This month’s question of:

What are the critical aspects in developing leaders?

Is like answering how long is a piece of string. Everyone will have an opinion and idea or an answer and chances are all of them would be right. I am going to outline four areas that I feel are important.

These are in no particular order.

1. Get them to see the value and benefit of them being themselves

The skills and attributes needed for effective leadership will be constantly in demand. These skills and attributes can be learned from many different sources.

The advantage to most leaders is that the area of leadership has a great many role models from which leadership can learned. These role models, although from many different facets of leadership, whether it be life, sport, education or business, all have a diversity of attributes that would be beneficial to anyone, to know and understand.

As you are developing your leadership, you will no doubt have numerous leadership influences around you. People you know personally that you think highly of and respect and also people you revere and admire from afar.

These people have particular traits either personally and/or professionally that you believe, if added to your leadership toolbox, will help you become a better leader.

And chances are they probably will.

However, with that being said, one of the greatest mistakes I see in people as they try to develop and improve their leadership is they, not always through desire, almost become a mirror image of the person they are learning the leadership skills from.

Their actions, terminology, thinking, philosophy, all begin to become a direct copy of the person from which they are learning these skills. Big mistake.

One of the key areas of your focus and their leadership development should be to not become a mirrored image of the person you are using as leadership role model. Not to become a mini me by using the same vocab, the same body language, same action strategies and positions that they do.

The challenge is to understand what these leadership icons do and why, how and when that works and to then rebuild it in a way that suits your leadership style and that fits in with your own personal philosophy of leadership, the situation you are involved with and most importantly, suits the needs of the people you lead.

See the bottom line in all of this is that as a leader you will be at your best when you are being themselves.

Why?

Well let’s put it this way?

Why would anyone feel confident in following the lead of someone that is not even confident enough to be themselves? If you don’t have the courage to be yourself, then how could others have the courage to follow someone they don’t know? Or for that matter, why should they?

Make sure as you are working on becoming the best that they can be, you are also developing the confidence in being yourself. You see, one of the most important things about leadership is being yourself.

Although your leadership may not be up to scratch on a few areas, you will be far more effective leader by being yourself, and then working at improving you, than what you will ever be trying to be someone else.

2. Developing a philosophy of leadership

Philosophy of leadership is a set of rules, guidelines, positions or beliefs that have been identified or created that provides the foundations of the leadership style.

This is all about you and who you are as a leader. What you are about, what you stand for, what you are prepared to stand up against.

These are insights of you that need to be defined, outlined, understood and evaluated.

Defined in as far as what are the qualities, values and standards that make up your style and philosophy as a leader?

Outlined so that you know each area and what is the rationale behind each aspect. Understood so that you truly know them front to back and all points in between.

Evaluated in that you look at what you have. How it works for the situation you are involved with? Then from that evaluation what you go forward with. What needs to be changed? What needs to be removed and what needs to be added?

All of this allows you to know you as a leader and through this how you will do what you do and in doing so, allow those you lead to know and understand you as a leader.

It is not important that these ideas are not original, but is it is important that they are seen as a reflection of you and that you do have a strong belief in them and an ownership of the values they represent.

Because without doubt the single biggest mistake that people in a position of influence make is that they are not being themselves. People can see that this is not truly them. Then automatically your ability to influence and lead is reduced

So in creating this personal philosophy of leadership, it is important to create your own, but you can use a variety of influences from other people etc to help you develop and refine your philosophy.

However, it is imperative though that you really think through each and every aspect of your leadership philosophy. As your philosophy should be a reflection of you, what you stand for, and where you are heading.

Once your philosophy of leadership has been determined and you start through your communication, your actions and your expectations to put it out in the public domain, it is imperative that you do not do anything that compromises that philosophy or causes confusion to the people you are leading.

Your philosophy will bring a consistency of approach to those you lead.

Your philosophy of leadership can and should overview a variety of areas and standards. But they should represent key areas of relevance to your particular leadership style and situation.

Here is just a small sample of aspects to consider in your Philosophy of Leadership:

• Leadership by commitment or coercion
• Standards
• Behaviour
• Ethics
• Values
• Flexibility
• Compromise
• Discipline
• Teaching
• Communication
• Recognition and rewards
• Responsibility and accountability

3. Observation, Awareness and understanding

One of the great insights I received into effective coaching/leadership came from one of my mentors, Bill Sweetenham, the then (1988) Head Coach of Swimming at the Australian Institute of Sport.

It was one of those days where I was getting taught a number of very valuable lessons and insight and as part of the conversation that I asked Bill “What are some of the attributes of a great coach”

His reply was:

“Everybody sees but very few observe”

It is something that I have never forgotten and after doing what I have for the past twenty-five years, I can truly vouch for the significance of this statement.

In my experiences, the truly effective leaders that I have come across have the desire and ability to be an observer of life. Not just as it relates to their profession, but to all things that are going on.

I suppose the second step of this skill is that through this heightened levels of observation, awareness and understanding, the effective leader knows what is relevant, what to act on, what to leave alone and what to store for safe keeping.

Take a minute if you will and think about the truly great leaders you recognise and acknowledge.

Now that you have that image in your mind start to think about their powers of observation, understanding and awareness.

Now as you start to see these attributes, it is almost like these leaders are super human:
• They can hear better
• They can see better
• They are always one step ahead of where they need to be
• And two steps ahead of everyone else

These things don’t just happen by chance though, the effective leader works hard at going about their day to day routines but at the same time, they are observing all that is going on around them. They practice the skill of increased observation everyday.

Let’s look at some of the areas you should be having an awareness of:

• Where you are heading and why?
• What needs to be done to get you there?
• Where you are at any given time in relation to those goals?
• What changes need to be addressed and why?
• What is the best way v easiest way to implement change?
• Awareness of when things should or should not be done.
• What are the levels of competition?
• What are the opposition doing and why?
• Is what the opposition doing, working?

And of course some the most important observations are related to the people that you lead:

• What do the team members want from the leader, the business, the opportunity and also from life?
• Where is the team at any given time, both individually and collectively?
• Where is each team member in regard to their goals and the process required to achieve them?

I often get asked “How far should I go in getting to know and understanding the people I lead?” My answer is always the same “How successful do you want them to be?”.

The more you know about them, the better position you will be in to be able to help them get to where they need to be.

It is not just a case of being aware, but being able to effectively act upon the information that you have.

Otherwise, awareness becomes a leadership weakness as opposed to a strength.

Really knowing and understanding the people you lead is a significant aspect of effective leadership.

• Knowing their wants and needs
• Knowing their goals and aspirations
• Knowing their circles of influence
• Knowing their motivators
• Knowing their de-motivators
• Knowing their likes and dislikes
• Knowing their energy cycles

All of this and so much more, can come about without asking them one single question. It can all be gained from your observations and levels of awareness.

A lot of this is at the micro-level, but what about at the macro level? What differences exist within the people you lead that can and will influence who they are, what they do, and how they do it?

This macro level of observation and understanding is another level that you as a leader need to know, and know well.

What are the differences between?

• Male and Female
• Young and Old
• Experienced and Inexperienced
• Front Office and Back Office
• Baby Boomers v Generation X v Generation Y
• Morning people v Evening people
• Leaders v Followers
• Doers v Thinkers
• Talkers v Listeners
• Individuals v Team Players
• Strategic v Unstructured

On one side you are The Teacher, you are The Leader, you are The Coach: You help people see opportunity; you teach people skill; you provide them with experience; you increase their ability and their confidence.

But on the other side, you are The Student: The Student of the people you lead.

They teach you about how they think, what they believe, why they do the things they do, and where their levels of confidence and belief are at.

They will show you what they are going to do in the future, by what they have done in the past.
You will take them forward and do a great job simply by what you know. However, you will take them a lot further and a lot higher when you know them, what they know, what they believe and what they want.

Observation and understanding is one thing. But where appropriate take action on what you observe and see.

“They know what’s going on but they don’t do anything about it”-Sound familiar?

4. Communication

Effective communication is one of the keys to quality leadership.

Effective communication takes on various forms depending upon the individual, circumstance, timeline, venue, mindset etc

One of its most important aspects is to say what you mean and mean what you say, while at the same time, not offending anyone or leaving things open to individual interpretation.

As a leader and, therefore, a communicator, you need to think about what you say and how you say it, and then how that communication is therefore being received and interpreted.

Ideally, you want your communication to be understood in the way you believe it should. Anything less than this, can lead to confusion and in some cases, hardship for all concerned.

The reality is that there is no advantage in saying one thing and having it heard, thought about and acted upon in a totally different way.

The other aspect to consider is how your previous communication and/or actions are going to influence the way people interpret your current communication.

Has what you have said and done in the past, positioned people to read or interpret in a certain way a difference between what you have said and what they think you are really saying?

Leadership communication is not just about telling someone what he or she should do or how he or she should do it. The true art of effective communication is an integral aspect towards and part of effective leadership.

The desire to find and execute the best form of communication as opposed to the easiest is a challenge that sits before all leaders. Yes, communication these days with the advent of e-mails, voice mail, text messages etc can be done very easily, but this is a long way from necessarily being effective.

Great Leaders want to embrace and engage those that they lead through effective, insightful and relevant communication.

But to be honest with you, everyone that I have ever seen become successful in any aspect of life, has been an excellent communicator.

Excellent communicators become involved in the process. They make sure that the message they are trying to convey is well understood by the person to whom they are directing their communication.

Likewise though, they want to understand what the person they are communicating with is trying to say. They listen, they question, they comment, and they make sure they understand.

There is no covert communication. The people they communicate with find the experience easy and, depending on the situation, enjoyable and enlightening.

The excellent communicators body language and facial expressions show the people around them that they are listening to what they have to say.

They are careful not to interrupt. They listen to understand as opposed to listening so they can make their next statement of support or rebuttal.

They engage the people they are with, both through their sincerity and through their commitment to the process of communication.

It is this type of skill, commitment and preparedness that will go a long way to helping you in everyday leadership situations.

Improving your ability to effectively communicate will help you in so many ways, on so many days that I could not even begin to highlight them all for you. Without doubt, working to improve your ability to effectively communicate is a required discipline.

However, the beauty of this discipline is that the outcomes it delivers, not only benefit you, but will benefit everyone you come into contact with.

From a personal perspective, I almost always try to use face to face communication and this probably comes from my experiences as a swimming coach where each and everyday you would have somewhere between 4 -7 hours face to face contact with the swimmers.

You had the opportunity to watch them in many different ways and in many different environments. These opportunities were vital in developing an understanding of each and every one of the people I was working with. However, it was also this experience that made me realise at times there were more effective ways of communicating.

The advantages of face-to-face communication are that you get a chance to see how the recipient takes in the information. You have the opportunity to witness first hand their reaction. If you are on the receiving end of the interaction, face-to-face communication allows you to see the emotion that is associated with the information that you are receiving. You will be able to read the signs. Is what I am being told the truth? Is the person really positive about this situation? Have they got a passion and commitment to what it is they are telling me?

As said earlier, I have also seen that at times face-to-face communication can stifle the communication process. Some people are completely uneasy about discussing certain issues face to face. They are far more at ease and more likely to open up and participate fully when the communication process is done in another manner.

Sometimes a phone call will alleviate some of this apprehension and the communication process can be beneficial to both parties. However, there will be situations where a phone conversation is too personal and one party still feels totally uneasy in this type of situation.

When this type of situation occurs, you will need to resort to another method of communication. The use of mail, fax e-mail etc all come into play here as well as your understanding of what you require from the communication process, answers, expediency, information, relationship-building opportunities.

The success of your communication is not entirely based on what it is you have to say. It is based on the information being presented, the manner in which it is presented, the opportunity for the recipient to receive it in the correct manner, the strength of the communication, so that the recipient understands the significance of the communication.

As you can see the art of effective communication is all about how the recipient reacts to the information presented. Therefore, the manner in which it is presented is vital for the success of the information being fully digested and acted upon.

So before you continue to be frustrated by the fact that you never get a reply or response to some of your communication, ask yourself: “Am I using the best form of communication with this person?”

“Are they comfortable in receiving it in this form? Is it convenient for them to receive this type of communication? Does this type of communication fit in with their day-to-day activity or lifestyle?”

Although these questions seem to make the communication more arduous than it probably needs to be, it is all about discovering the best form of communication for each and every opportunity that you create.

Therefore your focus and priority as an effective communicator is not going to be the most convenient method of communication. It is going to be about the best method of communication.

As a leader, your communication focus should be all about effective communication. That is; developing rapport with the people you lead, understanding them and where they are coming from and when appropriate acting upon the information you receive and if you do this for them, I am quite sure the will respond in exactly the same manner.

The Journey Continues!