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Leadership Benefits: Self-Awareness and ROI

Does self-awareness and an understanding of leadership impact really matter to organisations?

 

CoachStation: Self-awareness and Leadership Development

Nearly all managers and people in leadership roles believe they make a difference. In some cases, this is true. In reality however, the evidence continues to demonstrate that leaders overstate their value and influence.

One of the core traits observed in the best leaders I have worked with is self-awareness. This is tightly linked to a willingness to be honest with themselves as well as others. There are also points such as decision making beliefs and biases that influence our position on many topics. Our actions are also reinforced by these biases. All the more reason to take a strong position that as a leader it is important to regularly review your own performance as well as that of your team members. We overstate our performance across many fields, so anything that provides a more frank and balanced sense of self is valuable.

  • In a survey of college professors, 94% said they did above average work.
  • In a survey of corporate CEO’s, a whopping 92% said they were the only person who could do their job effectively. By the way, more than 50% of those corporations were losing money.
  • In an M&A involving a flailing target, the average firms pays 40+% more for the target acquisition than the current stock price. Why? Because the acquiring execs believe that they can run the acquisition more profitably. (1)

As an example, I have seen the challenge of holding yourself accountable as a leader when participating in performance appraisal calibration sessions within several organisations.
Dilbert: Honest Leadership Assessment
The discussion is often about what employees have not achieved or the reasons why they will be ‘marked down’. There are two strong points of failures with this:

  1. The disappointing attitude of some leaders that the employee underperformance is a surprise. If the leader acknowledges that an individual has underperformed, then they should be prepared to look at themselves and the failure to have made a difference for/with that person over the past 6-12 months. If it is not the leader’s responsibility to manage this, whose is it?
  2. The focus on the 10-20% of what an employee is not achieving is out of proportion with the discussion of the 80-90% of what is working well. In my experience, the vast majority of these type of discussions focus on what is isn’t, not what it is. This is particularly disheartening if there is little support and coaching provided to to turn this situation around throughout the period. I have been in situations where I have held underperforming employees accountable to the point of terminating employment after much effort to turn them around. Afterwards, during performance calibration sessions I have had other managers state that the decision to terminate is a good one as the employee has been a poor performer for years! My response will always be, “why had nothing been done about it then?” I hope you can see the irony in leadership statements such as this.

Does leadership make that much of a difference to business outcomes and success? You bet! The effort and willingness to grow and develop as a leader is the only way that this benefit can be realised, however. There is ample evidence that those organisations who focus on developing their leadership group see the benefit in many ways beyond improved employee engagement.

Organisations with the strongest leaders have nearly double the revenue growth compared to those with weaker leaders. However, most leaders lack the full complement of skills to thrive in today’s rapidly changing environment…organisations must adjust their approach to leadership and develop leaders who are able to build and enable. In order for organisations to achieve higher growth, truly differentiate themselves from competitors and maintain an edge, they must set a higher bar for their leaders, requiring them to go beyond setting strategic direction and driving execution. (2)

One of the keys to knowing whether you truly add value as a leader is through measurement, both tangible and non-financial. A key question here is, are all aspects of business measurable?

Calculating business benefits is often a complex art. As anyone who has been involved in business cases can testify, investments in ‘tangibles’ e.g. IT infrastructure, marketing spend etc. are often difficult to quantify in terms of the real monetary value they deliver. So when we start to think about investments that deliver ‘intangible’ benefits such as changes in leadership behaviour, the waters get murkier still. In too many cases, the evaluation of Leadership Development Programmes is not properly planned or budgeted for. Rather, it is seen as a tag-on, something to be put together at the very end…work needs to have clearly defined, specific and measurable objectives. So start with the end in mind:

  • What is the desired outcome of the programme?
  • What does success look like?
  • And then the killer question…what are the business metrics that we want to see impacted by this piece of work? (3)
The main point here is to ensure that you have a clearly set expectation for every employee, team and leader. You cannot hold people accountable for something that you have not set standards and expectations for in the first place. Confirming that each person understands and has the opportunity to participate in developing these expectations is also important. When combined with honest self-appraisal and subsequent action the opportunity to influence and contribute to your organisation is increased significantly.

Even more importantly, the influence on and buy-in you will receive from your team members will encourage you to continue down this developmental path and feel the effort is worthwhile. The alternative is to stagnate and continue to do what you have always done. Is that the type of leader you want to be?

(1)  http://switchandshift.com/when-leaders-wear-rose-colored-business-glasses

(2) Inside HR – Strong Leaders Grow Revenues Twice As Fast, Issue 2, 2014: Pg 6
(3) http://www.ysc.com/our-thinking/article/measuring-the-roi-of-leadership-development

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People and Process: Aligned or Loggerheads?

I often wonder what it is about processes that many managers have a need to see as entirely separate from their people.

Similarly to my previously documented thoughts regarding the key differences between leaders and managers, the ‘need’ to focus solely on the process is often due to the conscious or unconscious decision to concentrate time and energy on the simpler or more controllable part of the equation.

Unfortunately for those leaders with this mindset, unless you are in a pure process driven environment (which is rarer than many people think unless/until robots take over our world!), this leaves out the core reason why
these processes often fail – a focus on our people!

The ability to bring individuals and team members into the process is key to project success or meaningful outcomes. Engaging the people and teams involved, communicating the context and being specific about why the process exists or change is required, will often be the deciding factor between process success and failure. Rarely will a process in itself be the difference – it requires input, management and control of and with your people.

If we are not clear about what role our team member’s play in the overall project then the entire process change will likely fail.

This is a regular occurrence within the project and business world, where much of the planning and time is dedicated to setting up the ‘right’ program and lean elements that will provide the most effective structure or process. It is too often assumed that with cursory levels of communication and a base understanding that employees will simply fall into line and grasp the key elements.

These core elements may well be understood however buy-in, context and discretionary effort are almost always limited or compromised when an individual does not participate in the early project planning cycle and/or has little ownership or accountability into inputs or outcomes.

Interestingly, during the post-implementation discussions and review some managers often look back at these (failed!!?) outcomes and wonder why the process failed, without even considering the broader picture and what part their decisions and narrow focus initially may have contributed.

Often the phases and stages are not clearly distinguishable…so, thinking of people and process as intertwined but with different inputs may assist in removing the barriers for change. Our people are the all-encompassing link that will ensure true success and sustained change!

When managing people and change, keep these points front of mind:

  • Processes do not deliver outcomes, people do. If we treat process as the hero and people as an afterthought, we set the work up to struggle. Unless you live in a pure process driven world, which is rare, the human side will make or break the result.
  • Bring your team in early. Explain the context, the why, and what will change and what will stay the same. Be clear about the problem you are solving, the benefits, and the trade offs. When people can see themselves in the plan, resistance drops, relevance rises, and energy goes where it matters.
  • Role clarity is the hinge between a neat plan and real progress. Spell out who owns which decisions, where collaboration is needed, and how handovers work. Invite your people to help shape inputs, risks, and measures, rather than telling them after the fact. Ownership builds commitment, and commitment beats compliance every time.
  • Too often we invest our effort in the perfect structure or programme and assume a quick briefing will carry the rest. It rarely does. People might understand the steps, but without buy in and context, the extra effort that lifts performance is missing.
  • After a rollout, it is easy to blame the process when results disappoint. Look wider. How did decisions get made, how well did we listen, and did people feel trusted and involved. Leaders who hold both the plan and the people view build stronger delivery and better outcomes.
  • Treat people and process as intertwined. Set simple rhythms for communication, short feedback loops, and review both the mechanics and the relationships. Your people are the link that turns a good plan into sustained change.

Effective leaders ensure that they seek to understand both the planned outcomes and how their people are going to influence and drive all of the elements within the process to achieve that outcome.

This type of thinking provides a more solid platform to ultimate success.

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