The first two sections of Curated 2020 have focused on leadership competencies and leadership styles –especially as they contribute to effective Team and Organizational performance. The remaining fundamental question is: how do we increase leadership competency, while respecting and appreciating differences in leadership style?
The simple answer is: initiate a leadership development program. This has been the automatic answer that is offered by those involved in organizational training and consulting. Yet, this simple answer doesn’t do the trick. We have found that even when an organization provides leadership training (an all-too-rare occurrence), the effects of this training rarely lasts very long if the lessons learned are even applied over the short term. Leadership development requires something more complex—and a more systematic perspective on how leadership is engaged and how an organization makes most effective use of their leaders. Even more basically, effective leadership development requires a new model of training and education. We begin with a brief description of this new model.
Shifting Notions About Training and Education
The 20th Century model of education and training is based on the metaphor of pitcher and mug: how much can you pour into an empty mug in a specific period of time? In academic institutions we assign credits based on the amount poured in. In organizations, we record the number of participation hours and perhaps administer a brief test to see how much has been acquired.
Retention and Transfer
By contrast, an emerging 21st Century model of training and education concerns not how much is “learned” (poured in). The new model focuses instead on what is retained (3-6 months later) and what is transferred (“application of learning”). These shifting concerns are particularly important in leadership development (and other types of professional development)—in large part because the stakes are often very high. A substantial amount of money is often allocated to these programs, and the present or future leaders must spend valuable time in this program. Administrators at the top of the organization want to be assured that something will be retained from this expensive (money and time) program and that something will be applied.
How Do We Increase Retention and Transfer?
This is the logical next question. If retention and transfer are critical, then what will bring about increase in these two dimensions of training and education? There are several traditional means of increasing retention and transfer: (1) dispersion of the education and training programs, (2) supplement education and training with follow-up activities, (3) monitor performance following the training and education, (4) introduce memory-enhancing tools and strategies, (5) encourage practicum and field experiences (with supervision), (6) digitally based “just-in-time” learning and (7) provide coaching alongside the training and education.
We provide an expanded description of the first six means in one of the essays featured in this section of Curated 2020. However, most of the essays (and a video recorded interview) focus on the seventh strategy. We propose that organizational coaching can effectively increase both retention and transfer of learning from leadership development programs—and offer several different perspectives on how to complement leadership development with organizational coaching.
Leadership Development and Coaching
Two written essays are provided that provide a foundation for considering the effective interplay of coaching and leadership development programs. A third document is an interview with two senior coaches and consultants from Southeast Asia who offer a cross-cultural perspective on coaching and leadership development.
Organizational Coaching and Professional Development: A Valuable Partnership
This first essay provides a description and analysis of all seven strategies that were just identified as well as eight principles related to the effectiveness of organizational coaching as a complement to leadership training and education programs.
Leadership Development and Multi-Source Feedback
Multi-source assessment is about expanding the perspective of an employee regarding her own performance. It is also about broadening the base of an assessment and hopefully improving the validity of data gathered about an employee’s performance. This performance appraisal process begins with the self-assessment by the employee, along with the assessment by this employee’s supervisor. This is 45-Degree feedback. The assessment by a colleague (sideways) yields 90-Degree feedback, while additional upward assessment by subordinates produces 180-Degree feedback. The so-called 360-Degree feedback processes may include other employees in the organization who have been impacted by the employee’s performance as well as people outside the organization who are directly served by the employee or who benefit indirectly from their work.
Leadership Development: In What Directions Are We Moving?
The following topics were the focus of an interview with two senior coaches and consultants in Singapore and Indonesia: (1) what are the key challenges that leaders face where a leadership development program can make a difference, (2) who do you think should be involved in a leadership development program (and how might it differ, if at all, from a management development program), (3) what role (if any) should be played by various assessment tools in leadership development programs, and (4) what is the role played by coaching in helping to make a leadership development program something that has sustained results
Leadership Development: Case Studies
Two essays are offered that describe the ways in which to couple coaching and leadership development in working with specific populations in an organization.
Coaching High Potential and High Performing Clients
During a conference held in Istanbul, Turkey, more than 30 experienced organizational coaches devoted extensive attention to two related coaching challenges: how to work most effectively with men and women who have been identified as high potential performers, and how to work most effectively with men and women who have already been acknowledged for high levels of performance. As a first step in making sense of these challenges, five different kinds of clients have been identified> Three of these types tend to be deficit-based whereas the high potential (HPOT) and high performance (HPER) clients were identified as coming from a position of envisioned (HPOT) or real (HPER) strength and accomplishment.
Case Study: Exploring Coaching Options
A Manager with a global pharmaceutical firm was recently transferred from the New Jersey worldwide headquarters to the European head office in Germany. The Manager, Manoel, is intellectually gifted, ambitious, and has an MBA from a top-tier university. He wants to develop his leadership skills in order to move up in the company. Three months into Manoel’s assignment, comments are streaming into the Head of Business Development about his work. The tenor is generally negative. He is perceived as arrogant, dismissive and takes credit for others’ work. Further, when anyone inquires about the status of the project, Manoel is evasive. The Head of Business Development and the Talent Director, both Germans, are concerned about the remarks. They issue a Request for Proposal to an external coaching network asking for a customized process to help the Manager urgently improve. Your firm is awarded the mandate. What is your strategy?
A Comprehensive Perspective on Leadership Development
In promoting a systemic approach to leadership development that incorporates coaching services, we conclude this section of Curated 2020 (and bring this volume to a close) by offering an even broader perspective on ways to improve organization-wide performance. From this broader perspective, an organization is being viewed as a House of Culture.
Building the House of Culture: Leadership Development, Strategic Planning and Organizational Culture
Organizational cultures must be adaptable. Shifting organizational culture is possibly the most challenging kind of change any organization can undertake. The reason is that most organizations are better at changing the “hard stuff” (work processes, structures and systems) and less effective changing people’s hearts, minds and behaviors. This is more true in cases where organizations have a long history of success, where business processes have been deeply entrenched and where culture and behaviors have become deeply ingrained over decades. Often, organizations facing transformational change requiring a significant shift in culture adopt a fragmented approach – they focus on a few elements that they feel are necessary to shift culture, but don’t necessarily fully assess the link between the culture they have, their desired future culture needed to support and drive strategy execution. This essay introduces the concept of the “House of Culture” that describes the critical elements influencing organizational culture that are either enablers or obstacles to achieve strategy-culture alignment.