META+COACH OUTLINE FOR BUSINESS LEADERSHIP

What makes a really great leader? In our view the most important criterion is that they genuinely care about the success of all their key stakeholders. Obviously, they also have an interest in their own success and ambitions – they have to get something out of the endeavour for themselves – but they are also working for something bigger.

Great leaders take responsibility for the organisation – their job can be the toughest of all. It’s not a reward for what they’ve done in the past, or something they have a right to, it’s something they really want to contribute to, and develop as a legacy for the future.

Many people are in leadership positions, but a surprising few are really great at the role.  This creates a miserable environment for their colleagues, and squanders many chances to maximise success.  Why is this the case?  What makes a great leader? 

All great leaders need to have, and be able to communicate, a clear vision of where the organisation is heading, and why.  They need to be brave and show integrity, honesty, and humility. They must not be afraid to roll up their sleeves and get involved at any level of the organisation.  A great leader understands their own strengths and isn’t afraid to hire and learn from people who are more skilled than them.  Great leaders are genuinely proud of their team’s accomplishments and genuinely care about helping them succeed.

 

Leadership Framework

It’s worth taking time to stand back and clarify the elements that we consider will lead to success as a leader. We may then decide that we’re already well on track, or that to reach success in the longer term we need to review our approach.

As a starting point, it’s worth asking:

1.     Where we are against the elements below?

2.     What would be the benefit of clarifying which are important to us?

3.     What is the likely benefit of adhering to them more closely?

4.     What are the implications and costs of not having a strong leadership framework?

If we want to improve our leadership framework, a good start is to answer the questions in the ‘Creating rules and clarity’ section, and then develop a plan based on what we discover.

What’s important in leadership?

These five elements are vital for great leadership:

1.     Developing an agreed purpose and vision and knowing what leads to success.

2.     Building a cohesive leadership team.

3.     Creating rules and clarity.

4.     Creating a clear meeting structure.

5.     Continually developing leadership competencies.

Each division should have its own vision and purpose that links to the overall vision and purpose, and likewise each area of the company.

LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES CHECKJLIST 

A great leader needs to determine, in conjunction with stakeholders, which are the key competencies for him/her to help the organisation, the team, and themselves. They continually seek ideas and take action to improve their performance in each. Leadership competency examples, these will vary depending on the context:

1.     Demonstrating integrity.

2.     Encouraging constructive dialogue.

3.     Creating a shared vision.

4.     Developing people.

5.     Building partnerships.

6.     Sharing leaderships.

7.     Empowering people.

8.     Thinking globally.

9.     Appreciating diversity.

10. Developing technological savvy.

11. Ensuring customer satisfaction.

12. Maintaining a competitive advantage.

13. Achieving personal mastery.

14. Anticipating opportunities.

15. Leading change.

KEYS TO SUCCESS

We believe these are the keys to success:

1.     The leader’s purpose is to be responsible for helping all stakeholders succeed.

2.     Success in any project needs discovery, leadership, management (planning and effective use of resources), a safe space to develop action, action, and review.

3.     Creating and achieving buy-in for the vision.

4.     Developing an appropriate culture. Hiring, promoting, and firing as needed.

5.     Creating, implementing, and reviewing strategy.

6.     Setting priorities and measurement.

7.     Building, communicating, and reinforcing clarity almost daily.

Building a cohesive leadership team

The leader’s behaviour sets the tone for the behaviour of the leadership team and, through them, the organisation. It’s based on creating an environment of vulnerability-based trust and creative conflict. Achieving results is dependent on achieving the first four capabilities.

1.     Vulnerability-based trust.

2.     Mastering conflict.

3.     Achieving commitment.

4.     Embrace accountability.

5.     Focus on results (e.g. balance 60% tea, 40% individual.)

DELIVER VALUE BY CONVERTING DECISIONS INTO ACTIONS.

 Knowing how to manage time effectively is probably the most important trait of a leader. Focusing on contribution, impact and efficiency are a leader's primary goals. Yet, success is not a one-man-show: a synergy of communication, teamwork, self-development, and development of others are essential markers for productive organizations.

Success happens to companies with the executive ability to "concentrate on the few major areas where superior performance will produce outstanding results," as well defined by Peter Drucker in the inspiring "The Effective Executive" book. This means that management teams must be vigilant and proactively analyze the future, focusing on the opportunity rather than the problem, continuously delivering value , building on company strengths, and setting the pace to differentiate from the competition.

Spending time identifying a company's value and having vigorous debate on scenarios to execute the best plan to bring to market solutions that solve critical needs are managements' most important agenda:

1.     How do we turn knowledge into value and decisions?

2.     Why is it so important to turn decisions into right actions and behavior?

3.     How can effectiveness be translated into outstanding results?

Choose value by making effective decisions

When debating over roadmap priorities and innovation pipelines, it is key to be able to differentiate a generic situation from exceptions. Assumptions are important, validating them even more so. No one wants to develop products for an exceptional/extreme customer, but rather aim for greater scale through a broader customer reach.

Defining management decision's output requires clear specifications, for example, minimum goals, boundaries, and a clear understanding of what's right versus what is acceptable.

For example, executive management may decide to:

·         Concentrate on value performance for the business-partner ecosystem

·         Diversification of the business portfolio

·         Optimization of the customer journey (e.g., access, end-to-end experience)

·         Operational efficiency and productivity

·         Partnerships (e.g., growth in scale, increase in number, strategic interactions)

Drilling down into details cross-department is key to evaluate feasibility (cost, quality, timing). Validating with stakeholders is key to measure utilization and purchase intent, both being critical for estimating growth and scale.

DELIVER VALUE BY CONVERTING DECISIONS INTO ACTIONS

Once the management decision is clear, and the detailed scope is validated, two best practices are important to follow through. First, management should be looking to gain continuous feedback from the field, both to optimize and nurture adoption, and to manage internal bias. Second, the team should invest in continuous testing against other solutions in the market. Only this way can companies guarantee the superior performance of their business portfolio.

Different organizations chose different strategies at different points in time, based on maturity of their products and market. Whether it's enabling cloud-based systems at scale to become agile and efficient, software offerings to monetize directly, or digital offerings that feature advanced analytics or AI; or by adding technologies to enhance existing offerings or building exclusive technology partnerships to access capabilities or integrated offerings, actionable decisions endure when field work is properly done. Having a business process to ensure these steps are ongoing is key for leadership control of plans and fast decision-making to optimize/iterate/pivot or abandon when required.

FINAL WORD : MAKING A DIFFERENCE

"Leadership is an action, not a position." The most effective leaders build bridges between knowledge and decisions, and between decisions and actions, and they act quickly when new action-plans are required. Leaders understand the need to measure action versus non-action to grow a company, differentiate it, and avoid placing it at risk. They generate trust because of their willingness to act. They are not limited by fear or by making a mistake. They are focused on priorities, managing business processes, and educating the market. They are passionate about pursuing dreams and challenging the status quo. Most of them enjoy high-level relationship-building skills, based on trust, respect, and self-awareness. They cultivate comfortable settings that enhance the confidence of peers to express opinions, brainstorm, and embrace new ideas.

When people around them see the successes of working together, overall engagement and productivity climbs. And this is the foundation for an organization to focus on opportunities, to embrace change, create, and innovate. Effective leaders are women and men out there, bringing outstanding results together with their team. True heroes: genuine, confident, humble, trustworthy, positive, and fun!

 With best compliments

                                                          Dr Wilfred Monteiro