How to make your leaders brilliant

Any organisation’s performance and culture is significantly affected at every level by the quality and capability of its managers & leaders. That much is proven and is accepted by the vast majority of leaders, thinkers and organisations.

That being the case, you should ask yourself some important questions:

• How great are your managers & leaders?
• Do they share a common set of beliefs about the way they need to lead?
• Are they a strong and cohesive team?
• Are they trained and qualified to lead at the level they hold?

In the volatile and challenging world of today and tomorrow, even being ‘quite good’ probably isn’t enough. Every organisation is sailing in some very stormy seas, with challenges coming from every direction. Managers & leaders at every level need to be on top of their game to steer teams, functions and the whole organisation towards achievement & success.

There are a number of indicators that too many are just not getting it right in the UK:

• Employee engagement – a measure of how committed employees are to their team, leaders and organisation – is one of the lowest in the developed world
• Around 40% of employees are preparing to leave their jobs in the next six months. Recent research from several major institutions indicates that. Great leadership inspires the talent to want to stay and be part of your vision. Without it, they’ll leave to join someone else.
• Around 80% of our managers & leaders are unqualified for that role – again we’re among the worst of the major nations. We are effectively being led by amateurs. Often talented, well-intentioned and exhibiting many good qualities – but is that enough? I suggest probably not.

So what can you do about it?

One very important thing you can do is to enable all your managers & leaders to become professionals. In almost any other profession, qualification would be mandatory to even be allowed to hold the position – accountants, pilots, teachers, doctors, architects, chemists, lawyers and many others. For some reason, we think it’s OK for managers to just ‘have a go’ and see how they get on. With such enormous influence, drastic impacts, huge risks and in such challenging times, does that sound like a good idea?

The best leaders and organisations are recognising the need to get professionally developed and qualified. How about you?