What’s Your Leadership Process?

If you don’t have some, you need to get some.

I’ve been involved in leadership development for over 25 years.  So with time, comes some perspective.
When I first started out, I was a fan of what you might call the cult of leadership personality.  I thought that effective leadership essentially flowed from one’s personality, and some people just happened to be better at leadership than others.  And I was curious to find out why.

I had a colleague who was more interested in the process of leadership, which quite frankly didn’t seem to be as interesting to me.  I wanted to know what made leader’s tick, what personality attributes separated great leaders from the average ones.  Process seemed so boring.

Have I learned the errors of my ways.  As noted above, with time, comes perspective (and hopefully some wisdom).

Over the course of my career I’ve met extroverted leaders and introverted leaders.  In fact I’ve met many very effective introverted leaders who find it exhausting to be “on” all the time, but they manage to do it.  They have a process for when they’re presenting or communicating in public so it doesn’t wear them out.

I’ve come across companies who rely on their managers to somehow spot the next generation of leaders without any guidance, which personally, is like going to Vegas and putting it all on black.  On the other hand, I’ve worked with companies who have an annual talent management process, very much like their annual budget process, in which each manager knows what’s expected of them, what the deadlines are for their talent-related deliverables, and know that they will be held accountable for their participation in the process.

I’ve met leaders who hold themselves to a regular schedule of meetings with their direct reports to discuss work, performance, and yes, their career and future.  I’ve also met leaders who will get to it when they get to it.

All leaders seem to struggle with not having enough time.  Some try, through sheer force of will, to try to get it all done, no matter how much is thrown at them or they willingly take on.  Others, have a process for assessing what they should be working on and what they shouldn’t be, and then delegating accordingly.
And when they delegate, they don’t just dump and run.  Instead, they rely on a tried-and-true process of evaluating the individual’s capabilities and motivations, and then delegate and coach accordingly.

The irony in leadership development is that the focus is often on the leader and not on the process, which in many ways is understandable.  But to expect, or worse, to assume that an excellent leader will have the needed intellect, traits and skills to lead effectively without relying on a toolkit of effective leadership processes is overly simplistic and even reckless.

So time to do an audit.  How full is your leadership toolkit?  Have you developed or borrowed leadership processes that you know work?  If not, what are you assuming?  That you will always have what it takes, no matter what? 
Get yourself a quality, low-cost career insurance policy: Get some effective leadership processes, and start using them.