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Assessing leaders for the future

Lucy Povah

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current elements of leadership and

to give the reader an idea of how to assess a leader’s fit within an organisation.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a combination of a&dc’s methodology and external

research.

Findings – The main conclusion of this paper is that an ‘‘all-weather’’ leader has a huge role to play in

the future success of any organisation, particularly in the current economic climate. However, we must

learn to appreciate that one leader can do very well in one culture, but not so well in another, so it is vital

that organisations have an effective assessment and development strategy in place to deliver their

business agenda.

Practical implications – A change in the way leaders are assessed and managed is needed to ensure

organisations have the ‘‘all-weather’’ leaders needed for future growth.

Originality/value – The ‘‘Five Core Elements of Leaders’’ is a unique a&dc concept.

Keywords Leadership assessment, Resilient workforce, Leadership resilience, Organizational performance, Organizational culture

Paper type Viewpoint

T he current economic climate has changed the landscape of business dramatically.

These events have led to an increased requirement for our executives to perform as

all-weather leaders; individuals with the right mix of skills and characteristics to make

the right decisions no matter what the challenge. But what makes an ‘‘all-weather’’ leader

and how do you know if they are the right person for the job?

The qualities, skills and attitudes of leaders filter down through the rest of the organisation,

influencing workforce productivity and a business direction. With the right leaders in place

an organisation will be in a stronger position for future progression and growth.

As the business world looks at ways to increase their advantage and encourage growth, the

importance of developing such leaders has been pushed further to the forefront of

everyone’s minds. The results of a survey published by Henley Business School’s Corporate

Development team in February this year suggested that the development of key skills for

leaders was still high on the HR agenda and seen as a key attribute for business growth.

According to the survey results, leadership development for senior managers was the first or

second choice for 47 per cent of respondents, a 12 per cent increase from last year’s survey.

When these results were drilled down further to tools for business growth, 71 per cent of

respondents said their number one learning priority for this year was to use learning and

development as a tool to aid growth, a 7 per cent increase from last year.

This is just one of many research studies looking to analyse the current situation for HR and

employee development. But what is clear from all of the discussions and surveys taking

place in the business community is that leadership skills are a major factor in the growth of

PAGE 250 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING j VOL. 44 NO. 5 2012, pp. 250-258, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0019-7858 DOI 10.1108/00197851211244988

Lucy Povah is an

Assessment&Development

Consultant with a&dc,

Godalming, UK.

organisations and ultimately the economy. With this in mind, it is vital that HR and business

leaders look to effectively assess the potential of future leaders and develop them at the

required pace.

A leader for all seasons

Before we look at what qualities make a leader, let us consider what leadership is. In their

recent eBook What is Leadership? in collaboration with HR Magazine, Dave Ulrich and Norm

Smallwood summarised that ‘‘leadership matters, because leaders are responsible for

identifying and resolving the challenges of their stakeholders – customers, investors and

employees. Leadership starts with better results’’ (Ulrich and Smallwood, 2011).

However, if you consider Dubrin’s (2001) leadership model you could say that leadership is

less about results and more about the intangible aspects such as encouraging enthusiasm,

drive and a trustworthy environment.

When you sit back and look at the leadership models and theories out there, it is safe to say

there is a multitude of sometimes conflicting opinions and research. While there is no

agreement across the board as to the exact components required to be a great leader, you

can pull out some consistent themes.

The most important theme we have picked up is simply that as organisations change over

time, businesses need leaders with the capacity to adapt to the changing context. By purely

focusing on a leader’s individual characteristics, rather than also looking at how individual

characteristics fit into the broader organisational, cultural and socio-economic context, we

may lose the opportunity to evaluate and select leaders in a holistic way that will drive the

business agenda. Given the unpredictable and uncertain times that we currently face, failing

to take a more holistic view of leader selection is likely to diminish organisational success.

Despite the importance of selecting the right leaders, there are numerous organisations

whose leadership selection process is decidedly lacking in appreciation of context and is

therefore unlikely to deliver the leadership talent that is needed. More often than not, current

selection approaches involve numerous interviews focused on past career history and

accomplishments.

We know this approach falls short in these times. The game has changed, and agility has

become one of the most important skills, if not the most important, for the foreseeable future.

Does your business need leaders who will replicate what already exists or do you need

something different?

The five core elements of leaders

Looking across numerous leadership theories and models (trait theories such as John

Gardener’s leadership attributes, behavioural models such as Blake and Mouton’s

managerial grid, contingency models such as Hersey-Blanchard’s situational theory, and

Bass and Riggio’s (2006) transformational model), we see that there is broad agreement

around a number of measurable elements related to personal traits of leadership

effectiveness.

These all map onto the elements of a&dc’s ‘‘LIVED’’ leadership model, as published in HR

People & Strategy (Volume 33, Issue 3, 2010). LIVED stands for Learning, Intellect, Values,

Emotion and Drive. These elements are likely to be emphasised or weighted differently

based on the particular context in which they are required.

Intellect

For our purposes here, we define intelligence or cognitive ability as the ‘‘mental activity

directed toward purposive adaptation to, selection and shaping of, real-world environments

relevant to one’s life’’ (Sternberg, 1985, p. 45). Sternberg’s theory comprises three elements:

analytical, practical and creative, all of which are keys to managerial intelligence (Sternberg,

1997). Cognitive ability has been shown to be the best single predictor of job performance in

VOL. 44 NO. 5 2012 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAININGj PAGE 251

a wide range of occupations, as well as leadership success (e.g. Dulewicz and Higgs, 2002,

2003a; Ones et al., 2005). Research by Pearman (1999) reports that cognitive complexity

(IQ) accounts for nearly 24 per cent of successful leadership. However, while intelligence is

an important element, there is strong evidence that the brightest individuals are often not the

best leaders, as they struggle to work with less intelligent colleagues. While strategic and

quick thinking, Highly intellectual leaders often fail to understand and motivate colleagues

(Goleman, 1995).

Emotion

Emotional intelligence is defined in the literature as the awareness of and ability to manage

one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others (Salovey and Mayer, 1990). Goleman

(1995) added that emotional intelligence includes the ability to analyse and understand

relationships, take someone else’s perspective, resolve conflicts and manage one’s own

anger.

Research suggests that the most successful leaders possess high levels of emotional

intelligence, while leaders with lower levels of emotional intelligence are more likely to derail

from senior positions (Higgs and Dulewicz, 2002). Prati et al. (2003) state that ‘‘the emotional

intelligence of the team leader is important to the effective functioning of the team; the leader

serves as a motivator towards collective action, and facilitates supportive relationships

among team members.’’

Values

The Values element focuses on integrity, honesty, sincerity, trust and respect and is the basis

of what many leadership theorists have described as ‘‘character.’’ O’Reilly and Pfeffer (2000)

compared the performance of eight companies that had superior results in their sector with

the performance of similar companies, matched on size and industry sector. The more

successful companies had approaches to leadership that were based on values. As the

authors put it, ‘‘the most visible characteristics that differentiate the companies we have

described from others are their values and the fact that the values come first, even before

stock price.’’ Their values acted as guiding principles that helped them make crucial and

difficult decisions. Values have a solid base of research (Hogan and Hogan, 2001; Collins,

2001) and are clearly important when it comes to role-modelling desired behaviours and

walking the talk. Self-management, e.g. courage, accounts for a little more than 16 per cent

of successful leadership (Pearman, 1999).

Drive

According to Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991), drive has been referenced in the leadership

literature as a broad term that includes achievement, motivation, ambition, energy, tenacity

and initiative. In the current model, Drive is concerned with the engagement aspect of

leadership that inspires people into action. It covers passion, self-motivation, resilience and

tenacity (Dulewicz and Higgs, 2003b). Decisiveness, e.g. action and results orientation,

accounts for slightly more than 13 per cent of successful leadership (Pearman, 1999).

The fifth element – learning

We see Learning as the ‘‘X’’ factor in this dynamic and unpredictable business world. This is

the ability to learn from one’s experiences and apply that learning to new and different

situations. Focus on ‘‘learning agility’’ derives from research by Sternberg et al. (1995). They

distinguished learning agility as different from basic intelligence and related it to concepts

‘‘ . . . as organisations change over time, businesses need leaders with the capacity to adapt to the changing context. ’’

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such as ‘‘street smart’’, ‘‘savvy,’’ or possessing ‘‘common sense.’’ Sternberg found that this

learning intelligence was more predictive of organisational success than basic IQ. Eichinger

and Lombardo (2004) later defined learning agility as being ‘‘able and willing to derive

meaning from all kinds of experience.’’ Their business, Lominger (Lombardo and Eichinger,

2000), researched learning quotient across ten companies and built an informal assessment

model around the trait.

Given what we know from this research, leaders who demonstrate learning agility

consistently exhibit the following behaviours:

B seek out new challenges;

B seek feedback from others and self-reflect;

B record ‘‘learnings’’ for future review;

B evaluate their experiences and draw practical conclusions; and

B plan what they will do as a result.

Linked to these core elements is resilience, a topic which has become increasingly important

in this economic climate. Resilience is a key skill that effective leaders must develop to

overcome the pressures involved in the role and continuous change in the workplace.

Culture and ‘‘fit’’

Determining ‘‘fit’’ entails evaluating the internal and external factors that define the

organisation’s context, based on the current reality and the vision of the anticipated future:

B What are the external conditions and challenges that must be faced in the external

environment?

B What business strategy must be executed to address the external challenges?

B Is the company growing or does a new growth platform need to be developed and

executed?

B Is the current organisational culture going to facilitate strategy execution or does it need

to change?

The answers to these questions help to define the skill set needed by an effective leader for

that organisation.

The importance of regular review and assessment of your culture is often underestimated in

times of economic struggle as other business issues become a priority. However, without

knowing the current situation and where the culture should be in the future, an organisation

will struggle to plan and prepare for the right type of growth.

One way of doing this is to undertake an internal culture audit. There are several tools on the

market that assess internal culture. We use our Cultural Alignment Indicator (CAI), which

measures where the organisation currently lies on various aspects of culture. Our tool groups

these into three areas:

1. working on tasks;

2. working with people and change; and

3. learning orientation.

For the purposes of assessing and selecting leaders, we administer the culture audit to key

stakeholder groups, e.g. the top team, managers and a sample from each department and

level. We then have in-depth discussions regarding how much they want the new leader to fit

this current culture profile – how much the individual is expected to maintain the status quo

or break the mould. We have found it helpful to facilitate dialogue among key stakeholders to

discuss which of the cultural aspects add most value or are most critical for success of the

business strategy. This provides useful information for the preferred profile of a potential

leadership candidate.

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Evaluating a leader’s cultural fit

It does not stop at evaluating your current culture and assessing the desired culture though.

Once you have a clearer idea of the cultural traits of the organisation, these components

need to be added into the assessment process for leaders.

A culture tool can also be used to assess a candidate’s cultural fit. We ask the person to

complete the tool, rating each scale based on his or her preferred culture. This ‘‘fit’’ can be

defined more closely by understanding how each leadership characteristic aligns to the

desired culture. For example, say your organisation would like to shift the culture to be more

pragmatic with a faster pace, certain task behaviours within the culture support this and

align to the leadership area of ‘‘drive.’’ Thus, when assessing drive, it is crucial that a

candidate demonstrates these behaviours to a very high degree.

Once the aspects of culture are determined and the external conditions are understood, we

settle on how to best measure the five key leadership components within the LIVED model.

We recognise that learning agility is more difficult to assess than the other components set

out in our leadership LIVED model. However, we must still face this challenge in times of

uncertainty. Effective leaders must demonstrate this capability or risk poor performance,

especially through tough and changeable times.

Leadership resilience can also be enhanced through a range of methods which focus on an

individual’s thinking style and their behaviour under pressure. It is important that leaders

have an appreciation of these different tools and techniques so they can draw on them in

tough times.

Case study: context-based leader selection at a top retailer

Company ‘‘Z,’’ a supermarket group recognised as one of the UK’s top ‘‘Every Day Low

Cost’’ (EDLC) retailers realised it needed an infusion of new leadership talent to help it

weather the effects of the world recession. Despite its favoured market position, Z was facing

fierce competition. Prices were being driven down, while quality expectations remained

high.

With its reputation of caring for customers, colleagues and excellence, Z was positioned to

attract luxury-oriented customers forced to move ‘‘down-market.’’ However, retailers often

perceived as ‘‘higher cost but high quality’’ started playing a new game as well, such as

pushing two-for-one type deals, targeting a population hungry for luxury at a low cost. Z

faced the challenge of attracting that population, as well as other target markets. Perhaps go

online? Maybe offer more non-food products, such as electrical, home ware, clothes and

toys? Uncertain, it needed a shot of new thinking.

A new strategy would call for a shift in organisational culture at Z, one that promotes

innovation, willingness to risk new ideas and encouraging the reflection time that

accompanies learning. That kind of culture is a far cry from the fast-paced,

performance-driven norms of the retail world. Z would have to synthesise formerly

opposing cultural styles - fast-paced versus reflective, creative and innovative, versus highly

action-oriented, an internal focus and tradition of nurturing and caring, versus and external

focus on the market and frequent change.

This shift in emphasis would require more commercially oriented leaders who focus on the

competition, market conditions and consumer spending habits, while remaining

quick-acting and decisive with new market shifts. Currently, its leaders were respected for

‘‘ The ‘all-weather’ leader has a huge role to play in the future success of any organisation. ’’

PAGE 254 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAININGj VOL. 44 NO. 5 2012

having the ability to build relationships, understand the influence on others, with high levels

of emotional intelligence, integrity and levels of drive.

Z’s existing leadership selection model was heavily focused on growing talent within, its

leaders often selected in their own image. Promotions were made during internal talent

reviews, based on anecdotal data and gut feeling, rather than objective selection criteria. It

was no surprise that the prevailing, heretofore highly successful, culture went unchallenged.

It became clear that Z needed an infusion of more learning agile leaders and, in the current

climate, that required new leaders placed in key roles throughout the company.

Through consultation with Z, a&dc developed the contextual behaviours required at different

management levels using the LIVED model. Previous attempts to recruit leaders from the

outside had not always proved successful. While these outsiders possessed the qualities

existing leaders lacked (learning agility, intelligence), they did not always have sufficient

levels of the culturally acceptable qualities – values, emotion and drive – to ensure a good fit

with the organisation and often left soon after joining. We needed to help Z select leaders

who demonstrated acceptable behaviours in all LIVED areas, but with an emphasis on

learning and intellect for the highest levels of management, given the desired strategic

direction.

It included a 360 feedback process, simulations, personality assessment and a structured

interview. This multi-method approach provided a holistic picture of the individual while

allowing robust coverage of all LIVED areas. By reviewing past experiences (interview),

current performance (personality assessment) and evaluating performance in a new

situation (behavioural simulation), it allowed us to explore the individual’s level of learning

agility and how readily they could transfer their knowledge and experience, and apply it in a

different context.

The outputs allowed the executive team to identify which individuals had the traditional and

culturally acceptable profile and which individuals could potentially add something new or

different to senior management, particularly in the areas of learning and intellect, where

current leadership skills were weakest. This information could then be used to make talent

decisions for internal colleagues and to identify where external talent should be recruited

into the business.

Participants, HR and executives have all received this process very positively, with 95 per

cent of all feedback being enthusiastic. It provided decision makers with the information that

led to discussions of how to develop more strategic and learning agile leaders through job

and project rotations. Already there has been recognition that every individual has different

things to contribute to the business and that having a ‘‘one-size fits all’’ leader can create

problems. Elements of learning are now viewed as key levers to pull, not only to improve

individual leadership effectiveness, but also broader organisational effectiveness.

Conclusion

The ‘‘all-weather’’ leader has a huge role to play in the future success of any organisation.

However, we must learn to appreciate that one leader can do very well in one culture, but not

so well in another, so it is vital that organisations have an effective assessment and

development strategy in place to deliver their business agenda.

References

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