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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - OCTOBER 2013
W
HY WON’ T MY
employees
just do what I tell them? Why
am I struggling to motivate my team?
Why aren’t they giving me the perfor-
mance I need? If any of these questions
sound familiar to you, you’re not
alone.
You were probably promoted
because you’re a competent technical
professional. You know how to build
a bridge, negotiate a deal, or justify
a capital expenditure. But whether
you’re a middle manager or a CEO,
your technical skills usually won’t help
you be a better leader.
But effective leadership has an
undeniable business value. In one
study, Jack Zenger and colleagues
(“
How Extraordinary Leaders Double
Profits”) examined the best (top 10%)
and worst (bottom 10%) leaders at a
large commercial bank. On average,
the worst leaders’ departments experi-
enced net losses of $1.2 million, while
the best leaders boasted profits of $4.5
million.
SINK OR SWIM IS NOT A PLAN
As any disgruntled employee
will attest, exceptional leadership isn’t
commonplace. One recent Center for
Creative Leadership study reveals that
up to 50% of managers are ineffective.
And sadly, your company probably
isn’t doing much to help you. First,
they probably use the wrong criteria
to select leaders by focusing on tech-
nical—rather than leadership—skills.
Second, most invest precious little to
develop leaders, and training is of-
ten an isolated, one-size-fits-all event.
Without follow-up, 90% of information
from training programs disappears
after three months!
Without organizational support,
leaders wanting to improve are left
to their own devices. But when they
search on Amazon for “leadership
books,” they’re assaulted with more
than 100,000 options! No wonder lead-
ership feels so complex and impos-
sible.
Luckily, there’s good news.
Though psychologists used to believe
leaders were “born,” recent research
tells a much different story—leader-
ship is an acquirable skill. Recently,
a study by Richard Arvey at Singa-
pore’s NUS Business School revealed
that a whopping 70% of leadership is
learned. That means anyone can learn
to become an effective leader.
TWO BEHAVIORS ALL LEADERS
MUST MASTER
For decades, scientists have
known everything we need to know
about how successful leaders behave.
It’s like finding your TV remote tucked
under a couch cushion after hours of
searching elsewhere: The secrets to
leadership really have been here all
along.
In 1945, a group Ohio State Uni-
versity researchers set out to disprove
the notion that leadership was an in-
born personality trait. With 70 Inter-
national Harvester Company foremen
as their subjects, they discovered that
leadership effectiveness was related to
the presence of two independent be-
haviors.
First, effective leaders showed
consideration, displaying support,
compassion, and friendliness to their
team. Second, they initiated structure.
They clearly defined the role each em-
ployee played and drove their perfor-
mance. Let’s re-name these behaviors
“
People” and “Results,” respectively.
Indeed, you probably feel an in-
herent tension between People and
Results. On one hand, you must build
relationships by connecting with your
team, earning trust and motivating
them. On the other, you must drive
top-and bottom-line results through
their performance and productivity. I
can drive them to perform, leaders
think, OR I can be their friend:
People ß----------------------------- X------------------------------à Results
Left Side Leader Right Side Leader
Depending on your upbringing,
culture, and role models, you’ll find a
comfort position between them. For a
select few, that position is in the mid-
dle, leveraging each outcome to sup-
port the other. The rest fall somewhere
to the left or the right, and some to the
extremes:
The Cool Parent:
Left-side lead-
ers act like the “Cool Parent.” Focusing
on the happiness of their team at all
costs, they don’t set expectations, give
honest feedback, or make tough deci-
sions. Working for a left-side leader
might feel pleasant… at first. But as
soon as you need tough—but true—
feedback, he or she would freeze like a
deer in headlights.
The Trail of Dead Bodies Cre-
ator:
Right-side leaders drive results
so aggressively that they leave a “Trail
of Dead Bodies.” This leader requires
grueling hours, is never satisfied, and
withholds recognition lest employees
become complacent. Though right-side
leaders help you “up your game” ini-
tially, in the long-term, you suffer both
physically (from over-work) and men-
tally (from lack of appreciation).
The best leaders are able to move
to the middle, focusing on peo-
ple and results. These bankable lead-
ers create prosperity in the form of
achievement, health, happiness and
wealth for themselves, their team, and
BANKABLE LEADERSHIP
