Positive Leadership: Why Leadership Development Programmes Often Fail

This is an excellent article from McKinsey on why leadership development programmes often fail -http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/leading_in_the_21st_century/why_leadership-development_programs_fail

The key reasons?

1. Overlooking context
2. Decoupling reflection from real work
3. Underestimating mind-sets 
4. Failing to measure results

Companies can avoid the most common mistakes in leadership development and increase the odds of success by matching specific leadership skills and traits to the context at hand; embedding leadership development in real work; fearlessly investigating the mind-sets that underpin behaviour; and monitoring the impact so as to make improvements over time.

Positive Leadership: Why Leadership Development Programmes Often Fail

Positive Leadership for a Turbulent Age

In the midst of growing financial pressures and ever-changing business needs, organisations must be confident that their leaders are ready to lead effectively. Designing and delivering an aligned leadership programme that creates “ready-now leaders” who are in lock step with corporate strategy and a sustainable network, is essential.

Positive Leadership Limited delivers such a solution.

In this programme, you will:
· access best practices in leading across cultures, companies, divisions and functions
· develop initiatives that can cross global boundaries, and benefit the bottom line
· define techniques to align strategy with leadership needs.

For more information, please contact: lee.torbet@positiveleadership.co.uk

Positive Leadership for a Turbulent Age

How Companies Can Develop Critical Thinkers and Creative Leaders

This article was written by Col. Bernard Banks, a faculty member in the Department of Behavioural Sciences & Leadership at West Point and a Colonel in the United States Army.

'Today's leaders are continually cajoled to act as "outside-the-box" thinkers. Such pronouncements give the impression the only sound solutions are ones never previously conceived. However, what industry and the military really strive to produce are leaders possessing strong critical and creative thinking skills. Both implicitly eschew the notion that a box even exists. What can industry learn from the military about how to advance the development of such leaders? One tangible example is how to construct and execute experiential training while continuing to meet the needs of customers and stakeholders.

Today's organisations operate in what the U.S. Army War College defines as a VUCA environment. Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity are constant realities in the 21st century. The military seeks to prepare for the challenges it will inevitably face by crafting realistic training scenarios and routinely integrating such activities into its ongoing operations. The goal is not to teach them what to think, but to enhance their ability to think critically and creatively about the myriad of contingencies posed by a fluid environment — in essence to teach them how to think.

In industry, 90% of time is typically devoted to executing business actions, and less than 10% is allocated for increasing organisational and individual capabilities through training. The military, on the other hand, spends as much time training as it does executing — even in the midst of high stress/high risk operations. A unit in Afghanistan or Iraq will not suspend its experiential training program while involved in combat operations, because its ability to cogently and creatively address future challenges is enhanced by an enduring commitment to improving people's competence and adaptability through experiential exercises, as well as actual experiences. But the real lesson for industry leaders is not simply that training is important. What's really valuable is how the military crafts its training opportunities.

The Army defines leadership as both accomplishing the mission and improving the organisation. Permanently improving the organisation requires the development of its human capital. The military believes you substantively improve people by improving their ability to adroitly address challenges in their environment. Therefore, we do not seek to confine people's thinking by restricting the solutions available to them, unless the proposed action violates any of these criteria: is it immoral, unsafe, unethical, or illegal?

In order to have people wrestle with what it takes to conceive of action plans where the aforementioned criteria constitute their only boundaries, the military structures its experiential training activities with wide parameters. Events are constructed to reflect ambiguity in the operating environment (while also targeting specific organisation needs). Leaders are responsible for setting the conditions in every training event and resourcing them appropriately, as well as for reminding participants throughout the exercises that there are a myriad of potentially elegant solutions to each ill-defined challenge.

Two other things are important to take away from the military practice of engaging in routine experiential training. First, feedback is crucial. The military practice of conducting intermediate and final after-action reviews (AARs) — in which all participants examine the planning, preparation, execution, and follow-up of any significant organizational initiative — fosters a learning culture. Second, coaching is required to translate feedback into behavioural changes. Research has demonstrated that feedback without coaching  rarely results in behavioural changes. So, all leaders must develop their capacity to coach others. Reflection and dialog lie at the heart of development. Experiential training creates the impetus for both to occur.

If you wait for the right time to train it'll rarely occur. Today is the opportunity to prepare for tomorrow, regardless of how much else is going on.'

For more, see: http://blogs.hbr.org/frontline-leadership/2010/10/how-companies-can-develop-crit.html

How Companies Can Develop Critical Thinkers and Creative Leaders

Physical Fitness is a key to Leadership, and not just for soldiers

Gen. David Petraeus has a clear view of leadership, as Maj. John Patrick Gallagher recounts in the book Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows: Learn How To Inspire Others, Achieve Greatness and Find Success in Any Organization by Charles Garcia. One day when Petraeus was a colonel in the 82nd Airborne Division, he asked his soldiers to name the number one leadership priority of the brigade.

Integrity? Marksmanship? No, the correct answer turned out to be physical fitness. The brigade thought Petraeus was joking, until the colonel began leading his soldiers through an intensive 75-minute exercise drill every morning. And soon his point became clear: The workouts drove the brigade to greater alertness and energy, as well as more pride in themselves and their unit.

As Gallagher puts it, "Self-discipline and being able to perform under pressure and exist outside our comfort zone would be the key that unlocked our success."

The word "exercise" derives from a Latin root that means "to maintain, to keep, to hold off." That means we should exercise to maintain our health, to keep our sanity and to ward off the temptations that lead us down unhealthy paths. Do you spend enough time walking, jogging, swimming or lifting weights?

 What we consider "exercise" today is really a natural part of life, but in our current world, we have to make a conscious effort to make it part of our daily routine. Just a few generations ago, walking was a major form of transportation! Our evolution from hunters and gatherers, who walked to get from one area to another, to a sedentary automobile/train/plane civilisation has forced us to look at exercise in a different way.

Physical Fitness is a key to Leadership, and not just for soldiers

Everyone Can Achieve 'World-Class' Performance

In 2008, Geoff Colvin wrote the bestselling book Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

Colvin’s main point in the book is that people are not born with all the natural talent and abilities that will make them great it life. Other than some physical attributes that may give an athlete an advantage in a particular sport, everyone can achieve world-class performance through “deliberate practice” in his or her chosen field - business, music, sports, etc.

Colvin explains, drawing several research-based conclusions, that the secret – deliberate practice – is designed, can be repeated a lot, requires constant feedback, is highly demanding mentally, and isn’t much fun.

He goes on to say, “If it seems a bit depressing that the most important thing you can do to improve performance is no fun, take consolation in this fact: It must be so. If the activities that lead to greatness were easy and fun, then everyone would do them and they would not distinguish the best from the rest. The reality that deliberate practice is hard can even be seen as good news. It means that most people won’t do it. So your willingness to do it will distinguish you all the more.”

Although the concept of deliberate practice sounds good in theory, he doesn’t go into a lot of detail on how to implement it. So how can a leader use deliberate practice as a coaching technique to help their employees improve their performance?

First of all, we need to start with the assumption that the employee really wants to be great at what they do. In other words, the motivation must come from within; the leader can’t force this desire on someone.

Let’s assume most employees really do want to be the best at what they do, and are willing to work for it. Try this step-by-step approach to implementing the concepts of deliberate practice as a coaching technique:

Preparation:

1. Identify 3-4 critical activities that separate great performers from the rest. For example, for a salesperson, it might be the ability to get an appointment, listen, and close. There may be more than 3-4, that’s OK, this is just a place to start. If you don’t know what they are, you might need to interview and study some high performers, read a book, or find some other way to learn from the best.

For each activity:

2. Identity someone who does it really well. Write down exactly how that person performs the activity. Again, you might need to interview or observe them. Identify what they do, their thought process, any anything else that differentiates how they perform the activity from average performers. Using the same sales example, for closing skills, it might be the repeated use of trial closes.

3. Figure out how the activity can be learned. In most cases, according to the theory, there is a “teacher” involved. In the business world, this person could be a trainer, coach, mentor, manager, or expert. In the salesperson example, this could be a sales trainer or the sales manager.

4. Determine how the activity can be practiced repeatedly. Practice activities could include role plays, simulations, and rehearsals. In the sales example, it might include role playing trial closes with the manager or a sales trainer.

5. Set up a feedback mechanism. The person needs to have a way to know how well they did. In the sales example, this could include observing the sales rep with a client and providing feedback after the call.

6. Repeat this process for each critical activity.

The coaching discussion:

1. Have the employee read the book ahead of time in order to prepare them for the discussion.

2. Check for motivation and commitment.

For each activity:

3. Describe the activity in detail.

4. Ask the employee to self-assess themselves (scale of 1-10) for the activity. Provide your assessment as well.

5. Ask the employee to set an improvement goal. For example, they see themselves as a “6” in closing, ask them how much better they want to get (7-10).

6. Explain how the activity can be learned and practiced. This becomes your deliberate practice plan.

7. Repeat the process for each activity.

8. Agree on next steps.

That’s it! The process may sound deceptively simple – yes, it’s not brain surgery, and probably nothing that you haven’t already been doing in a less structured way. However, in practice, it’s going to require a lot of discipline, hard work, and support from the leader. Oh, and it’s not fun!

Everyone Can Achieve 'World-Class' Performance

Feedback and Debriefing Can Deliver Higher Performance in Professional Service Firms

Getting the best performance from people and helping them maximise their potential should always be priorities for leadership, especially for professional service firms. When we emerge from the recession, achieving higher performance is likely to matter as never before if such firms are to be able rapidly to exploit market opportunities and build their competitive advantage.

Partners and other leaders in a firm responsible for managing staff need to be highly skilled at getting the best performance from people. But many such professionals will admit that this is not a natural strength. Therefore, good people management and leadership skills appropriate for a modern and successful firm need to be developed.

Obtaining honest and effective feedback from others is an essential stage in learning skills. It is estimated that up to 80% of under-performance in the workplace arises from lack of effective feedback. To develop their people management and leadership skills, those responsible for managing staff need to be made aware of what they are already doing well – so that they can build on those strengths – and also what they could do better.

Perhaps only the truly bold would grasp the nettle in this way, but the good news is that partners and others responsible for managing staff do not have to leave it to their juniors to take the initiative. Many forward-looking firms and other professional organisations are increasingly starting to implement appraisal processes that involve obtaining 360-degree feedback. The ‘360’ means getting feedback not only from partners and others on their juniors, as in traditional appraisal systems, but also from someone’s peers and staff who report to them, giving an all-round, or 360-degree, perspective of performance. Client feedback can also be included, sometimes known as 450-degree feedback, because it includes an extra dimension.

Feedback provided in this way tends to be much more constructive, better received and effective for enhancing performance or behaviour than downward feedback alone. After all, who better to give feedback on a person’s people management skills than the people being managed?

For those on the receiving end, 360-degree feedback can help to reinforce what is already being done well. Receiving this feedback, provided the process is well managed, is usually a very positive experience and helps to build confidence. In our experience, the great majority of 360-degree feedback is constructive and has a positive effect.

Building 360-degree feedback into an appraisal system will also highlight changes that could easily be made that are likely to have a positive impact on the performance of others. Partners and others performing leadership roles are often blissfully unaware of the negative impact some of their behaviours are having on others.

It is natural for some leaders to feel apprehensive about seeking feedback from their staff. But, once involved in the process, most will soon come to appreciate that this is a positive process that can be immensely beneficial, both for them as individuals and for their firm.

One of the most important issues on which leaders need to be consulted is to help clarify the criteria by which they themeselves are to be assessed, by defining what is meant by ‘high performance’, thereby recognising that partners in a professional service firm will contribute to the overall well-being of the firm in different ways. Clearly defining what is expected of partners will also help to provide greater transparency for those seeking to become partners in future.

Partners should also be closely involved in tailoring the feedback and performance management process. There is no single best way to do this – the best way is one that suits your firm and to which partners willingly commit.

By having an independent external facilitator administer the 360-degree feedback process, respondents can be assured of anonymity, which is essential in getting full and frank feedback. An experienced third-party can also assist the process by reviewing all feedback to help ensure that it is constructive. While edits should be kept to a minimum, comments that might damage confidence or be otherwise destructive should be avoided (or at least amended).

Feedback is provided by face-to-face meetings, confidential questionnaires specially tailored for the firm, telephone interviews, or a combination of all of these. We often recommend obtaining ‘upward feedback’ through use of confidential questionnaires, whereas feedback from fellow partners and, if required, clients, is often best achieved by telephone or face-to-face meetings.

The feedback is best when it combines comments as well as quantitative and qualitative feedback. Indeed, the comments are often the most illuminating. The success of a 360-degree appraisal process hinges in particular on having a positive and motivational debrief meeting with each of the partners and others being appraised. We find that many recipients of 360-degree feedback will naturally focus on the negative aspects of the feedback. However, they need to be actively encouraged to see less-positive comments in their proper context if they are to get a balanced view – not as criticisms but as constructive comments designed to help to improve performance, or to change behaviour. Even where 360-degree feedback has highlighted significant points for improvement, partners should leave the meeting having found the process constructive and feeling motivated.

Some firms will prefer to carry out debrief meetings internally, by one or more partners (perhaps a managing partner, plus one other). Where this is the case, we recommend providing training to those who will be carrying out the debrief to help them appreciate how best to conduct these meetings. Like any powerful tool, if used wrongly 360-degree feedback can be damaging. It needs to be handled with care – as a tool and not as a weapon with which to beat people.

Providing leaders with feedback is, of course, only part of the process of improving performance. As well as making them aware of what they are doing well and how they could improve, they should be provided with training and support to help them. Often, we find that clients value objective input in debriefing and coaching partners to respond positively to the feedback they receive, and helping to ensure that an actionable development plan emerges for each partner.

When used correctly, 360-degree feedback can be immensely beneficial for a firm, for the individuals receiving the feedback, and for the people who work with them.

Feedback and Debriefing Can Deliver Higher Performance in Professional Service Firms