December is the time for leadership accountability as most of the organisations are at their year-end. Leaders, you shall account for your deeds in 2019 to the shareholders and the stakeholders. Being accountable is a journey, not a destination. It is a destination if there are no opportunities or rooms for improvement. But the organisation is a continuum, the gains and errors of today are the pedals for tomorrow’s outcome if the lessons are known and applied. Here is the time for leaders to take ultimate responsibility and ownership of their organisations’ result for 2019.
In the early days of leadership development, the focus of organisations in attempts to achieve their objectives and during leadership placement and recruitment was on the person- the personality, skill and intelligence of the leader. People are appointed into leadership positions after evaluating their level of knowledge and skills. The focus has changed. Research has shown that big personality profile of a leader doesn’t guarantee the success of their teams. An intelligent leader might be unable to work and lead his team effectively to achieve the outcome. Thus, leadership has shifted from the focus on the person to the other elements of leadership without which the leaders are ineffective.
In today’s world, the team and culture of the organisation are as essential as the leaders. They could make or mar the leader’s effort to achieve results. There cannot be a leader without the team; there cannot be a capable team without the alignment of culture, process and the work environment with the emotional aspiration of the people in the workplace.
Therefore, the litmus test of leadership, your ability to achieve the result is beyond your competence and skills. It is now how effective you can manage the value chain linkages among the people, process, culture, environment, and the leader.
In my journey as an organisation and leadership coach, I have seen leadership as influence, and result. Both positions are right and relevant. It was lack of result that made Mauricio Pochettino to sit at the World Club final match between Liverpool FC and Flamengo FC jobless just a few months after he led Tottenham FC into the European Champion League finals. It was the perceived negative influence of Jose Mourinho’s approach that conflicts with the team’s culture that made him jobless for eleven months missing out on top clubs that prefer coaches with emotional calmness.
Results and influence are real and are the critical measurement of leadership effectiveness. They are quantifiable and unquantifiable; financial and goodwill factors leaders should focus on. However, from my team’s engagement with organisations and the study of effective teams around the world, I have seen knowledge and responsibility as the key factors that determine if someone is fit to lead or not. The understanding of who and what leaders are, the behaviours leaders should exude at different time, together with the desire to subjugate person ego or right (responsibility) are essential fitness test of leadership. Put differently, an average person in terms of intelligence and skill with the understanding that his or her team and the culture are above his ego will achieve results that are sustainable than the most eloquent leader who sees himself as the warlord.
The focus of leaders should, therefore, be on the knowledge of the subject, the understanding of their roles and the factors that propelled willingness to take responsibility for the outcome and the people.
Let’s put simplicity above professional jargons, as I have done in my latest book, the value chain banking (a practical guide to winning the customers’ business and loyalty)-your team, and the environment are essential elements for achieving the result. If you are delivering on the result without the balance of culture and team emotions, the result will soon nosedive into the valley. That’s you are achieving unsustainable results which could lead to the Mourinho’s valley-massive failure after two successful football seasons due to putting self above the team and the culture.
To ensure leaders and my readers are reminded of the knowledge required to be capable team’s leaders, this column Positive Growth with Babs will focus on the leadership fitness exercise from January 2020. I will be sharing tips tagged “fit to lead” concentrating on topics that will increase your leadership influence, view and capacity.
Are you fit to lead in 2020? It is beyond your professional skills and competence but a mix of it with more of your knowledge of leadership and ability to take responsibility for the environment and culture that aids effective deployment of people’s innate talents toward achieving business and sustainable results for your organisation. The focus will be shifted from you to your team, and you will take responsibility for whatever will not allow your team to operate effectively.
Before drawing this Xmas episode to a close, let’s be practical on the insight to expect from my fit to lead series. One of the leadership value chain components that make, or mar leaders is communication. Communication is so vast and mighty in team management. Your team are meant to support you in achieving a result for your organisation. Communication as the bastion of leadership engagement is the positive and purposeful interaction between you as the leader and your team. If you are planning to finish year 2019 strong, you need your team to go full length to make the rest of the days in 2019 counts. Your communication will either inspire or debase your team members. Take positive out of your communication; the purposeful element will be defeated. So, in making your team to be productive, negative interaction will lead to purposeless reaction and direction. Hence, the effort of leaders is deflated by the effects of the negativity in their communication which most often gives undesired outcome for the organisation’s image, culture and people they are meant to lead.
Conclusive, the knowledge and responsibility focus under the fit to lead will enable you as leaders to take extreme ownership of your leadership development and consequently, the result you deliver for your organisations in the year 2020 and beyond.
Be fit to lead in 2020!
BABS OLUGBEMI
