Leadership Effectiveness

How do you know if your leaders are effective?  Your first response may be to consider the success of the business.  A successful business must have effective leaders, right?  Maybe. (See our series on leadership derailment.)

Leadership effectiveness is a dynamic process, just as leadership itself is dynamic.  Sustained leadership effectiveness is achieved over time.  It starts with people committed to growth and development and the capability to meaningfully engage themselves with the mission, vision, and values of their enterprise.  For the enterprise wanting to achieve leadership effectiveness, the following five steps will bring success:

1. Hire and promote people based on knowing candidate character, fit, and capabilities for success and development. 
2. State in simple terms the leadership behaviors that are needed for success; establish the link between these behaviors and success and build a review of leadership performance around these behaviors.
3. Develop people and relationships.  Relationships are part of the essential fabric that helps to keep people on course especially at the difficult times.  Development means achieving personal mastery of oneself and one’s situation and responsibilities; in the best of all situations it includes achieving the competence to develop others as well.
4. Measure fit, engagement, development, and leadership behaviors and act on the gaps.  Do not slip into making excuses for leadership failings.  Leadership failings become corrosive to individuals, relationships, and corporate culture.  Leadership failings lead to derailment; the only question is this:  How big will the cost of the derailment be?
5. Exercise courage. It requires courage to take these steps.  The temptation will be there for many to avoid and duck the issues, or to muscle and push situations in ways that defeat both the enterprise and the model of effective leadership.  Courage is required to stay the dynamic course of leadership and enterprise effectiveness.

Peter Rock Consulting Inc. provides tools and assistance to make these steps happen.