THE CLEARING | HIGH PERFORMANCE LEADERSHIP 1

HIGH PERFORMANCE LEADERSHIP:

SKILLS YOU NEED TO SUCCEED & CRITICAL MISTAKES TO AVOID

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Definition of a Leader.......................................................................................4

Why is Effective Leadership So Important .............................................................5

By the Numbers: The Impact of Leadership on the Organization..........................6

7 Leadership Pitfalls to Avoid...................................................................................9

The Connection Between Leadership and Culture...............................................11

7 Skills Effective Leaders Should Master...............................................................13

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Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

- Warren Bennis

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Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality by inspiring others to action. This action must be coordinated – and is only possible when leaders publicly share their vision so that others may follow. A true leader rallies people around a shared perspective of the here and now – or current environment – and garners support for why it is impossible for them to remain there.

Then, he or she compels people to adopt a shared intent for the future vision – one in which everyone can see their part. The best leaders understand that translating a vision into reality requires support from others – and that flying solo will never produce extraordinary or sustainable results.

Take a moment and think about someone who you regard as an amazing leader. What are their qualities? What do they embody? What is so captivating about them? Certainly, what comes to mind isn’t something ordinary.

The Definition of a Leader

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InertiaThe organization has set a goal, but is not making progress toward it.

Cultural IncongruenceA difference exists between the culture you promote and the culture your employees and customers experience.

Tenure and TurnoverThe organization is having trouble attracting and retaining top talent.

Succession Planning RiskA leadership or management change is looming and you lack the next generation of leaders and managers.

Low PerformanceResults from the organization’s initiatives are not living up to targets and are not leading the organization toward the future vision.

ParalysisThe organization is stuck in the face of thorny, seemingly intractable problems or is clinging to the status quo.

Effective leadership can help lead people and organizations overcome

Why is Effective Leadership So Important

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The best leaders understand that middle managers are key to leading an organization toward its goals and vision. When middle managers aren’t bought into a vision and the strategy to get there, the entire organization will experience fragmentation. Middle managers who understand, are bought into, and participate

in the organization’s path toward the vision are better equipped to bring employees along with them. Employees whose direct supervisors are fully immersed in supporting the organization’s strategy are more likely to see where they fit into and can support organizational goals and initiatives.

Over 70% of the workforce reports to mid-level managers, not the C-Suite, according to a Gallup study.

By the Numbers: The Impact of Leadership on the Organization

70%of the workforce reports to mid-level managers

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according to Zenger Folkman Database. Often, highly competent employees are promoted into leadership positions they are not prepared to handle. This can severely impact any chance of success and the organization will run the risk of losing good employees as a result of an ill-equipped leader. Numerous studies have shown that employees want and need more coaching,

mentoring, and training from either internal or external resources. Training, development, and mentoring programs can increase employee engagement, performance, and job satisfaction and these types of programs will help your organization develop current and future leaders.

The average age someone first holds a leadership position is 33, yet most don’t receive any type of leadership training or development until age 42,

Leaders, no matter how experienced, struggle with how best to prioritize their time. Much of their time is spent in meetings and managing people. Leaders need to be able to delegate tasks to their staff. Not only will this empower employees to take ownership of their work and ideas, it will allow leaders to focus on activities

that will help the organization achieve its vision. Another common contributing factor to this statistic, is meetings. Various studies have shown that the higher-ranking your position, the more time you will spend in meetings. Leaders should break this cycle and only attend meetings that require their presence.

80% of top management’s time is devoted to issues that account for less than 20% of a company’s long-term value.

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80%80%of top management’s time

of a company’s long-term value

Average age of first leadership position:

<20%

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Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.

- Sam Walton

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Insulating yourself from your team Senior leaders in high positions run the risk of information vacuums and partial-truths. Consider what you can do to garner trust and keep your finger on the pulse of the organization. Open lines of communication between the senior leadership team and middle management – along with outlets for employee and customer feedback – will help build trust and an understanding of reality.

Trying to do too muchLeaders who promise everything and try to take on everything at once often achieve little success. The best leaders identify the fewest, most critical initiatives to take on at the moment. They identify specific, near-term deadlines, and enroll others to support. Short sprints can help leaders and their supporters claim early successes and get others onboard for force-multiplying effect.

Not celebrating wins and milestones Leaders who do not take the time regularly to acknowledge others and reflect on recent successes risk losing critical supporters. Once the group has achieved near-term outcomes, leaders should recognize the team’s growth and development, acknowledge high performers, and celebrate the success of the group.

Failing to communicate expectations In fast-paced strategy work, as leaders enroll others and delegate responsibilities for the work of achieving the vision, it is easy to forget to have clear conversations about expectations. If you are a new leader, do you clearly understand your own expectations of others? Take the time to communicate your expectations for the people and groups in the organization you are leading, and be open to dialogue about expectations and desired outcomes.

7 Leadership Pitfalls to Avoid

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Trying to lead everyone the same way A common mistake of emerging leaders is treating everyone the same and overlooking the diversity of individuals and groups in an organization. Successful leaders can modify their leadership approach and style given the motivations, learning style, and roles or functions of others. For example, some individuals may be motivated and inspired by the opportunity to support something they truly believe in (these people are motivated by the “HEART”), others may want to understand the logic or rationale for supporting an initiative (motivated by the “HEAD”), and still others may want to know financial returns or return on investment metrics (motivated by the “WALLET”). Think about your employees and customers: what is at stake for them as it relates to your vision? How might you modify their style and approach to get them onboard?

Trying to lead through consensus Trying to manage a process where the only definition of success is that “everyone agrees on everything” is often a recipe for failure.

Leaders who have gone down this path have likely experienced group paralysis and seen few results. We’ve learned that people can live with an outcome they don’t like if they understand the decision-making process, believe the process was fair, and felt heard along the way.

Expecting high-performing employees to be qualified leaders Are you familiar with this scenario: a highly skilled, technically competent employee is promoted into a management or leadership position and fails miserably?

A common mistake within organizations is promoting high performers into leadership positions without assessing their leadership skills and giving them the tools, mentoring, and training to develop those skills. If you are looking to grow the next generation of leaders in your organization, be clear about your expectations of what it means to lead, and give them the tools and support to succeed.

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Modeling desired organizational culture is the responsibility of leadership. Culture exists in every organization - and it plays into the organization’s performance. Powerful cultures are explicit and intentional and members are empowered to say, “This is how we do things.” Organizations that are intentional, active, and explicit about their culture are most effective at driving desired performance and employee satisfaction. An intentional culture relies on known, shared principles and values to guide decision-making and action steps.

Some organizations choose to be more passive and allow their culture to evolve into a default culture. In a default culture, when the organization undertakes transformation and threatens the status quo, leadership typically first looks to institute new policies

and codify rules to enact the change. This often manifests in the attempt to design a culture using a formal system of policies and rules that requires inspection, verification, and enforcement by outside entities. This can result in costly checks and balances in the system as the cultural “status quo” resists, which reduces organizational effectiveness and distracts from the main mission. A culture built upon policies and rules is rarely as powerful as an intentional culture founded on aligned principles, values, and agreed-upon norms.

Leaders who understand that cultures cannot be built on policies and rules alone - but on the reinforcement of shared values and behaviors - can be highly successful in enacting meaningful organizational change and in mobilizing people to drive success.

The Connection Between Leadership and Culture

Organizational culture, leadership, performance, and job satisfaction are all inextricably linked. Many leaders float around ideas on how to improve culture, but few develop a strategy to truly change a culture.

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Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire team-mates and customers.

- Robin S. Sharma

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Integrity Choosing to live in integrity is the greatest commitment a leader can make and is essential for effective leadership. Most good leaders want to be perceived as approachable, involved, and respectful of people’s ideas and requests. The temptation to say “yes” can be overwhelming and to say “no” seems counterintuitive.

We define integrity as following through EVERY TIME on your “yes.” Just one instance where you do not follow through is an integrity breach.

Even when you wish to say “yes,” learn to say “no” if you are not certain that you can fulfill a commitment. If you continue to say “yes” to everyone, you’ll discover that people care more about whether you keep your word than whether you’re approachable. Learn to say “yes” only when you mean it.

Problem Solving Leaders tend to have a “default” style of decision-making. Some are more comfortable making Command and Control decisions, while others prefer Collaboration. The most effective leaders are skilled at matching their decision process to each situation.

There are four primary decision-making processes every leader should master.

▪ Command and Control – Use this leadership style when the situation is urgent and the stakes are high. For instance, someone must take Command and Control to evacuate a building on fire. In this scenario, the leader makes a decision based on his or her judgment in the moment.

7 Skills Effective Leaders Should Master

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▪ I nformed Command and Control – This leadership style works well in situations that are still urgent, but where the stakes are lower, such as when a company requires a meeting venue and reservations must be made within hours. In this instance, the leader takes informed recommendations from an employee before making a decision.

▪ Limited Consensus – Use this style forlow-stakes strategic planning, such as choosing between competing but similar employee health insurance plans. In this scenario, the leader may ask a group to come to consensus on a recommendation before making the final decision.

▪ Consensus – Adopt this style for high stakes strategic planning and visioning, like creating a five-year plan for taking a new company into the marketplace. In this instance, the leader adopts the path ahead based on the group’s consensus.

Command and Control is preferred when time is short and any decision made fast is better than a perfect one made too late. Using Command and Control should be a rare occurrence.

Consensus is most appropriate for strategic planning, and exploring innovations and breakthrough ideas. Ineffective leaders often overuse consensus decision-making, relying on it even when situations necessitate rapid Command and Control decisions.

Time ManagementIn today’s busy world full of competing priorities, it’s easy to get caught up IN your daily work, but as a leader it’s paramount to spend adequate time focusing ON your organization. When working IN your organization, you essentially operate it. When you work ON your organization, your activities either change or transform it; you bring forth new ways for the organization to operate and produce extraordinary results in the market.

Every leader must spend some time working IN the business, making sure the work gets done, people stay on task and decisions are made that move the organization forward. But too many people get stuck there and don’t devote enough energy to working ON the business, looking for patterns that hinder growth and developing solutions.

Failing to recognize the distinction between IN and ON – and mismanaging the critical allocation of time and attention to each – is the number one reason change or transformation efforts fail. Conversely, mastering the IN — ON paradigm may be the most important way to drive successful change, create the future, and produce extraordinary results.

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Strategic Thinking Many leaders find it difficult to achieve the right balance of strategic thinking to plan for the long term (months and years) and tactical thinking that satisfies the “here and now” (days and weeks). Groups that spend too much time in strategic versus tactical thinking can fail to achieve results.

Conversely, organizations that spend too much time in tactical thinking may achieve a lot with little impact. In order to enable employees to be self-motivated and driven toward a common outcome, leaders have to provide realistic expectations with a compelling, clear vision to work toward.

Inspiring ActionOne of the strongest indicators of an effective leader is the ability to inspire and motivate staff. Leaders must find the right balance between setting out clear ideas about the future as the

leader, and allowing for space for management and employees to contribute to the vision and strategy. People resist completeness. Great leaders bring just enough vision to move and inspire people. The greatest visions are inspiring and empowering because they’re incomplete. As people see openings to contribute to the vision, they will be more likely to get onboard.

As a leader, present your vision and invite others to contribute their ideas to fill in the gaps. In so doing, people will develop a deep sense of ownership in what they help to create and may also feel a greater sense of commitment and loyalty to you as the leader.

The bottom line: Mutual ownership of the vision increases the probability of its success.

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Self-awareness/ Emotional IntelligencePeople with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70 percent of the time. What’s the key differentiator? The distinguishing factor is emotional intelligence. Sometimes called EQ, emotional intelligence is generally defined as the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others to accomplish tasks.

Leaders with high EQs are more relatable, can better understand and empathize with their employee and customer experiences. These leaders are also more in tune to social and emotional dynamics of organizational processes and culture. Knowing and understanding these factors can greatly impact success.

Active Listening Employees and customers want to be heard, understood, and valued. Leaders who understand this also understand the merit of active listening.

Active listening is not simply about hearing the words that are said; it is about being truly present in a situation and hearing and seeing the verbal and non-verbal expressions from others. Non-verbal cues, such as facial expressions and body language, can tell a leader much more about a situation than the spoken word. Cues may reveal if a person is angry, anxious, happy, or even excited. Perhaps an employee is eager to move forward or anxious about an unstated risk.

Leaders who practice active listening can better relate to others, can form deeper, richer relationships, and can make decisions based on a variety of information and cues, rather than simply what is apparent on the surface.

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Contact Us

The Clearing, Inc.

1250 Connecticut Ave. NW, Ste. 625

Washington, DC 20036

www.theclearing.com

www.theprimes.com

www.meetingprimes.com

To learn more about The Clearing and how we can help you tackle your leadership challenges, visit www.theclearing.com

Nick Srebrow

nick.srebrow@theclearing.com

202.558.6499