For months now, the press has been full of the struggle the Labour Party is having dealing with the succession of Tony Blair. Whatever we think of him personally, and whether we like the way he has lead or not, he has been one of the most significant Labour politicians ever. Furthermore a number of his decisions, such as supporting the invasion of Iraq, will have a long lasting impact on the history of the country and possibly even the world.

All leaders who cast long shadows have a proportionally big challenge in handling their succession. History will also judge how well Blair has handled this issue. However, at this stage, he appears to be getting it wrong. One of the key jobs of a good leader is to create in the organisation the capability to make him (or her) self redundant.

Leadership consists of two main roles, setting direction for tomorrow and safe guarding the assets of today. However, the ability to understand the trends and interpret what they mean for tomorrow is something that normally has a limited time span. Usually a new mind finds new patterns and significances.

“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” Ralph Nader

Understanding who has the potential to take the business to the next level is a key job for a good leader. Grooming that person and giving them the experiences required to develop their potential is part of that job.

However, identifying a person who has ‘the right stuff’ is only part of the equation. They also have to be accepted as the right person to lead by their current peers and the relevant stakeholders. Building this support is part of the current leaders job too. Furthermore, this need to develop and nurture leadership is required throughout the organisation, not just for the ‘top slot’.

Pacing this development is obviously a challenge, as if you get it wrong and the person is ready before there is a suitable vacancy, you will either have to suffer the discomfiture of being constantly challenged by them or you may lose them to another organisation that can meet their needs / ambitions now. If you find yourself ‘fending off’ your successor this is a sign that, at the very least, you have got the timing of the succession wrong. If you start undermining your successor is another sign!

‘If you want one year of prosperity,
grow grain,
If you want ten years of prosperity,
grow trees,
If you want one hundred years of prosperity,
grow people.’ Chinese proverb

There is so much attention paid to the ‘super-hero’ leaders, who attract all sorts of personal publicity, that it is hard to remember sometimes that there are other models of leadership. The trouble with ‘super-hero’ leadership is that it tends to feed the ego, and that makes it hard to do anything that diverts attention and potential glory to others. The leaders-in-waiting can feel more like challengers and rivals rather than protégées to be nurtured.

Leaders in the making need not only to be mentored and developed but given the chance to develop their own styles, and follow their own visions and insights. It is a challenge to manage the conflicting need to achieve short term goals (on which reputations are built) and taking risks and learning from mistakes (which build character and experience). After all, if you aren’t making any mistakes, you are playing it too safe.

Leading change is one of the key jobs of a leader, so it follows that giving young bucks a chance to champion change is both good for them and good for the organisation. However, it goes without saying that some of the things they are changing and challenging maybe ones you have set up!

So one of the tasks for you to have on your agenda for today, is who should be worrying about these issues tomorrow.

“The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born — that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.” Warren G Bennis

We constantly hear people talking about Leadership these days; great politicians, soldiers, explorers, sportsmen (and women), but what does it take to be a leader? Does it mean that they are the best technically at what they do? I suppose sometimes this is true. Does it mean ‘being in charge’? Well sometimes this is part of it. However I would suggest that there are a few elements of Leadership that are different from both of the above. You can be a Leader, without being the boss.

I would suggest that a leader is someone who influences (or controls) the direction in which the organisation/group he/she belongs to move in. This can be done by example, rather than just power; by ability rather than position.

The Leader in a group is the person who can best see or understand what needs to be done to meet the group’s needs. They are the person who can most clearly see the way forward, and what it means to the group.

They act, rather than just talk. They don’t just tell others what to do, they show them by example what needs to be done, and why it is important.

We hear a lot about ‘vision’ these days from big corporations, but it is seldom explained why this is important. It is meant to be an act of leadership. It should paint a vivid picture of what the future is meant to look like so that every member of that group knows what they are moving towards, and therefore their own personal contribution towards getting there.

A Leader enables, rather than just controls, and enabling is at least as important, if not more so, than the trendy ‘empowering’. The Leader brings out the best in their team. They help create an environment where each person can offer the best of themselves. Where the sum total of these individual gifts delivers just what is required, without waste.

A Leader draws out the best performance from each person (the word educate is from the Latin educare to draw or lead out).

A Leader must also be brave, not fearless, because they probably can see the dangers more clearly that the others, but brave enough to move forward despite the risks, because they can see that standing still is no option. They will do what is needed, rather than what is popular, because it has to be done.

“Good leaders comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable”

They chose where to invest time, energy and resources. They make judgements about what is likely to work, and what won’t. Sometimes these judgements come from finely honed instincts, rather than long debate, or years of experience.

A Leader is deeply in tune with his/her environment. They listen to what is going on, both internally and externally, and are the first ones to sense danger. The essence of Leadership is survival!

I was astonished when some years ago I discovered that relatively junior people in a larger global corporation not only felt that they could exercise Leadership, but actually did so by virtue of their vision and energy. It was the first time I understood that the boss and the leader didn’t have to be the same person. Think of some families you know, who has the most influence over what happens?

So if you can see that things not only could, but should be different, rather than complaining, maybe you should be a Leader and make the difference that is required. Don’t wait to be asked, don’t wait till it is your job… Just do it and see what happens!

“I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a “transformer” in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader.” Stephen R. Covey

I suspect that many of today’s leaders, like me, were brought up watching westerns on TV, listening to John Wayne mouthing phrases like “A man’s got to do, what a man’s go to do..” and watching him ride off into the sunset. This, in a way, typified a generation’s thinking of what strength and leadership was all about. Whilst many recognise this is an outmoded idea in the 21st century, it is sometimes hard to shake off some of the legacies of this thinking.

In times of Change, people feel much more secure with strong clear leadership, but they need considered action and decisions from their leaders. The trouble is, with the pace of business today; the pressure has never been higher, and thus there is always a temptation to act just for the sake of moving things off the pending pile and appearing decisive. This kind of ‘shoot from the hip’ style tends to makes us feel strong and that we are getting somewhere.

However, leaders are usually dealing with complex, multi-faceted problems which require more consideration. Another issue that busy leaders often are battling with are over-stuffed diaries and this means that they have little quality time to reflect and consider.

This is where I often find leaders gain huge value from working with an external ‘sounding board’. They may call this person a coach, a mentor, or even a friend or colleague, but the role is clear. It is someone they respect, who they can confide in and who can challenge their thinking process. Booking time with someone you can talk to about your agenda, in complete confidence, has a number of benefits:-

• It makes space for you to think things through
• The very act of explaining your ideas & issues to someone clarifies your own thinking
• Having your thinking challenged in a safe environment gives you the chance to develop your ideas further, and if necessary, change direction completely with no loss of face, and with no adverse consequences
• An outsider can ask those apparently daft, but highly challenging questions such as “Why would you want to do that?” “What would happen if you didn’t do that?” etc.
• They should sit outside the organisation’s politics and therefore not need to play power games
• They are able to bring in new ideas from outside the organisation
• They can also see when the leader is part of the problem and highlight when (s)he needs to consider their own contribution to the situation.

“All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions.” George Bernard Shaw

I normally find that the people I work with will typically leave these sessions much more focused and clear about what they need to do; more focused on what is really important for them to do and where they can afford (or need to) delegate. They usually find that the amount of work they get through in these sessions exceeds their expectations.

Time spent in reflection and exploration with a trusted ‘sounding board’ is a good way of reducing stress both for the leader and their organisation. Decisions that have been thought through inspire more confidence, and this raises the leader’s ‘stock’ with his people and their willingness to follow his lead. In the end this saves a great deal of time both in needless discussion and rework, because (s)he is passing out clear, simple messages.

There is a natural ‘sieving & sorting’ process, not unlike doing a jigsaw puzzle, where you gather together all of bits that are similar and create a clearer, more complete picture. This process helps sequence your messages in a way that makes your overall story much more coherent and easily accepted.

As a human being, it is natural for a leader to have doubts, and it is a part of the job to explore them as honestly as possible. This is a naturally uncomfortable process and it helps to have someone support you through it to make sure it is done both with integrity and completeness. The other side of this confidence is that some people are over-confident and need to almost delegate this doubting role to a trusted third party. This was why, in days of old, kings had Fools or Jesters who had license to say exactly what they thought, as truthfulness tends to shrivel as gets closer to power.

When, in the words of Harry Truman, “The buck stops here!” it is both helpful and responsible to pause to consider whether you are planning not only to do things right, but more importantly , to do the right things! It is all too easy for leaders to get sucked into operational details and it is their job to ensure that the issues that are strategic have been properly identified and planned for. If a leader isn’t strategic in the use of their own time, then the chances are they are not being sufficiently strategic in other areas!

The chairman of a very large business I work with said to me the other day that he could only discuss a particular issue with two other people in his team, and he already knew what they would both say, and he needed a fresh perspective on this issue. This is by no means untypical, and it is a wise man who knows when it is a good idea to seek help.

Another function that can be valuably performed in this safe space is venting. Once words are spoken they can not be unspoken and in every team there are frustrations, doubts and fears. These can all get in the way of the smooth running of the business. Deciding which issues are ones you need to take up with someone directly and which ones are just the result of, perhaps, you having a bad day can make you a much better person to work with.

This process is not about someone else coming in and telling you how to run your business, something that you are uniquely qualified to do, rather, in the words of Ken Keyes, they help you to “get at the wisdom you already have.” When this is supplemented with a little outside input it becomes a very potent dish.

“To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it” Mother Teresa

Resources:

1. In 1994 British Airways appointed Paul Birch as ‘corporate jester’ and Abbey National also embraced this a variant of this concept
2. The Role of the Fool

We have been hearing all sorts of gloom and doom from the press about the fall-out in the banking sector and consequences of (according to Wikipedia) a “sustained period of careless and inappropriate lending.” However there is another sort of credit we don’t talk enough about or give enough of, the credit for doing something right. One of the most powerful ways to alter behaviour is to give positive, timely and appropriate feedback. When did you last praise one of your team (or anyone else for that matter) for getting it right?

Deep down, as Desmond Morris observed, we are in many ways simple anmals who respond to praise. Animal trainers have known the power of positive reinforcement for years, why do managers of humans forget it so easily?

“I viewed my fellow man not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape” Desmond Morris

Probably the single most important job of a manager is to get his team performing, and the most powerful tool for doing this (and possibly the cheapest too) is positive reinforcement or giving credit where it is due and clear helpful, coaching-style feedback where performance needs improving. Giving public credit to one of your team for a good idea or result is hugely motivating. In fact, if you give away the credit and keep the blame when things go wrong you will have team that is incredibly loyal to you.

You need to encourage innovation and this involves taking calculated risks, especially now, those who bring in fresh thinking are going to be big winners. In turbulent times, it is much easier to steal a march on the competition. Companies like 3M allowed their engineers to invest 15% of their time pursuing personal projects, Goggle give their employees a day a week, and this, in return, gave them Gmail and Google maps. If you aren’t getting it wrong some of the time you aren’t pushing the envelope hard enough. So you need to distinguish between mistakes that come from lack of diligence or skill and those that come from trying something new.

Not only should you have a budget for innovation, but also appropriate measures so you can track if and where you are succeeding and learn from it. New products, process improvements or tools need to be shared once they are seen to work. If they don’t, then the learnings should be shared so that they can be built on and you don’t have to keep repeating the same mistake.

We have all sat on the end of a phone to mobile phone company pressing menu options in the vain hope of finding the one person who can help us, and if we are lucky enough to find them, and we don’t resolve it completely then and there, God helps us if we ever have to try to find them again… how frustrating is that?! However, we think nothing of putting ourselves and even our customers through just such silliness, because we don’t learn from our mistakes.

At the root of the Credit Crunch were people placing too much value in the wrong things. Your people are your greatest assets, your customers could be beating a path to your door and sending all their friends to you if you get it right. We all love being looked after and being made to feel special. So today, in the midst of this credit crunch make a point of giving a little credit!

“Giving credit where credit is due is a very rewarding habit to form. Its rewards are inestimable.” Loretta Young