What Your Leaders Need to Do.

And, please, don’t look backwards.

All great hockey players are ambitious and have a desire to win.

Therefore, if I am ambitious and have a desire to win, I should become a great hockey player.

As absurd as this sounds, versions of this logic arise in leadership development.

Example:
We study a select group of great leaders, see what attributes they have in common, and then make conclusions about which leadership attributes are required for anyone aspiring to be a great leader.

Hence, great leaders are thought to be: communicators, delegators, high achievers, coaches, team players, optimists, realists, visionaries, operators, servants, teachers, innovators, pragmatists, emotionally intelligent, self-aware, and so on and so on…

And the inference is that you should develop one / several / all of these attributes if you want to be a great leader too.

The Problem with this Approach

The problem with this sort of analysis is that:
1) It’s backwards looking, and
2) It ignores the unique context and behavioral demands of your specific business or organization.

Regarding point 1, even if all great leaders are, let’s say, emotionally intelligent, does that mean that all people who start off being emotionally intelligent will become great leaders? Will most become great leaders? How about a significant proportion? Can I therefore be truly confident assuming that if I develop my emotional intelligence, I will become a great leader?

Regarding point 2, leadership does not take place in a vacuum; it takes place in your unique business or organization that is a product of its history, culture, customers, employees, competitors, products, services, etc.

Focus on Specific Leadership Behaviors

Therefore, in order to be truly effective, leadership development must be rigorous in its focus a) on looking forward and b) on specific leadership behaviors.

Don’t waste your time on general leadership attributes. Instead, inform your leaders what they need to do to produce extraordinary results.

Yes, attributes may be important, but they must be translated into the specific behaviors that define leadership success in your organization.

If I’m an aspiring leader in your organization, I don’t want to know what I must be; I want to know what I must do to be a great leader. And the more specific you can make that for me, the better my chances at knowing what to do, and hence, at being able to do it.

Examine Your Approach to Developing Leaders

Now more than ever, when companies expect and need so much more from their leaders and managers (and when leadership talent is so scarce), organizations must examine how rigorous, specific, and unique their leadership development approach is.

Looking backwards and highlighting general leadership attributes simply won’t work.