I have blogged a lot about leadership skills over the years
and there is a steady river of books, articles, workshops, and comprehensive
programs on the subject. While there are often fresh, creative theories, much
of what one comes across are variations on well-established approaches, but
using different emphases or combining elements in different measures. Some,
like Jim Collins’ works, transform the way organizations and entire sectors
operate.
One of the ongoing debates in leadership is how situational
leadership models should be – to what degree should specific leadership
attributes be constant and unchanging, and to what extend should they mold to
the needs of an organization at a certain moment in time? I came across a recent
article in the McKinsey Quarterly that shares research on this question and
provides an interesting answer. Indeed, this was the most read article of any
in 2015 from the McKinsey Quarterly
The researchers (McKinsey staffers) looked at what they
found were 20 common leadership traits and tested them in a study involving
about 189,000 employees in 81 organizations. They found that the most effective
leaders most commonly and most consistently exhibited four traits:
- Solving problems effectively. The process that precedes decision
making is problem solving, when information is gathered, analyzed, and
considered. This is deceptively difficult to get right, yet it is a key
input into decision making for major issues (such as M&A) as well as
daily ones (such as how to handle a team dispute).
- Operating with a strong results
orientation.
Leadership is about not only developing and communicating a vision and
setting objectives but also following through to achieve results. Leaders
with a strong results orientation tend to emphasize the importance of
efficiency and productivity and to prioritize the highest-value work.
- Seeking different perspectives. This trait is conspicuous in
managers who monitor trends affecting organizations, grasp changes in the
environment, encourage employees to contribute ideas that could improve
performance, accurately differentiate between important and unimportant
issues, and give the appropriate weight to stakeholder concerns. Leaders
who do well on this dimension typically base their decisions on sound
analysis and avoid the many biases to which decisions are prone.
- Supporting others. Leaders who are supportive understand and sense how other people feel. By showing authenticity and a sincere interest in those around them, they build trust and inspire and help colleagues to overcome challenges. They intervene in group work to promote organizational efficiency, allaying unwarranted fears about external threats and preventing the energy of employees from dissipating into internal conflict.
None of these is new nor Earth shattering, but they do
reinforce a few things:
1.
Confidence to be open to others’ views – for some
it’s counter intuitive that leadership is best illustrated by willingness to
change and being comfortable with not always being right. Your willingness to change
your views based on listening, recognizing that integrating many views is
usually a much better outcome than the views of one (regardless of how smart
that person is), and realizing that, at the core, a leader’s greatest achievements
and strategies are actually often those of the other team members – these are
sometimes hard lessons to learn, but reflect true wisdom.
2.
Soft skills as important as hard skills. As I have
blogged about previously, I come from the school of thought that the best
answers, the best strategies, and the greatest truths are usually found in the
grey rather than the brightest white or the darkest black. Leadership is never
about just the hard, analytical, technical, process, skills nor just the soft, interpersonal,
creative, intuitive. Great leadership finds both, in balance.
3.
These are all skills – solving problems
creatively, operating with a strong results orientation, seeking different
perspectives, and supporting others – we develop in Appleby programs. Whether
it’s through the curriculum, being on an athletic team or the school play “team”,
the Northward Bound experience in Temagami, being part of an international
service team, one of our many councils, or through our formal student leadership
programs, on a daily basis, I see examples of Appleby students from Grade 7 to
12 learning these kinds of lessons and develop these kinds of perspectives.
They are in that “sweet spot” of attributes that work both
for success in education and success for a lifetime. They are perhaps among the
most important teachables that we provide.
