Over the years organizational leadership has not been easily defined and lacks clear tangible measurements that can be used to weed out those, in positions of leadership, who do harm to those who give life to the organization-its people.
Should we blindly accept the fact that everyone in a position of authority is a leader? If you rest your case on the simple statement that "anyone who has followers is a leader" then your answer would have to be "yes". And, with that I am inclined to agree. However, if we agree that there is but one simple definition of a leader then the differentiator critical factors such as impact, effectiveness, or success, to name a few, all of which are subjective in nature.
So, what do tangible measurements of a positive or negative, good or bad, effective or ineffective leader look like? Can positive or negative behavior characteristics be identified and used as a baseline for rating the overall effectiveness of a leader within the organizational setting? According to Donald T. Phillips, the author of Lincoln on Leadership, "Since leadership skills are expressed rather abstractly, there is a great need for simple, concrete illustrations. Tangible examples make the difference; people relate to them".
I've been pondering why leaders are not held as accountable for the way in which they fill their roles as leaders of others. Why is ineffective leadership of people within organizations so easily overlooked? Yet, leaders who fail to met the monetary obligations of the organization are ultimately removed. If you can't sale the product, or get the product out the door, or cost the organization too much money with no clear returns, you're out. However, you can mismanage the people for a very long time, heck you may never be discovered. And because the current definition of what leaders should do is quite vague, some leaders may not even realize the error in their ways.
More so now than ever before, I'm beginning to buy into the saying that "if it's worth doing it's worth measuring", so let's get out the measuring rod. Just like other critical success factors in business can be measured--so can leadership. One way to start is by creating examples of demonstrated leadership behaviors. For example if spending one-on-one time developing staff members is important to the organization then the frequency of such activity can be measured. Does the leader spend 5% of his/her time developing staff or more? The quality of the interaction can be measured by expert observation, outcomes--changes in staff performance or by the staff members themselves with tools like 360 degree feedback. Bottom line, it's measurable.
Challenge Round: I'd like to invite you to share some of your examples, scenarios, of measurable leadership behaviors that fall on either side of the spectrum or somewhere in the middle. Tell me of a situation or time when you were the recipient of, witnessed, or demonstrated positive or negative leadership behavior. What was the situation, who was there (position in the organization)? What was the impact, or impression, on you?
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Some years ago my boss was sent to a leadership conference. As a result, several of us in the department were invited to do a 360 anonymous review. I was careful, but truthful, with my comments not entirely trusting that any email is truly anonymous.
ReplyDeleteShortly thereafter I saw that positive changes were made but, unfortunately, they were not maintained. The boss returned to old ways not long after the review.
However, I have recently become aware that another manager from my company was also sent to the same conference. As a result of their 360 review, major changes were made within that department. This person was divested of their leadership role and reporting staff were farmed out. The staff was relieved beyond measure. This manager continues to be employed at my company, but their harmful effects on others has been curtailed.
This has given me hope that a similar process will be undertaken with current management. How does one encourage upper management to allow non-managing staff to do a 360 review?