Ineffective leadership is costly

We have all had bad bosses at one time or another. You know, the leaders that make you dread coming into work and are a constant source of your complaints. While you probably were more concerned about how the leader impacted your day-to-day work life, poor leadership is extremely damaging to the entire workforce, and is also pretty costly.

According to a study by The Ken Blanchard Companies, the average organization is losing an amount equal to 7% of its annual sales because of poor leadership. That’s more than a million dollars per year for an organization with $15 million or more in annual sales. Think about it, ineffective leaders create a disengaged workforce, and employees that are not loyal to their job and the company will start looking for new job opportunities. This creates a snowball effect of sorts where companies have to spend time and money fulfilling the vacant roles, and training the new staff members.

Obviously, companies need to break the trend and solve poor leadership issues before it’s too late.

Each situation is different, but it is quite common to see workers promoted to a leadership or management role based on their past accomplishments, rather than leadership potential. As a result, many new leaders and managers lack the practical knowledge of what leadership entails, and struggle unnecessarily in their new role.

Examples of ineffective leaders include a nonexistent vision for the organization and its workers, poor communication skills, and a lack of focus and follow-through.

Now it’s hard to change bad habits overnight, but leaders need to know the areas that are weaknesses and work to improve them. This is where leadership training can prove invaluable. Whether it’s several months of formal training, a two-day management 101 boot camp, or as simple as a peer mentoring program, the most important thing is to realize how even a modest investment in leadership development can pay huge dividends.

Through these programs, leaders can focus efforts on a specific development plan, which may increase their level of success in their position.

Here are some leadership development tips to keep in mind:

•Do not oversell your ideas and contributions.

•Set intermediate goals for fulfilling promises and agreements and inform your coworkers of your progress.

•Build your reputation on actions, not promises.

•Repair perceptions of low dependability and trust by reviewing/discussing your goals and deliverables with your stakeholders. Make certain that your commitments are realistic. Identify and modify any goals that may have unrealistic timelines.

•Take responsibility for your actions. Inform others when you anticipate missing a deadline. Be open, offer solutions/options, and let others know what you have learned from this experience.

•When you make a mistake, admit it.

Why do you think some leaders are ineffective?

Without the security of anonymity, feedback would be bland

The 360 feedback process involves collecting perceptions about a person's behavior from those around them. The feedback comes from people who interact routinely with the individual receiving feedback such as the person’s manager, peers, and direct reports. The variety of perspectives provides an opportunity for insight and helps to identify the individual’s strengths and weaknesses.

One of the most valuable aspects of the tool is that the feedback is voiced anonymously. The truth is not always pretty, and most people will only give honest, candid responses as long as they know they won’t get identified. If a rater is scared of any possible retaliation, their feedback might turn out pretty flat and won’t be much help to the participant.

360 feedback is a sensitive process, and it is considered a best practice for a 360 vendor to maintain the anonymity and confidentiality of raters. Companies must stress to its employees that no matter how a rater answers the question, it will not threaten their job.

The anonymity of raters must be consistent throughout the entire process, even after the individual receives the feedback. Under no circumstances, should the individual try to decipher who was behind the comments. Let’s say you are the person being rated. You receive your feedback and are pretty surprised at some of the responses. Sure, it may be somewhat tempting to try and figure out who said what, but if you do this, you run the risk of harming the 360 process.

In addition, if you try and expose your raters, you may be perceived as being defensive, arrogant, or fearful of looking at your shortfalls. Shutting out the observations and perceptions of others limits your growth and development, and chances are pretty good that, over time, you have developed some blind spots.

Instead of focusing your attention on identifying raters, approach 360 feedback with an open mind. Remember that successful leaders are open to feedback about their actions, whether it is positive or negative. They respond to the feedback and use it to improve their performance, or change course when necessary.

Here are some development tips to keep in mind after you receive feedback:

Evaluate how you view people who disagree with you. Do you try to understand the basis for their views? Do you ask questions respectfully? Do you work toward mutual understanding, or simply try to convince them that you are right?

When you make a decision, get into the habit of considering the impact it will have on the people affected by it. Sometimes you may determine that a decision has a higher cost than it is worth, in terms of its impact on people. Other times, you may make the same decision, but you will know you need to reduce its negative impact.

Recognize that timing is important. Your message might be the right one, but it won’t be well received if it is delivered at the wrong time. Before delivering your message ask yourself: “How will others feel if I say that?”

As a leader, you have many opportunities to give people feedback. In addition to giving feedback, solicit feedback from your group members about how you can improve your own performance. Listen carefully to what was said, and thank people for taking the time to give you feedback.

Leadership always involves being sensitive to the needs of those who agree to be led. Respect your raters’ anonymity and make no effort to identify the individuals.

Keep an eye on the future

Have you paid attention to news about your industry lately? Or what about any new initiatives your competitors have launched?

Well, if you’re in a leadership role and automatically think finding those answers is not part of your job description, you’re wrong. Whether or not you are directly involved in marketing, you must stay current on the relevant market forces along with understanding your organization’s strategies for positioning itself among its competitors. In other words, you need to gain some market insight.

Some researchers claim that the highest performing companies are the ones that are able to identify and leverage market insight, which can serve as the foundation for the creation of new business.

Think about it, today’s business world is more competitive than ever, and companies are placing increasing demands on its leaders. In order to handle these demands, leaders must adapt and change quickly.

When you understand the local, national, and international context of your industry, you can use this knowledge to plan for the future needs of customers, employees, and investors. But you can’t just rely on your analysis alone; you need to put your direct observations to good use.

To be a leading competitor; your company must have a forward-thinking environment that encourages innovation. The most successful leaders are the ones that value original thinking and creative problem solving.

When you can show to your direct reports that you are open to new ideas and opportunities, it will create a domino effect of sorts, as it will encourage others to brainstorm and think creatively with you. As a result, your company can bring new concepts for products or services into the marketplace and improve your organization’s competitive position.

But first you need to gain some market insight. Here are a few tips on how to do it.

Keep current on industry trends by reading national and industry blogs.

Explore materials about business outside your industry - books, magazines, or seminars. See if you can make connections to your industry.

Actively review trade and business journals, annual reports, and marketing research on each of your competitors to stay abreast of their business.

Identify assumptions that underlie the current business model in your industry and figure out how the model would change – or is changing – should those assumptions change.

Read industry and technical publications looking for changes or trends that indicate new opportunities to meet customer needs.

What are other ways to develop market insight?

Take charge from the start

On our LinkedIn group page, we asked our followers what they would like to see us cover in this leadership blog. One follower stated this question, “What do people entering into a leadership role have to look out for?”

Interesting question, and we’re going to take the approach of how one should prepare for their internal leader transition, along with how to hit the ground running once their new position starts.

Going from manager to upper executive is obviously a big change. Generally speaking, a manager’s job is to organize and delegate, while a leader focuses on inspiring and motivating the workers.

So, if you received a promotion, you already have gained the trust and respect of your superiors. Now for the hard part – making sure your direct reports trust your decisions as a leader. After all, just because you gained a leadership role doesn’t guarantee people will consider you a leader. It is up to you to ensure people take you seriously as a leader, which means your transition to leadership begins as soon as you find out about your promotion, not day one of your new role.

According to Michael Watkins, author of The First 90 Days, the actions you take on your first three months in a new job will largely determine if you succeed or fail.

No pressure, right?

How you plan for your new role, and the tone you set on your first day will create your foundation as a leader.

Here are some points to remember:

Listen and learn

Gain familiarity with the core functions, systems, and processes of your organization. Determine how each function and core process adds value to the organization. Know who to call in each function when you need information. When making plans, be flexible, and be prepared to change your action plans if internal or external factors alter the company’s strategic direction. Focus attention on the areas where you’ll get the most leverage.

Establish effective communication

Recognize that timing is important. Your message might be the right one, but it won’t be well received if it is delivered at the wrong time. Before delivering your message ask yourself: “How will others feel if I say that?” Keep the adage, “Actions speak louder than words” in mind. Actions should always be consistent with what you say you believe.

Build new working relationships

Effective relationships are vital to the success of a leader. Proactively meeting with people and explaining your ideas and initiatives can help you bring people on board at the beginning, instead of trying to turn around the “freight train” of opinion once it’s moving. Identify, build, or create areas of common ground with others. This will reduce your need to fall back on position power in order to accomplish your goals.

Encourage new ideas

Leaders must generate ideas for change and recognize and use the good ideas generated by others. Leaders also stimulate others to think in innovative ways. Inspire others with your ideas and enthusiasm – let others know you will hear them out and will consider suggestions when you make a decision.

Cycling back to the LinkedIn question - what does one have to look out for in a new leadership role? Well, be prepared to deal with uncertainty and additional responsibility. This comes along with any new role but it is heighten in a leadership position. You’ll need to demonstrate your value, along with being aware that people will question your decisions.

No one said making the move from manager to leader would be easy, (and if they did, they are delusional), but with the right preparation and attitude it can be a smooth transition.

Best Practices for 360 Feedback

There are many benefits to 360 feedback. However, a lot of 360 projects can go wrong, which results in poor ROI and can give a bad impression of 360 Feedback. It is unfortunate some perceive 360s in a bad light because 360s were created to generate positive change within an organization.

When conducted properly, a successful 360 process has proven itself valuable to many organizations by providing insight into where people can benefit from development and growth.

To help dispel any confusion about 360s, we have decided to highlight the best practices for 360 Feedback.

Pre-work

The company implementing a 360 needs to ensure that its employees understand exactly what the 360 process entails, what is expected of them, and how it will benefit them. That way everyone can truly prepare for the process and not be blindsided by a survey invitation.　

The company needs to explain that the 360 feedback process provides leaders with a way to solicit feedback from peers, colleagues, direct reports, and their own leader. The feedback can be used as a starting point for action planning, or to plan training and set development goals.

Role of the Participant

The participant is the person evaluated in the 360 process. Typically, the participant identifies the stakeholders that work directly with them, and is encouraged to invite as many as possible to maintain anonymity in the process.

Role of the Raters

Raters are key to the success of a 360 project because they see the leaders in action day-to-day, and as a result they provide the most useful and reliable feedback. The raters can include the participant’s manager, peers, direct reports, and even external stakeholders such as customers, suppliers and board members.

Anonymity and confidentiality

Anonymity and confidentiality is a vital component of the 360 process. The company needs to inform the employees that the 360 project is implemented by a third-party partner that provides systematic methods for maintaining anonymity of raters and confidentiality of survey results. In other words, no matter how the rater answers the questions, it will not threaten their job.

In addition

The rest of our document explains steps for maintaining anonymity and confidentiality, the common competencies measured in 360 surveys, development planning, and more. View our entire Best Practices for 360 Feedback document.