Effective Leadership: How Do You Know When You Are Getting It Right?
Filed under: Innovation, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Management Education, Middle Management, Not-For-Profit Leadership, Performance, Talent Management, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
If you’ve spent time in a leadership role, you know that it is remarkably difficult to get good quality feedback on how you are doing and for that matter, how everyone else is doing under your leadership.
If you haven’t wondered about this, you are either naïve or you are caught up in all of the nice things that people say in your presence. Newsflash: almost no one tells the boss he stinks, when he’s in the room.
Some of the worst leaders that I’ve had the displeasure to cross paths with, plied their evil practices with glee, protected by the cheering throngs around them. Behind their backs however, conversations sounded a lot like a planning session for a greeting party for Caesar during March. If I’m not mistaken, I heard the sound of knives being sharpened.
Alternatively, some of the best leaders and managers that I’ve encountered struggled a great deal with this issue. They heard the same cheers but were curious and concerned enough to wonder whether the cheering was for the title or the person and practices.
Some organizations attempt to remedy this by the use of assessments of various types, and these absolutely can be helpful. Nonetheless, I find assessments a lot like wondering what the temperature is outside on a sunny day by turning on the television. It’s a lot more real if you stick your head out the door and feel it for yourself.
I write and talk and mentor from the perspective that a primary task of a leader is to create the effective working environment. While the pace and energy of the environment may vary depending upon business or cultural circumstances, it is always up to the leader to infuse the environment with the values and practices that support accountability, results, innovation, fair-play and even creativity and innovation, to name a few.
Taking this a step further, I encourage leaders to look for signs in the environment that their leadership practices are working. While this approach lacks the rigor that some HR professionals like about formal assessments, an astute leader can learn to stick her head out the door and get a pretty good feel for the temperature of her leadership practices.
The Seven Indicators of the Effective Work Environment
- Individuals and teams display a great deal of pride, collaboration and cooperation to meet and exceed objectives.
- Failure to meet or exceed objectives is met with healthy frustration that quickly is channeled into lessons-learned and “what we’ll do better” discussions.
- Regardless of individual roles, teams spontaneously assemble to meet specific challenges and then dissolve once the challenges have been met.
- The group becomes self-policing on quality, timeliness and conduct.
- The drive to innovate and create value comes from within the team not from management.
- The teams learn how to fight and to play together.
- Output tangibly supports strategic objectives and improves the ability of the organization to meet customer needs.
While there is a great deal of subjectivity in judging the Seven Indicators, I’m OK with you’ll know it when you see and feel it or when you don’t. The weatherman can give you all of the meteorological reasons behind the sunny day you see through the window, but until you step outside of your Chicago office in February and feel your nose hairs freeze on your first breath, you don’t truly know what it’s like out there. (OK, metaphors aren’t my strong suit!)
The Bottom-Line for Now:
The best leaders are critically aware of their role and power in shaping the environment on their teams and inside their organizations. They are also aware that almost no one will ever provide the boss honest, actionable feedback on performance. I encourage leaders to develop an extreme awareness of what is going on around them as the best indicator of their effectiveness. Pay attention, look, listen and then ask questions and take actions that help people solve problems. Do this enough and that sunny day might just feel a whole lot warmer.
Comments
5 Comments on Effective Leadership: How Do You Know When You Are Getting It Right?
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Wally Bock on
Fri, 10th Jul 2009 12:14 pm
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Mark Allen Roberts on
Fri, 10th Jul 2009 1:01 pm
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Eric Lieberman on
Fri, 10th Jul 2009 5:41 pm
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Art Petty on
Fri, 10th Jul 2009 5:43 pm
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Fred Schlegel on
Sat, 11th Jul 2009 5:53 am
Great post, Art. You hit three key points.
First, any report you get from someone who works for you is filtered through their self-interest. It’s human nature.
Second, your job is to create a great working environment. To do that you have to keep checking out the condition of the place.
Third, you have to seek out good feedback. One way to do that is to provide your own. In the Working Supervisor’s Support Kit, I encourage bosses to get in the habit of critiquing their own performance. That’s what the great ones do.
Big AMEN on this post,
I just posted: What if you could have a daily tracking poll for your customer satisfaction like the Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index?…You Can! http://nosmokeandmirrors.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/what-if-you-could-have-a-daily-tracking-poll-for-your-customer-satisfaction-like-the-rasmussen-presidential-approval-index-you-can/ discussing the value to your business in having timely feedback.
Your seven indicators are awesome. When I wrote Is your leadership in a holding pattern while your team runs out of gas? http://nosmokeandmirrors.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/is-your-leadership-in-a-holding-pattern-while-your-team-runs-out-of-gas/ I discussed the importance of leaders knowing their roles and stepping up, and what happens if they don’t.
(Sorry for two links in one comment, but I am very passionate about this subject)
Awesome content!
Mark
Just for the record: Art never had a problem giving me honest feedback when we worked together at Firstlogic (now a part of SAP). It was feedback I always valued – and it helped make me a better leader! He know of what he speaks! – Eric
Eric, I’m honored that you commented and indebted that you were one of the leaders that sought and accepted feedback. Thank you! -Art
Given your description of bosses who blindly walk around listening to the cheering I would simply add, ‘You discover a healthy amount of criticism.’ Seldom can you please all the people all the time, if no complaints reach your ears, ever, then your ears aren’t on.
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