How to Identify and Nurture
Leadership
in the Workplace.
Leadership programmes are gradually becoming common place in the business arena with organisations enrolling their staff, managers and directors in workshops that develop their leadership skills in order to revamp the functioning and overall dynamic between staff members, employers and employees; and the relationship between the company and its clientele. By tapping into a person's strengths and teaching them how to develop in areas where they lack confidence, a company's creativity is heightened with staff feeling empowered to lead and complete tasks, as well as lead people within the organisation.
According to BRW, Avon established their leadership programme with the hope of obtaining a fresh perspective and approach to the company's future. The following excerpt cited from BRW April 14-20, 2005 "Find talent and use it," explains how Avon developed with the help of leadership assessments.
" In the US , a cornerstone of the extreme makeover of Avon , a worldwide cosmetics business, has been an internal leadership programme. Andrea Jung became the company's chief executive in 1999 and was in a hurry to transform the business.
"A talented leader can add much more to a business's bottom line than an average line manager"
Part of Jung's strategy was to tap into the knowledge of her staff and ensure they knew and were committed to her plans for the business. The top 400 staff in the company receive individual coaching and 'emotional intelligence training', based on the American psychologist Daniel Goleman's theory that people have an emotional as well as intellectual IQ. The top 100 staff attend an annual leadership forum with Jung.
This programme of identifying talent has also radically improved the succession plan at Avon - an estimated 87% of roles in the company can be filled internally, a huge lift from well under 20% when Jung became chief executive. She has described her leadership strategy on several occasions as a 'game changer' for the company.
Since 1999, sales have increased by 45% to $US7.7 billion and share price has risen 164%. After researching the leadership development programmes of more than 600 companies in the US, Hewitt Associates researchers Robert Gandossy and Marc Effron conclude that the best leadership programmes rely on a 'maniacal focus' on identifying and developing high-potential employees. A talented leader can add much more to a business's bottom line than an average line manager."
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Food For Thought.
According to the 2005 annual Melbourne Business School leadership index: . Attracting and retaining talent appears as a top five challenge for the first time this year. The authors were surprised it had taken so long for managers to consider talent management a priority but noted it is now firmly entrenched, ranking as the top future challenge for managers in two years' time.
• Women are more concerned with internal leadership challenges than men. Men worried about 'building your team to achieve outcomes', 'attracting and retaining talented staff' and 'being flexible in responding to new ideas and change'. Women, who comprised 30% of respondents, cited 'influencing others', 'dealing with the politics of the organisation' and 'dealing with resistance'.
As cited in BRW August 11-17, 2005
Assessment Tools
Emotional Reasoning Questionnaire (ERQ)
. The ERQ is a popular screening solution used to provide a quick, reliable measurement of a person's emotional reasoning. Interpreted by Organisational Psychologists, the ERQ will assist you to identify effective and talented employees in roles where emotional reasoning is a useful ability. It can be applied when hiring new employees or in change management.
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HPI Leadership Forecast Series
. The Leadership Forecast Series can be taken as a paper-based or online assessment and includes four reports, helping to identify an individual's leadership potential including their values and decision making ability. The HPI Leadership Series details strengths and weaknesses within an individual in comparison to those of successful leaders, enabling them to target and improve upon certain characteristics that have been shown to result in successful leadership outcomes.
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