Motivating and inspiring high-potential leaders with a clear sense of career direction can be challenging. Tom Pearce (pictured), advisory manager at Grant Thornton, outlines the value of leadership development for unlocking potential in leaders at every level…
Between an uncertain business environment, remote working, shifting operational models, and ongoing repercussions of Brexit and COVID-19, these are tough times for leaders and managers.
Providing leaders a sense of purpose, beyond ‘business-as-usual’ priorities, can be achieved through access to structured development for continual performance improvements and taking on more strategic responsibility.
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Support to succeed
Organisations are increasingly asking more of their people at every level. On average, 60% of first-line managers are responsible for 80% of the workforce 1.
These managers are often in a position to identify potential issues, as well as opportunities to generate value from their teams. Yet, they can also be a single point of failure in times of change and uncertainty. Leadership and management development is vital in supporting these individuals to step up and confront these challenges.
In 2012, the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) completed its largest management survey. It found that 43% of UK managers rated their own line manager as ineffective with only one-in-five managers ever receiving formal management development 2.
High-performing organisations recognised the importance of developing their leaders and managers through both structured and informal approaches. Almost a decade on, we’ve helped implement leadership development across a range of sectors and organisations with some common themes.
Developing leadership skills
Effective leadership development is proven to generate more significant gains in business performance than wider workforce or capital investments. Perhaps this is unsurprising when considering that development more broadly ranks as a top priority in most employee engagement surveys, particularly for leaders and managers looking to progress.
According to the Business Barometer 2020 3, three in 10 businesses will increase their learning and development budget and prioritise leadership and management ahead of industry-specific skills.
The old adage of ‘leaders inspire and managers do’ is true, to an extent. Yet, all leaders and managers find themselves having to do a fair amount of both, going between different modes in given situations and thinking about where they can have the best impact, and leadership development can help provide the adaptability and resilience to succeed.
Five steps to develop resilient leadership
Delivering development to over 3,000 leaders and managers, we identified five common themes that support people in developing knowledge, skills and behaviours to bolster individual and organisational resilience:
1 Self-awareness
To manage others, you need to first manage yourself. Better understanding of potential blind spots or psychological barriers to development can help unlock immediate performance gains and provide experience to help develop team members.
Whether it’s completing psychometric tests or making time for regular reflection, development can provide the space, time and means for personal reflection and garnering honest feedback that might not always be possible in day-to-day roles.
2 Networks
We recommend bringing peers together as part of a leadership development intervention. Managers and leaders can quickly gain exposure to new ways of working and learn from the experience and natural tendencies of others. Learning networks on a team or group basis provide an ongoing source of support, challenge, and role development.
For first-time managers and departmental heads, creating a cohort from across the business can help break down siloed thinking and directly develop knowledge of those business areas. Leaders at a more-senior level may benefit from a sector-specific or cross-sector version to build their networks externally, and learn through comparing their own experiences and challenges with others.
3 Innovation
Leadership development helps empower individuals to confront the big challenges and provide the competencies required to lead on change.
Being exposed to different business practices can also encourage greater intellectual curiosity and questioning. Meanwhile, classroom teaching and independent research may spark new ideas with scope to see through to implementation through relevant project work.
4 Communication
Our recent People Power report 4 found that 27% of businesses offered either formal or informal development on communication with 94% identifying it as a valuable skill.
The importance of communication during this period of uncertainty and remote working has tested managers and leaders to communicate in new ways. Practice and experience in adapting to new communication styles and differing personalities can make this easier.
5 Technical
Leaders develop ‘T-like’ specialisms. They start with a background in a particular area before branching out into their first management or leadership role with broader applied knowledge over a greater number of areas. Leaders operate cross-functionally and are increasingly expected to add value in multi-disciplinary project teams.
Coming from a finance, operations, HR or commercial background can mean a leader has little-to-no experience in other technical areas of management, leaving potential gaps to fill on-the-job.
Leadership development programmes can be a useful way to fill in any gaps in knowledge and establish a quality benchmark.
Resilient leadership for better performance
Organisations need effective leadership and management at all levels, and those leaders need the right support to achieve their potential. We share practical steps and access to apprenticeship funded programmes to develop managers and leaders at all levels.
References
1 The Frontline Advantage, Harvard Business Review, May 2011.
