Leaders and leadership are
not the same thing, even though the two terms are often used interchangeably. In
order for your organisation to grow, you need both. So what is leadership, why
does it matter and how do you help the people who run your organisation to
develop this important skill set?
What’s the
difference?
Learning to be a
leader is about helping individuals develop the personal skills they need to operate in their role whilst training
in leadership is about providing people with the social skills required to become part of a well functioning
leadership team.
Let’s look at the
concept using my Workplace Gardening philosophy. Professional gardeners rarely
operate in isolation. They usually work as part of a team that looks after a
larger patch. Each gardener may be responsible for a different area but they
all know that their goal is to create a unified garden that works together.
How it helps
Without leadership, your
leaders will find the going tough especially if they are new to their role. They
can feel isolated and pressured to “keep up appearances” as they see their
fellow leaders as competitors rather than comrades. Disputes can arise as
leaders come into conflict with each other over a variety of issues with resulting
turf wars.
A leadership approach
sets up an environment that encourages your leaders to work together rather
than simply focus on their own patch. This allows them to make the most of
limited resources and ensure their actions don’t interfere with what is going
on elsewhere in your workplace garden. A team of gardeners works best when
everyone has a shared vision of what they are trying to create and agrees on
the best way to achieve that vision. You can’t have a gardener in Section A
wanting to be chemical free if the gardening in Section B next door is spraying
chemicals on their plants.
It is exactly the
same for your leadership team. How often do you see inconsistent leadership in
an organisation? For example, one leader allowing staff flexibility whilst the
next is strictly adhering to the rules. Who is right and who is wrong? What
impact does this have on the engagement levels of staff in each team? With a
consistent approach to leadership these issues disappear.
Developing
leadership in your organisation
To move your leaders from a
group of individuals to a cohesive leadership team who can all work together
takes time. Along the way they will go through three stages as they come to see
the benefits of a leadership approach.
Individual focus
· What do my people need?
· How can I get the resources we need?
· What are our goals?
Group focus
· What does my department, division or location need?
· How can we share resources in our area?
· What are our goals?
Organisation focus
· What does the organisation need?
· How can the organisation best use its resources?
· What are the organisation’s goals?
So how do you
encourage this transition from a focus on individual functions to a focus on
the organisation as a whole? They say what matters gets measured so the first
thing you need to do is add the ability to work as part of the leadership team
to the performance criteria of all your leaders. You need to embed the idea of
leadership early on so ensure the concept is included in any training you offer
your budding leaders. Another obvious way is to create project teams that go
across all departments or divisions. For even more ideas, take the “Rating your
leadership development quiz” on my website.
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