Effective Leadership

Leadership and Organisational

Development
ADM 403
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 Objectives
• To gain a good understanding of effective leadership

• To appreciate the components of effective leadership

• To understand the role of EI in effective leadership qualities

• To gain in-depth knowledge on effective leadership

development
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 Effective Leadership Cont’d
• “Everything rises and falls on leadership” (Maxwell, 2013)

• Leadership is a direct function of three elements:

Awareness

Ability

Commitment
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 Awareness
• Awareness is a state of consciousness

• It is the ability to recognise yourself, others, events and

situations in real time

• The capacity to assess the impact of actions on situations and

others, and be critically self-reflective

• It is a development process that entails experience,

communication, self discovery and feedback 4
 Ability
• Ability to learn and understand technical issues is the basis of
our careers or career development

• Ability to lead is a function of influence:

Ability to communicate
Ability to resolve conflicts
Ability to solve problems and make decisions

• As a member of a team, we influence others in a collaborative

effort to find better ideas or solve problems 5
 Commitment
• For leaders, “one thing” that leads to maturity is the complete
awareness that one’s decisions make a difference, both
positively and/or negatively, in the lives of others
Any attempt to make a decision by leaders can have
intended and unintended consequences on employees

• In no-win scenarios, a decision may still have to be made by

leaders
Refusing to sit supinely (sitting and folding arms)

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Effective Leadership Cont’d

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 Effective Leadership Cont’d
• Effective leadership is one of most essential parts of the overall method for an
organisation to sustain their business in the face of problems caused by the rapid
growth of the economic environment

• If there is no effective leadership in an organisation no changes will be made,

because there are no leaders that can motivate and lead the organisation’s
employees as well as provide a clear direction for the organisation (Atkinson, 2015)

• Effective leadership plays an important role in managing a business in the current

business environment, for the old ways of business management are not enough to
sustain a company in the modern market

• Effective leadership is the best way for change management but they are not always
perfect solutions 8
 Effective Leadership Cont’d
• Effective leadership is essential in managing change and change
is the only method to sustain the organisation in the current
business environment

• As usual, change is hard for people, people will feel

uncomfortable because of change and even sometimes deny the
change, want to continue as they are or be eliminated by the
society
Therefore, leadership can be a factor to motivate and
encourage employees or people to continuously make change
and push them to change 9
 Effective Leadership Cont’d
• During the last two decades, interpersonal skills have become more integral to effective
leadership (Goleman, 1998)

• One variable that has gained much popularity as a potential or underlying attribute of
effective leadership is the construct of Emotional Intelligence (EI) (Sosik & Megerian,
1999)

• EI is described as a set of abilities that refer in part to how effectively one deals with
emotions both within oneself and others (Salovey & Mayer, 1990)

• Today’s effective leadership skills have been described to depend, in part, on the
understanding of emotions and the abilities associated with EI

• Increasingly, social intelligence is gaining relevance as one of the influencers of effective

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 Skills of EI

Intellectual Skills Interpersonal Skills

Personal Skills Practical Skills

• In most organisational contexts, transformational as compared to

transactional leadership, is considered a more effective leadership style
and is consistently found to promote greater organisational performance
(Lowe & Kroeck, 1996) 11
 Effective Leadership Qualities
• They are honest
• They do what they say they will do
• They make sure their actions are consistent with the wishes of the
people they lead
• They admit their mistakes
• They believe in the inherent self worth of others
• They create a trusting and open climate
• They help others to be successful and to feel empowered
• They do not push too much
• They avoid phrases that cause resentment, reluctance and resistance
• The role up their sleeves 12
 Leadership as a form of Feedback
• Silence
Silence of leaders serves a form of feedback for employees

• Criticism
Offering constructive criticism to employees is a form of feedback

• Advice
This is offered before a task or function is performed by employees
It provides encouragement

• Positive reinforcement
This is provided after a task or function is undertaken by employees 13
 Key Considerations for Effective Leadership
• Trust
Enron and mortgage market crises in the US
Issues of trust become relevant after the crises

• Organisational Culture
Organisational culture influences effective leadership

• Learning
The 3 Ls (Life-Long Learning)

• Teamwork

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Steps to Effective Leadership Development
1) Determine the best leadership style for your organisation
Type of work
The complexity of the organisation
The qualifications of the followers
Get to know employees better
Psychological and behavioural assessments
Understand the culture better
Diverse stakeholders
Ensure organisational fit (poor organisational fit is one of the
main causes of failure)
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 Effective Leadership Dev’t Cont’d
2) Identify current and potential leaders within the organisation
Leadership programme is needed to identify the expected
leadership skills and competencies
Competence models can be used to identify leadership potential
during performance reviews and career counselling sessions
It is imperative to define success measurements and build them
into performance management system(s)
This can assist in evaluation criteria from must-know and
must-demonstrate perspective
Leaders can be identified internally or externally
Relative costs
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 Internally Sourced Leadership
• Sourced through performance management
i.e. 360-degree assessment or feedback
Performance versus potential
Succession planning and career planning are also a key part of the performance
management

• Advantages of internal sourcing

Productivity
Cost of training
Relatively less timeframe for orientation

• Disadvantages
Complacency
Less new ideas 17
 Externally Sourced Leadership
• Recruitment
Online pre-assessment and full assessment

Traditional formal assessment or testing is not generally

used for senior-level executives but can be useful for future
rising stars during campus recruitment, management training,
or leadership development programme

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 Identify Leadership Gaps
3) The identification of leadership gaps: it is an assessment of
both the individuals and the readiness of the organisation
• Guidelines:
Determine current and future leadership requirements
Compare those requirements with the current leadership
team
Identify current leaders who may be at risk of leaving
Identify succession plans for those at risk of leaving or
planning to leave
Look at the leadership development pipeline
Identify gaps in skills and the time required to fill those gaps
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 Develop Succession Plans for Critical Roles
4) Develop a Succession plan
• Why a succession plan?
A succession plan is relevant for productivity

Succession planning avoids disruption and employee trauma when

the leader leaves, whether the departure is anticipated or not

As part of the leadership programme, leadership roles should be

critically evaluated throughout the organisation
“Enduring organisations”-organisations that survive and prosper
over long periods as a result of their ability to execute succession
leadership practices across all levels of the organisation 20
 Develop Career Planning Goals for Potential Leaders
5) Develop Career Planning Goals
• Career planning used to be considered the responsibility of an
individual
• Recent evidence suggests that organisations that support career
planning for their employees achieve retention, engagement,
and protection of the leadership pipeline
• If organisations do not provide employees with career planning
and advancement opportunities, their competitors will
• Self-service career planning can help organisations to motivate
and retain talent, by empowering employees to view a career
plan and generate their own within the organisation 21
 Career Planning Goals Cont’d
• Combining employee development with career planning enables
employees not only to explore potential career paths but also to
monitor progress through the development activities necessary
to attain them

• Competencies can then be tied to relevant development

activities, thereby incorporating development planning right
into the performance review process, which supports career
development and succession planning

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 Develop a Skills Roadmap for Future Leaders
6) Develop a Skills Roadmap for future leaders
• After identifying high-potential employees, a skills roadmap
should be developed for future leaders

• Because people learn and develop new skills both inside and
outside the classroom, a development programme needs to align
both codified and tacit learning experiences

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 Develop Retention Programmes for
Current and Future Leaders
7) Develop Retention Programmes for Leaders
• Monetary as well as nonmonetary rewards can be used to improve the
retention of any employee, but particular attention needs to be paid to high
performers and future leaders
Linking pay to performance can be a motivator for an employee, but goal
alignment helps potential leaders to stay focused on what is important to
the company

• Another way to retain and motivate future leaders is to involve them in the
decision-making process
This helps in understanding the mission, values, and goals of the
organisation as well as how they (employees) can contribute to success
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 Ineffective Leadership
• Inability to motivate people
• Difficulty in attracting/retaining the right people
• Low productivity
• Poor customer orientation
• High stress
• Isolation
• Declining profits

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 Ineffective Leadership Cont’d
• Ineffective delegation
• Lack of creativity
• Lack of initiative
• Ineffective teams
• Poor communications
• Lack of vision
• Diminishing revenues

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The End

Thank You

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