LEADERSHIP
COMPETENCIES
A REFERENCE
POINT FOR
DEVELOPMENT
& EVALUATION
Margie Jantti, University of Wollongong Australia and Nick Greenhalgh, Career Innovations
For many years best practice principles
have driven leadership development
ABEF
• Promoting a leadership
system that generates
desired competencies
• Attracting, recruiting
and deploying people
• Evaluating and
developing individuals
Investors In People
• Learning and
development is planned
to achieve the
organisation’s
objectives
• …capabilities...needed
to lead, manage &
develop people are
clearly defined and
understood
Translated into:
• Career development discussions
• Lots of development opportunities
• Leadership training support
• Professional cadet program
• Personal and professional attributes aligned
with our values and Ideal Culture
But ……
Over the last 4-5 years it was
difficult to fill leadership positions
The leadership imperative
• Ageing workforce
• Leadership drain
• Limited appetite
• Equipping existing leaders with
needed skills
STEP 1
Leadership Success Profiles
Who:
• Library Executive
• Team leaders and managers
Drawn from a pool of 67 competencies from
the Lominger Leadership Architect ®
FYI For your Improvement: A guide for development and coaching.
Michael M. Lombardo & Robert Eichinger, 2009.
Success Profiles - competencies
Library executive
• Perspective
• Managing Vision & Mission
• Political Savvy
• Strategic Agility
• Business Acumen
• Self Knowledge
• Developing Others
• Comfort Around Top
Management
• Negotiating
Team leaders & managers
• Building Effective Teams
• Performance Management*
*(confronting direct reports)
• Organising
• Drive for Results
• Intellectual Horsepower
• Organisational Agility
• Innovation management
• Managing Vision & Mission
Confronting direct reports
(level of difficulty – high)
Defined:
Most organisations are running leaner today. With rapid
change and team-based efforts increasing, problem performers
can’t be hidden as they may have been in the past. Overcoming
your reluctance to deal with them is key to your unit’s
performance and your career as well. Managers who excel at
confronting direct reports are timely, consistent, focus on
performance gaps and help the person succeed. But if the
efforts fails, taking timely but compassionate action to separate
the person from the organisation is the true test of
management courage.
From: FYI For your Improvement: A guide for development and coaching. Michael M. Lombardo & Robert
Eichinger, 2009.
Confronting direct reports
Unskilled:
• Not comfortable in giving negative messages
• Lets problems fester hoping they will go away
• May give people too many chances
Skilled:
• Deals with problem direct reports firmly and in a
timely manner
• Doesn’t allow problems to fester
• Reviews performance and holds timely
discussions
STEP 2
Career interviews
Discussed career aims, level of ambition,
barriers to achievement.
The results were revealing:
Considerable appetite and potential for
leadership
But ……
Barriers to achievement included:
• Large gap between team leader and executive team
– simply didn’t know how to bridge the competency
gap
• Fear of failure
• Carrot wasn’t seen to be big enough, e.g. flexible
work conditions, remuneration
STEP 3
Evaluation - I
• Self and peer assessment against the
competencies
• Scale:
– 5 towering strength
– 1 serious issue
– DK don’t know
– Gap: more than 1.1 considered significant
• Feedback to participants
Sample assessment scores
Scale:
5 towering strength
1 serious issue
DK don’t know
Gap: more than 1.1 considered significant
STEP 4
Coaching – conversations for action
One on one
–Agreement on development goals
–Clarity and focus
–Authentic; dealing with real issues
Plus
Coaching workshops for the leadership cohort
Competencies integration
•
•
•
•
HR policies and guides, position descriptions
Annual performance planners
Job enrichment portfolios
Induction and probation
More authentic discussions about leadership
development and evidence of success
Evaluation II
• 3600 feedback
– Against all 67 Lominger competencies
– Detailed report
– One on one debrief with consultant
– Commitment to sharing results with peers
and manager
Evaluation III - what did we
achieve?
• Significantly improved confidence
• Authentic focus on performance gaps and
steps in place to close them
• Considered, constructive career plans
• Greater preparedness to address performance
issues
• Turnaround in ‘underperformers’
What else have we achieved?
• Professional cadets secured team leader and
manager roles
• Improved alignment of skills and talent –
playing to strengths
• We know what we are looking for – improved
clarity
Voice Project* Survey Results
* http://www.voiceproject.com.au/Our-Tools/climate.aspx
External validation
Development of competencies for roles at all levels in the Library
has provided a more robust platform from which to clarify:
•Description of role and performance expectations
•Career progression opportunities and how to work towards these
•Accountability to deliver as an individual within the team
From: IIP feedback report, 2010
Practicalities
• Significant investment – but better ROI
than a ‘leadership workshop’
• Scheduling time
• Disaffection by those not initially
targeted for coaching
• Sustaining over time
Still potential for disappointment – despite efforts undertaken
Sustaining efforts
The 70/20/10 rule
70% planned and systematic OTJ experiences
20% development from feedback, reflection,
coaching etc
10% training courses, research, reading
• Strategic projects
• Internal coaching network
• Leadership development framework
To conclude:
From:
• Fear of failure
• It takes a long time
• Emotions, biases
• Its just not worth it
To:
• I can do this
• It can be accelerated
• Lets deal with the
facts
• I am being invested in
LEADERSHIP
COMPETENCIES
QUESTIONS OR
COMMENTS?
Margie Jantti, University of Wollongong Australia and Nick Greenhalgh, Career Innovations