Leader Development in Tough Times?

by Rod Hanna — Principal, Merit Resource Group, and
Brent Green, Ph.D. — O.D. and Leadership Performance Coach, Merit Resource Group

The pressure on business decision-makers and leaders in this economy is unparalleled. Making the right decisions that ensure near-term survival and long-term success as well as demonstrating the leadership abilities necessary to guide and inspire people to follow, are paramount.

Leadership and the decisions leaders make to position your company for future opportunities are probably the most important influencers of where your business will end up once the economy improves. You will either be prepared to take advantage of better times or you won't.

"Evidence-based management" is a term heard in a growing number of circles today, talking explicitly about making better business decisions based on solid evidence from research. An offshoot technique of the quality movement, the "evidence-based" approach applies equally well for developing customized leadership development plans for individuals and teams across organizations.

Not New But Applicable Today

The terminology "evidence-based' is not new as we have just cited, and neither are the pro and con arguments that have waged for years around the use of 360-degree feedback and its efficacy for guiding leadership development.

Often missing however in debates about the value of this tool in creating meaningful leadership development programs are the actual "evidence-based" comparisons of pre- and post-assessment organizational performance measures.

When properly gathered and analyzed, confidential input (or evidence if you will) from a leader's direct reports, peers, boss, self-report input, and sometimes input from external customers, provides the foundation for designing specific, improvement action plans in areas identified as key to an individual's or organization's development.

Targeted learning, supported and tracked by the organization with accountabilities identified for both the participants and those overseeing the development, next must be re-assessed after reasonable time has elapsed for new results from new performance levels to be realized.

Merit Resource Group colleague and leadership performance coach, Dr. Brent Green, in published research^[1], describes the impact of 360-degree feedback on multiple levels of leaders in organizations across six different industries. He analyzed CEOs and their VP team members over several years and produced evidence-based results that apply directly to today's difficult economy and business climate.

Dr. Green's research found that managing the proper selection of talent during a downsizing or a restructure, building learning and development plans, and/or integrating new team members requires solid leadership competencies if a business is to be successful.

Developing a strategic plan, executing it, and being nimble in the face of daily marketplace changes are critical capabilities necessary for high levels of business performance and success. Assessing your teams' strengths in these areas is a good first step to building these capabilities in your organization.

Dr. Green's research, originally reported in the global OD Journal (ODI), on the long-term results from effectively implemented, confidential 360-degree feedback, reveals valuable qualitative and quantitative outcomes. In terms of the behavioral results, senior leaders who took part in the pre- and post-process measurements in the study had insightful statements about the value created. A sample of their statements follows; statements are classified under three metric areas (Self-Change/Development, Team Development, Enterprise-Wide Development).

Qualitative Outcomes — Behavioral

Self-Change/Development:

• "The process motivated me, gave me permission to be more directive, especially with balanced feedback to my direct reports."
• "I'm more self-aware about my impact on others. As a result I'm careful not to dismiss others' input in the face of my own ideas."
• "Your 360 report acts as a guide for me"

Team-Development:

• "The 360 process improved our team's thinking; we're more like entrepreneurs now."
• "We now have a senior manager rep sitting on the executive team which improves communication up-and-down our business."
• "I now use milestones with the team to improve accountability."

Enterprise-Wide Development

• "Awareness of (talent) gaps allowed me to create a game plan around the mix of executive talent I need."
• "Line employees are more engaged since they now know VPs/managers are under scrutiny".
• "I've taken your advice and written two job descriptions for senior level new hires to help redesign the organization.

Quantitative Outcomes

In a second study^[2] by Dr. Green, a private sector, global, medical device manufacturer reported improved operating income, sales, and improved market share as successful outcomes from an effectively implemented 360-degree feedback process and action plan. These organization effectiveness measures were part of a pre- and post-assessment of leadership development efforts over a five- year period.

Added Retention Value In A Struggling Economy

Regardless of economic climate, an executive team's successful execution of its team function depends on talent and capabilities. Assessing leader competencies, then building and implementing learning plans to fill in a balance of skill gaps and/or reinforce strengths will develop strong leaders and teams. That being done the result will be greater business success.

As an added value the 360-degree learning process promotes job retention and satisfaction especially in economic times such as we face today. This result from open communications during the process is active demonstration of the value a company places on employee/leader development. The enterprise at large 'sees' that continuous learning, and the creation of high-performance teams are valued. Usually this is a cultural shift resulting in better efficiency, and customer satisfaction as well. In the end that's what successful leadership development is all about!

Great advances even break-through thinking and new product developments are often spawned in difficult environments such as we face today. Preparing leaders to be more effective, and teams more collaborative and efficient, ultimately inspires the kind of breakthrough performance demonstrated above. Often this preparation is a strategic first step that can be undertaken even in today's economic climate.

As always we welcome your comments. You may contact Dr. Green for more details on his research or to request a copy of his published reports.

REH

1) "Listening to Leaders: Feedback on 360-degree Feedback One Year Later", by Brent Green, Ph.D., OD Journal, a publication of the global Organization Development Institute. Back to Article

2) "The Conduct of Due Diligence on Leader Talent", by Franco L. Vicino, Ph.D. & Brent Green, Ph.D., OD Network Journal, a publication of the National Organization Development Network. Back to Article