholders results in a perceived leadership effectiveness improvement. Involving stakeholders of the leader before, during, and after is an excellent process to help change the leader’s behaviors and stakeholder’s perceptions.
The leader conducted an initial debriefing session lasting 5-10 minutes with each stakeholder with the following agenda.
Thanking raters for providing anonymous 360-degree input
Relating the positive and developmental feedback
Disclosing the developmental goal(s)
Enlisting the rater’s help in the participant’s developmental efforts
Leaders also follow up with stakeholders regularly, usually at least once a month, throughout the coaching engagement.
Measuring effectiveness through mini-survey
Mini surveys are anonymous and include short 3-5 questions. Did the leader improve? Raters respond on a Likert scale of -3 to +3. They also solicited some qualitative comments. Mini surveys are also used to determine whether the leader has improved – so that the coach can get paid as per the no-growth no-pay clause.
Results from the APEX program
Has this leader become more or less effective as a leader since the feedback session? In response to this question, 78% of respondents felt that the leader had improved anywhere from a level of +1 to +2 or +3. Overall, the outcomes of the APEX coaching program were very encouraging. Leaders improved both in overall leadership effectiveness and their selected improvement areas, as perceived by those working with the leaders.
Read: Case Study: Guaranteed measurable results delivered for our FMCG client
Some useful lessons and pointers
The following are some key pointers and useful lessons learned from the APEX program that may enable any organization to more effectively implement an executive coaching program:
A commitment of senior leadership
Willingness and commitment of the participating leaders
Offering choice and responsibility (of showing improvement) contributed to the success.
Regular follow up with stakeholders increases leadership effectiveness.
Read: Your Executive Leadership Development – Sink, Swim or Setup for Success
Benefits from the highly successful APEX leadership development program
Agilent could provide the following benefits because of the APEX coaching program.
Uniform leadership development process worldwide
Uniform leadership coaching across geographies
Fixed cost instead of often uncontrollable billable hours
A lower negotiated rate that was uniformly accessible to any Agilent leader worldwide
Saving of the leader’s time and travel costs – as the coach came to the leader
Result guaranteed clause – no payment if the leader didn’t improve.
Some companies think they do not need a leadership development program. They simply fail to understand the detrimental effect of poor leadership on business performance.
Our leadership coaching program with a 95% success rate
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 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: 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
Getting to a leadership position is not easy. Staying there is often even more difficult! It is quite common to see a leader successfully guide a company through one challenge and then fail to face other less pressing issues.
A study by HBR reported that two out of five Fortune 500 CEOs fail in their first eighteen months. At the mid-career level, a lot of leader’s career stalls, and are often passed over for promotions.
How does a leader avoid such a fate and keep growing as a leader and keep moving up the career ladder? What are the ego trap and Leadership Derailers leaders fall for?
The wise advice to the newly appointed General!
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, the world’s number one leadership thinker and executive coach, narrates an incident with a newly promoted General in the US army.
At a dinner and a cocktail party, the new General was approached by a veteran, experienced and wise General. He asks a few questions to the newly appointed General and shares some words of wisdom with him.
Wise General – “Have you noticed lately that people tend to laugh at all your jokes?”
New General – “Yes, I have!”
Wise General – “When you share a nugget of your wisdom – everyone nods their heads in unison, and no one disagrees with any of your ideas?”
New General – “Yes, it is true!”
Wise General – “Well, let me tell you something! You are not that funny. Nor are your nuggets of wisdom any good! It is the star on your shoulder – that tells them that you are a General – that is getting you these rave reviews. Don’t forget that, and don’t let it get to your head!”
Getting honest feedback as we move up the career ladder
As we move up the career ladder, it becomes more and more difficult to get honest feedback. People around us avoid telling us unpleasant truths. They learn to highlight our “good” deeds and shower praise upon us. Essentially, we get watered down truths at best and unfettered and sometimes insincere praise at the worst.
We only hear one side of the story–how good we are! Unfortunately, this continuous positive reinforcement eventually gets into most leader’s heads. It is hard for the leader to stay grounded, and the leader suffers from what Marshall Goldsmith calls “success delusion.”
Unless the leader makes a concerted effort to solicit honest feedback, people simply won’t volunteer honest and useful feedback.
360 degree assessment to solicit honest feedback
One of the best tools to get honest feedback from team members is using the anonymous 360 degree feedback assessment. It measures how the leader’s team members see the leader and help overcome leadership blindspots. If you’d like to know more about 360 degree feedback, read the article.
We have all read the story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The Emperor’s ministers, family members, the common folks–all saw that the Emperor had no clothes on, and he was naked. But no one wanted to tell the emperor the unpleasant truth that he was naked.
When you are a leader and in a position of power, subordinates, colleagues, and peers hesitate to tell you anything unflattering. Getting the unfiltered truth from them becomes increasingly difficult. And this becomes a problem sooner than later. When a leader stops getting candid feedback, he loses touch with reality.
He will stop learning, changing, and improving. In a fast-changing VUCA world, that puts the brakes on the leader’s further growth, or in the worst-case scenario, gets them fired.
Author Jen Shirkani in her book Ego vs. EQ. – outlines eight “leadership ego traps,”–which are basically leadership blind spots. The first ego trap is – “Ignoring the feedback you don’t like.”
Actively soliciting feedback is the key
New York mayor Ed Koch was known for stopping commuters (average citizens) in the streets and asking them the question–“How am I doing?” It is a powerful question, especially when the leader asks that question directly to his leadership’s recipients–his subordinates and frontline workers.
How do you know for sure how you are doing as a leader?
I often pose the same question to the leaders I coach during my executive or leadership coaching engagement. Often the reply is that– “I am doing well or I am doing OK.” I then ask–“How do you know that?” And “How you know that for sure?”
Eventually, it leads to the discussion of getting unfiltered, honest, and anonymous feedback through the 360-degree feedback tool.
It allows subordinates to share honest feedback with the leader without the discomfort or fear of giving the same feedback to the leader’s face.
When I share the feedback from the 360-degree tool with the leader, there is one sure shot tell that determines whether the leader will get better or not? What is it? If the leader accepts the feedback, she is likely to become an even better leader.
If the leader tends to ignore, discount, or malign unflattering feedback, the leader will have difficulty getting better. This will eventually prevent the leader from progressing or moving up.
Stalling or derailment of a leader’s career
Jen Shirkani quotes a study done by PDI Ninth House. A study of 39,000 leaders found a significant correlation between “inability or unwillingness to see one’s own faults” and the stalling of the leader’s career’s derailment.
Leaders who were “out of touch” with the way their direct managers perceived them and rated them in performance reviews were more likely to derail (low performance, demotion, or even being fired). How much more likely? 629% more likely! That is a significant drag and a detriment to any leader’s career.
How does a leader avoid success delusions or ego traps?
Be like the good kings in the olden days!
Good kings used to tour their kingdoms dressed as common folks without the entourage in the old days. Why? So that they can see and hear firsthand what common people were saying about the king.
To get the unfiltered and honest truth about the people’s condition and what they really thought about the king’s performance and behavior. Well, the modern-day version of that technique is the 360-degree feedback process. It allows the leader to get an accurate picture of how others see her.
Get a wise General on your side!
Wouldn’t it be great if all leaders had a wise adviser like the experienced General? Such an adviser would help the leader stay grounded and avoid the success delusion and the ego traps? Help control the derailing behaviors that hurt the leader’s career? The modern-day version of that wise General is a leadership coach (often referred to as an executive coach)!
A leadership coach is the best investment for a leader’s career
A leadership coach or an executive coach will do what a sports coach does for an athlete. Take any sport and any successful athlete at the top of their game. Although they probably are the best in the world, they still have a coach! Why? To provide an outside perspective, objectively see the athlete, to point out areas of improvement – so that the athlete can stay at the top of their game and get even better. A leadership coach may be the best investment a leader can make to improve their leadership skills and develop their career.
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 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 are 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 don’t have to pay us.
Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today
How to become a leader? How to become a better leader? Answers from 35+ years of research by Kouzes and Posner
How to become a leader? How to become a better leader? Think about the question for a moment and try to come up with some answers. I often ask this question to the participants in my leadership training programs. I get a lot of different answers, but here are some common answers. Later I discuss the answer derived from over 35+ years of research by Kouzes and Posner.
Vision
Strategic thinking
Communication
Determination
Commitment
Managing change
Influence
Planning and execution
And a few more!
What is one essential element for anyone wants to be a leader? How to be a leader?
I then ask – what one thing is essential to become a leader? The participants of my leadership training programs debate on what is that one essential element. What is your opinion on that one essential element? Let me warn you that this is a trick question!
The one essential requirement of leadership today is followers! Willing followers! Without willing followers, no one can be a leader! Anyone can have a position of power. Everyone has subordinates – but they may not be willing followers! The days of command and control are long gone. Leadership today is nothing but influence.
“Become the leader that people would voluntarily follow even if you had no title or position.” Brian Tracy.
How to become a better leader? What do followers look for in a leader whom they will follow voluntarily?
Kouzes and Posner, the authors of the bestselling book “The Leadership Challenge,” answer this question based on over 35 years of research that analyzed thousands of personal-best leadership experiences.
The authors asked over 75000 respondents via a questionnaire–What qualities should a leader possess that inspire the followers to follow the leader willingly? Therein lies the answer to the question – How to become a better leader?
After surveying for over 35 years, Kouzes and Posner found four leadership qualities and behaviors consistently that are essential. These four leadership qualities received over 60 percent votes across countries and cultures over the three and a half decades. These four qualities and behaviors are.
Honest
Forward-looking
Inspiring
Competent
Four essential qualities on how to become a better leader
Be Honest!
Honesty is the number one quality followers look for in a leader. Some synonyms of honesty that followers used to describe this same quality were ethical, principled, truthful, and having integrity. Honesty is closely related to values. Followers want to know the values and principles that the leader believes in and will adhere to – even in the toughest of situations. Honesty is admitting and accepting the reality of a business situation as it is. It also means that he admits his strengths and improvement areas openly. Honesty is also tied to authenticity. She has to be herself and cannot pretend to be someone else.
Be Forward-looking.
A leader’s focus should be on the future–looking forward. Learn from past mistakes, but forgive, forget and move on. She also has to describe clearly the destination she plans to take everyone to. She must have a vision that takes followers to better and exciting destinations than they currently are. It is the quality that inspires everyone to commit and work hard towards achieving that vision.
Be Competent.
Does the leader understand the overview of the business, competitors, and markets? Does he have a track record of delivering results through people? Understanding of business and the ability to get the best out of people make a leader competent. Without being competent, you are unlikely to succeed, and the followers are unlikely to want to follow such a person.
Be Inspiring.
This one quality elevates a good manager to the level of a good leader. We all have an inherent need to believe in something, have a purpose, and know that what we are doing at work is making a difference. Millennials especially are looking for meaning and purpose in what they do at work. An inspiring leader can provide meaning, purpose, and a sense of belonging to a greater good. Inspiring leaders are energetic, enthusiastic, and dedicated to their mission and purpose, and these emotions cascade down to the followers.
To summarize, Kouzes and Posner’s research of 35+ years have identified 4 essential qualities of leaders. When we exhibit these qualities, followers willingly follow us.
If you want to become a leader that people would follow even if you had no title or position, these are the essential elements to work on and develop. Over 35 years of research by Kouzes and Posener has confirmed over and again the fact that anyone willing to develop these qualities and behaviors becomes a better leader. They can develop these four qualities and behaviors.
How to become a better leader and develop these 4 behaviors?
In life and leadership – knowing is not the same as doing! We know we should exercise more, watch less TV, listen more, not lose temper, etc. But do we do these things consistently?
The best way to change behavior and develop these leadership behaviors is through leadership coaching. Coaching provides the structure, support, and accountability that allows the leader to learn new skills and convert them into habits.
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 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 don’t have to pay us.
Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today
The single biggest factor in your organization’s long-term success
(according to the new book by Gallup)
Gallup organization conducted “the largest study on the future of the workplace.” After Tens of Millions of In-Depth Interviews With Managers, Employees, Economists and Leading Organizations – the single biggest factor in any organization’s long term success is … Please read along to find the research answer and the book on the same topic by Gallup.
You can buy the book by clicking here – (This is a Non-affiliate link)
Gallup – The leader in scientific polling
Gallup organization is an American analytics and advisory company founded by George Gallup in 1935. It is the pioneer in scientific polling. In 1936 the influential magazine “The Literary Digest” predicted that Alfred Landon would win the U.S. presidency. Contrary to the popular, Gallup correctly predicted the winner – Franklin Roosevelt. This event popularized the company and made it a leader in American polling, which it has remained to date.
Gallup organization has conducted millions of polls worldwide over the last eight decades. In their latest book – It’s the Manager – CEO Jim Clifton and Chief workplace research scientist Jim Harter offer conclusions from their “largest study on the future of work.”
In-depth research of millions of data points
According to Gallup, the research for the book included –
a review of everything we could find across almost all leading institutions and management literature — as well as our own data from more than 30 years of U.S. and global workplace tracking
tens of millions of in-depth interviews with employees and managers across 160 countries
in-depth round table interviews with CHROs from 300 of the world’s largest organizations
interviews with several of the world’s preeminent economists
The major problem of businesses worldwide
From the research study, Gallup concluded that the short-term (5-10 years) problem worldwide and businesses worldwide was declining productivity – as measured by GDP per capita. The main culprit for the slowdown in productivity is the failure to maximize human potential. Lean management and Six Sigma have helped improve the processes and the quality of global production. Over the last thirty years, the “defects” in processes have been eliminated largely. However, according to the book, the “defects” in how organizations manage their human capital needs to be worked on.
Failure in maximizing human potential
Today – Organizational defects “aren’t failures in processes but failures in maximizing the human potential” Over the last thirty years, the business environment and how people work has changed at an unprecedented level. People want to work, live, and connect with others in dramatically different ways. But how we manage has been stuck in a time capsule over that period. Productivity growth has stalled because organizations are not maximizing the potential of their employees. Outdated management practices have stifled employee engagement and productivity.
It’s the Manager – the single biggest factor to any organization’s long-term success.
Research also concluded that the managers or team leaders account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores. And hence the title of the book – It’s the Manager – Gallup finds that the quality of managers and team leaders is the single biggest factor in your organization’s long-term success.
The book offers leaders and aspiring leaders 52 tips to maximize human potential in organizations. These 52 tips are divided into five major headings.
Strategy: How to use strategy to create a culture of high performance. Teams that work together and make quick decisions.
Culture: Some insights based on the research on why culture is probably the most important factor in organizations’ success.
Employment Brand: Millennials think differently. Tips for creating a culture and a brand that allows companies to attract, hire, and keep the best talent. How to work on creating a workplace that is desired and coveted by talented employees.
Boss to Coach: Command and control are officially dead. How to change managers’ approach from bosses to coaches to serve the needs and wants of employees. Today employees want managers who help them utilize and maximize their talents and not fit them into a standard job description.
The Future of Work: One size fits all does not work in a rapidly changing workplace. Managers must be agile and responsive to constant and never-ending changes such as diversity and inclusion, artificial intelligence, analytics, remote work, and flexible schedules. Training managers for such a business world is essential.
According to the book, culture change begins with changing the beliefs of CEOs and CHROs. As the authors point out, the management practices have not kept up with workplace changes and changes in employee’s expectations. The next step is changing what the managers and team leaders believe.
For decades, shareholder returns have been the holy grail of businesses. However, things have changed. In a “purpose” driven economy, people’s needs have to be a priority, or else there will be no improvement in productivity. If companies learn, change, and adapt to new ways to manage people and teams, the growth in productivity, revenue, profits, and employee engagement will be dramatic. The new purpose of business, which is also to the future of work, includes maximizing human potential. The book argues that this change in mindset will change everything.
That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth. It is based on a stakeholder centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study of 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 are 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 don’t have to pay us.
Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today
What are the best executive coaching programs? Which are the top executive coaching firms?
Executive coaching is probably the most effective and the most popular leadership development tool. Companies ranging from startups to large multinationals use executive coaching to support their leaders.
In this article, I will answer the following questions.
What is executive coaching?
Why do companies hire an executive coach?
What are the best executive coaching programs?
Which are the top executive coaching firms?
What is executive coaching?
It would be an understatement to say that today’s business environment is challenging for top executives. Constant and rapidly accelerating change driven by technology, relentless cost-cutting, flatter organizations, global competition, and many other challenges take up a leader’s time and energy and keep them awake at night. We often expect the leaders and executives to figure out things for themselves in this constantly changing world. We expect them to have all the answers. We expect them to keep their skills updated, work under pressure, and change and innovate to stay ahead of the competition. A leader may likely do these things herself, but the fact is that most executives need help. That is where executive coaching comes in.
Executive coaching is probably the best tool available for the leadership development of the executive.
It is a personalized and confidential relationship between the coach who is a trained professional and the executive being coached. Executive coaching helps leaders to take stock of their current level of competencies to maximize their strengths and overcome areas of weakness. It also helps the leader see how others perceive his/her behavior, which helps improve the relationship with and the team members’ engagement. The executive coach also clarifies goals, strategy, and plan for action, focus, and accountability.
Why do companies hire an executive coach?
In a study conducted by Diane E. Lewis, companies identified various reasons for hiring executive coaches. Here is the list of the top five reasons, with the percentage of respondents citing that particular reason in parentheses.
For developing the leadership skills of high-potential individuals (86%).
To improve the odds that newly promoted managers would be successful (64%).
Development of management and leadership skills among their technical people (59%).
Rectifying behavioral problems at the management level (70%).
To help leaders resolve interpersonal conflicts among employees (59%).
Other surveys have also confirmed leadership development as the primary reason for hiring an executive coach. The perception of coaching has also changed from remedial (needed to fix something wrong with the executive) to developmental (the company is investing in my development).
Executive coaching also meets multiple talent management needs.
Developing high potential employees.
Leadership pipeline and succession planning.
Help leaders transition up and across.
Overcoming derailing behaviors of otherwise technically brilliant employees.
Most of the top consulting firms offer executive coaching programs. Top business schools and leadership development consulting firms also offer executive coaching programs.
There are many executive coaching programs and approaches available in the market. Unfortunately, the bar to enter executive coaching is low. Many agencies “certify” any individual willing to pay the fees and attend a weekend program.
There is a lot of variation in the coaching approach depending on the coach. There is also uncertainty about areas of development for the executive that the coach is helping with. Often the question – “What area of improvement is the coach and the leader is currently working on?” is not crystal clear. And it often changes with time during the duration of the coaching engagement.
Buyers beware!
Unfortunately, most leaders and human resources professionals are not clear about what coaching methodologies to use and which ones work. Sadly, the choice is often based on the coaching vendor’s marketing and branding instead of the coaching process’s effectiveness. Most coaching agencies cite the satisfaction level of the leader as the measure of their success. While it is good that the leader liked the coach, the real question is, did the leader improve as a result of executive coaching?
Measuring success
How do you measure the effectiveness and the success of any coaching program? A coaching process’s true measure is the leader’s behavior change at work as observed and anonymously rated by the leader’s team members. The leader’s behaviors determine the culture of the team. The culture results in engagement and performance, or a lack of it, as it may be the case.
The behavior change of a successful adult is a difficult feat to accomplish. Hence it is necessary that the coaching process is structured, uniform, and well defined.
An excellent executive coaching program should also be supported with large-scale and statistically significant studies on the program’s effectiveness.
One of the most popular and widely used executive coaching programs worldwide is the stakeholder-centered executive coaching approach. It is often considered the best executive coaching program for top leaders of multinational companies. Over the last 40 years, it has been used to coach over 400,000 executives in over 60 countries – including executives from 150 of the Fortune 500 companies.
In a survey of 11,000 leaders on four continents, over 95% of the leaders using the stakeholder-centered process improved. The same process is available worldwide through 3000 coaches in 200 cities of 55 countries in multiple languages.
What is stakeholder-centered executive coaching? Why is it considered one of the best executive coaching programs?
Here are the key defining points of the stakeholder-centered executive coaching process that make it probably the best executive coaching program. It is one of the top executive coaching programs in the world. It is also the largest executive coaching network in the world.
Supporting successful people
Stakeholder-centered executive coaching helps successful leaders become more successful. It is not to “fix” a low performer. This list also includes people who are identified as “high potentials” and expected to take up future leadership roles.
To grow their leadership behavior effectiveness.
Leadership behavior effectiveness makes the leader aware of his behaviors and their impact on the team members. Behavior change helps establish better relationships, better employee engagement, and improved performance of the team. It also includes rectifying derailing behaviors. These are the annoying behaviors of otherwise good leaders. Often such behaviors become a hindrance to smooth team functioning, and stakeholder-centered coaching helps leaders improve their own derailing behaviors and change the perception of the team members.
Often people are promoted to a higher role without much support due to business emergencies like an urgent project or a senior leader leaving the organization. Leadership coaching also helps leaders transition into a higher role. It also helps the leader transition across into another role within the company – when such a need arises.
Through Feedback / Feed-forward from Stakeholders on the Job
Feedback allows the leader to realize the blind spots that may act as the leadership bottlenecks. However, once they receive the feedback, most of the focus is on feed-forward. Feed-forward is asking for suggestions from team members (stakeholders) for improvement for the future. This takes the focus away from the past – which cannot be changed, to the future – which can be improved if the leader acts on the stakeholder’s suggestions.
In their professional job environment
Unlike life coaching or some other executive coaching programs, stakeholder-centered executive coaching focuses solely on the executive’s professional development. It does not focus on personal issues, which are often addressed in life coaching.
To create pre-defined results.
The executive being coached usually determines the agenda of life-coaching. The agenda may also change during the span of the life-coaching engagement. Stakeholder-centered executive coaching assesses the leader on pre-defined leadership competencies. The assessors are the leader’s stakeholders – team members who frequently interact with the leader. Superiors, subordinates, peers, and sometimes customers or vendors. Once the leadership bottleneck competencies are identified, the executive coach and the leader work on improving these pre-defined competencies for the entire executive coaching engagement duration.
As acknowledged by the stakeholders
Stakeholders are the leader’s team members who frequently interact with the leader. They are at the receiving end of the leader’s behaviors. In other words – they are the “customers” of the leading product. No one else is in a better position than the stakeholders to assess whether or not the leadership behaviors are good and whether they are improving. In the stakeholder-centered executive coaching process, as the name suggests, stakeholders are at the center. Ultimately, they decide whether or not the leader has improved her behaviors through an anonymous survey. We consider a leader to have improved, not because the leader says he has improved, or the coach says he has improved, but only when the stakeholders (through an anonymous survey) confirm that the leader has improved!
Using a well-defined process/system for 6-12 months
Stakeholder centered executive coaching process is a well-defined and tried and tested process. It is designed to appeal to the leader’s ways of thinking and leverage them to improve. It is also a process that has been used to coach more than 400,000 executives in more than 60 countries – including executives from 150 of the Fortune 500 companies. The process is highly effective. In a survey of 11,000 leaders on four continents, more than 95% of the leaders using the stakeholder-centered process improved. Stakeholder-centered executive coaching usually lasts from a minimum of six months up to a year and a half.
Technology–assisted – Virtual OR Face to face
Technology has advanced, and video conferencing is a norm in any large organization. This is especially true after the pandemic. Although nothing beats the human touch when establishing rapport and connection, video coaching is the next best thing to being together. Besides, online software and tools allow continuous communication rapport between the coach and the leader. Scientifically designed online tools also support the leader in between coaching sessions with reminders and accountability.
What is stakeholder-centered executive coaching? Why is it the largest and one of the top executive coaching firms?
It is the process of
Supporting successful people
To grow their leadership behavior effectiveness (including developing specific competencies, transition up or across, and overcoming derailing behaviors)
Through Feedback / Feedforward from Stakeholders on the job
In their professional job environment
To create (predefined ) results.
As acknowledged by stakeholders
Using a well-defined process/system for 6-18 months
Technology-enabled – Virtual or in-person
Selecting the right executive coaching program, firm, and coach is critical.
Selecting the right executive coaching firm, the right executive coaching program, and the right executive coach is critical to any executive coaching intervention’s success and effectiveness. Not spending enough time and not doing due diligence may result in a waste of time, money, and effort and may tarnish the reputation of the Human Resources or top management, who usually are the executive coaching intervention sponsors.
That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth. It is based on a stakeholder-centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study of 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 don’t have to pay us.
Access to our scientifically designed online platform
Scientifically designed online platform to help the leader form habits and achieve leadership growth
Track and measure every aspect of your development plan
Everything in a single place – actions, metrics, notes, journal, and more
Convenient one-click access on any device – anywhere, anytime, any device
Timely reminders of actions and activities
Access to files, resources, videos, and activities
Book summaries, role-play, and more.
Continuous and non-stop personal care and support of the coach
Two-way communication with the coach continuously
Encouragement, support, and accountability
Other Value additions
Unlike training programs, our process is time and resource-efficient
It takes only 1 to 1.5 hours per month of a leader’s time.
The leader learns and applies for his/her own work with his/her own team.
Compare that to the leader going to a leadership training program.
Cost of the training program
The financial cost of time away from work
Productivity loss due to time away from work
Little application at work of the concepts learned in the training program.
The benefits cascade down to the team.
As the team members are involved in the entire process, they also improve.
The leader becomes the role model of desired behaviors, and it rubs off on the team.
The leader becomes the coach.
The final session is to help the leader become a coaching leader.
The entire coaching process is designed to deliver measurable leadership growth for the leader.
Schedule an exploratory 15-minute conversation with our leadership adviser today
Why is leadership important? How does it contribute to the success of organizations?
Organizations today work in a disruptive and rapidly changing business environment. Does leadership matter in such an environment? Why is leadership important? How does leadership development contribute to the successes of organizations? Here are some hard facts to answer the question – Why is leadership important?
Organizations, at times, fail to understand the importance of leadership. The primary reason is that the impact of leadership is intangible and difficult to measure. However, there is a powerful relationship between good leadership and employee engagement and performance.
Is leadership important to an organization’s performance? What is the relationship between the performance of an organization and the quality of its leadership? This is the question that I will try to answer in this article.
Employee potential versus Employee performance
How much of your capability or potential do you get to use at work? If we count your total potential at 100%, how much of it do you get to use at your job? Is it 10%? 25%? 50%? 90%? Or a full 100%? Think about it for a moment and just give the number that comes to mind. What is your answer?
Over the years, I have asked this question to thousands of participants who have gone through my leadership training or coaching programs – and the average comes to roughly 50%!
Most employees feel that they have many more skills, capabilities, and talents than they get to use at work. Leadership behaviors determine how employee potential get utilized at work. Under the right leadership style, the same employee can perform much more efficiently and be more engaged at work.
Imagine paying a 100% salary to use only 50% of your entire human capital’s capabilities and potential!
Working for a good leader vs. working for a not so good leader
Throughout our careers, most of us have experienced working under a good leader. In all likeliness, we have also worked under a not so good leader! Recall your personal experience. How was it working under a good leader? How about working under a not so good leader? What were the differences?
Who could use more of your capabilities and potential? The good leader or the not so good leader?
The answer is obvious – good leaders bring out a lot more of an employee’s total potential. Good leaders encourage others to work to the best of their abilities, inspire them, and abet their motivation. They have a clear vision about things they say and give the right direction whenever required. Such leaders possess traits that people willingly follow.
On the other hand, poor leadership behaviors have a measurable and significant detrimental effect on the entire team.
Our anecdotal experience is supported by more than 35 years of research by Kouzes and Posner.
Why is leadership development important?
It matters to people’s commitment to work.
It matters to their willingness to work hard and take the initiative.
It matters to the meaning they derive from their efforts.
And it matters to their overall ability to perform beyond the ordinary.
Good leaders bring out the best in individuals, teams, and organizations. Extraordinary performance requires extraordinary leaders. The leader’s personality has a significant influence on any organization’s performance or any group of individuals. The leader’s traits and values enable the employees to perform optimally and accelerate their performance to a great extent.
What factors contribute to an organization’s success? Korn Ferry Study
A study by the KF Hay group identified five factors that contribute to any organization’s success.
Strong franchises: Strong brands act as a moat. Example – Coca-cola, Apple, etc.
Munificent or beneficial environments: An environment helpful to business. Example – Silicon valley for technology.
Intellectual Property Rights: Patents and copyrights protect companies against competition and hence help their financials. Example – Qualcomm, Pharma companies.
Regulatory Barriers: Regulatory barriers protect the entry of competitors benefiting the existing players’ telecom in the middle-east and some African countries are expensive, but companies are highly profitable
Massive Resources: Capital, natural resources, the scale of operations act as a competitive advantage. Example: Google, P&G, Nestle, etc.
These five factors combined account for 65% of the financial performance of any organization.
Leadership accounts for 35% of the bottom line!
The other 35% of the performance is attributed to leadership behaviors and the culture it creates! Leadership behaviors account for 35% of an organization’s financial performance, which makes it the single most crucial factor. Leadership behaviors drive organizational culture. Organizational culture, in turn, drives business performance. How did Korn Ferry measure performance? Based on the profits, balance sheet, and people engagement levels in an organization.
If leadership accounts for more than a third of an organization’s performance, what are the implications? It means that leadership development is the single most massive lever available to drive an organization’s performance! And it is probably the only factor that is entirely within the circle of the influence of the organization.
Harvard study: Good leaders develop more leaders under them!
Here is the conclusion from a Harvard study that compared good leaders vs. bad leaders. What criteria did they use to identify the good vs. the bad leaders? The leaders who were in the top 10th percentile of their peer group were considered as good leaders, while those who ranked in the bottom 10th percentile were found to be the not so good leaders.
Subordinates of good leaders are 2.5 times more effective leaders themselves compared to subordinates of bad leaders!
Good leadership has a cascading (and a multiplier) effect – all the way down to the front line employees.
Good leaders develop more leaders under them, who, in turn, develop people under them. This cascading and multiplier effect of ethical leadership can be felt at all levels of the organization, all the way down to the front line.
Leadership makes the difference!
Most large companies today, have access to a similar pool of talent. They also have similar access to capital, technology, and other resources. What is the differentiating factor? What makes one company successful while others may go out of business?
The difference comes down to how much of these available resources – people and others – get utilized by the organization. Do people work as a cohesive team and for the common goals of the organization? Or are there silos and a race for individual benefits at the cost of the greater good? Leadership behaviors create the culture, which drives employee engagement and eventually business performance.
Good leadership and good organizational performance are highly correlated.
Develop your leaders using the best and most effective leadership program
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 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
