Growing the leader within

One of the more positive aspects of the recession has been its testing of leadership skills. Sound leadership practices have been the key to survival for many companies, and for business-owners the economic crisis has been a wake-up call to address their leadership skills. Glenn Baker talks to top leadership experts about the lessons of the times, the challenges to come, and options for development and training.
If ever there was a time for business owners and managers to lead – the past 18 months has been it. And it would seem that the majority stepped up to the plate and delivered.
Recent research by EMA Central and Catapult, a leadership and organisational performance company, involving leaders in 70 organisations, showed the recession both demanded and provided permission for leaders to lead.
“Before the recession many businesses didn’t review their business in a strategic way,” says Catapult director Nick Sceats. “The recession ushered in a whole new set of conditions which demanded a leadership response.”
Those interviewed said they had to take a long, hard look at where and how they added value to customers. Were they providing things important enough for customers to pay for in a recession? For some it meant adding value by providing new things, or doing things differently. For others it was back to core business.
Another lesson from the recession, as identified by the EMA/Catapult research, was the importance of communication – that is, lots of it, open and two-way. Business leaders had to be open and forthcoming about what was happening and what their company was dealing with – this resulted in greater trust and better working relationships between employees and employers.
The research also highlighted an increase in leadership courage and decisiveness – having those difficult discussions and making those hard decisions quickly sorted the men from the boys, or leaders from managers.
And while the recession forced many leaders to act, the research reinforced how important it is for leaders to manage their mood, particularly when things are tough. Respondents talked about the need to remain calm, confident and positive even under great stress.
“These leaders recognised that it was not just their actions that communicated to employees, but also who they were ‘being’,” explains Sceats. “A leader’s mood is contagious. While a leader may say and do all the right things, if they are being anxious and worried, that’s what people will pick up on.”
Adversity is indeed a great teacher; the challenge now is to continue applying the leadership lessons learnt over the past 18 months to the better times ahead.
For Dr Peter Blyde, who runs the senior leaders programme at the New Zealand Leadership Institute, the fundamental lessons of recent tough times include:
• the importance of relationships;
• the recognition that we don’t control or understand as much as we think we do;
• authority has its limits;
• we must be able to work ‘beyond the plan’;
• the critical importance of ethics;
• and how vital it is to be adaptive.
The NZ Leadership Institute delivers leadership courses via the University of Auckland Business School. Blyde says their programs have always considered leadership in turbulent times – but although the immediate economic crisis may be receding, “it would be wrong to think that the turbulent times are over and normalcy will return.”
The Institute has changed course content and approach in response to new research findings and, alongside its long term Hillary Leadership Programme, has now initiated shorter programmes to enable SME leaders to access leadership development for less investment of time and money.
Leaders and managers
It’s true that business leaders had become complacent prior to the recession. Annette Ryan, director of The Effect, a Hamilton-based professional and organisational development company that runs leadership training, calls this “leading by default”.
“They looked like leaders, but really they were just managing in the good times. The recession demanded leadership skills, not management skills, and so these people came under a lot of pressure.”
Ryan says the companies that weathered the storm best are those with leaders who could make the hard calls, appropriately. Rather than go into management ‘reactionary’ mode, they could take a holistic, forward-looking and inspirational approach, and so they emerged all the richer and stronger.
“They’re transparent – they had the hard, courageous conversations,” says Ryan. “They’re out to improve everyone, to get on with the business of managing effectively.”
Of course, this is not to say that leaders are not managers. Dr Malcolm Lewis, at the University of Otago School of Business believes that leadership and management are “two sides of the same coin”.
“It is not possible to be an effective leader if you cannot manage. Similarly, to be an effective manager there are instances where the manager has to lead.
“Our philosophy is that in order to both lead and manage others, we must know ourselves. Our mantra is ‘in order to manage others, you must be able to manage yourself’.
“Developing self awareness is central to what we do,” says Lewis.
Other requirements of leaders, he adds, is insightfulness, understanding the importance of risk management while maintaining an entrepreneurial point of view, and, most of all, being empathetic to the needs of others, encouraging people to grow, delegating and working in an atmosphere of trust.
Leadership and entrepreneurs
Business entrepreneurs often lack certain leadership qualities. The Leadership Institute’s Dr Peter Blyde believes they can struggle to create space for others, preferring to ‘do it my way’, and fail to grow leadership talent below them.
“Entrepreneurs are very passionate about their work and business and often assume others cannot be as capable, passionate and committed as they are. They have had to remain so strongly committed to their ‘vision’ during the initial difficult stages of creating their business that they are not easily able to allow others in their business to have different ideas or new approaches.”
The Effect’s Annette Ryan describes entrepreneurs as often very intuitive, with an eye for potential of a product or service – but sometimes lacking in the processes and systems that go with growth. But Ryan points out that entrepreneurs can’t all be put in the same box. Many entrepreneurs display excellent leadership characteristics. “Some are inspirational – inspiring others to buy into their vision and inspiring people to lead. Good leaders surround themselves with a mix of people who bring all the necessary qualities to the table to deliver on a strategy or idea. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people only gets you into trouble.”