Management, Leadership & Change (MLC):Leadership Assessment & DevelopmentBA (Hons) Business Level 6

Janette Bradnick/Ratnes Alahakone

Learning Outcomes

•By the end of this session, students should be able to:

•Explain the current thinking with regard to the assessment & development of leadership

•List the types of interventions and approaches used by organisations

• Identify the criticisms levelled at current approaches

•Explain the barriers to effective leadership development

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‘It is not a matter of whether leaders are born or made.

They are born and made.’

Jay Conger (2004)

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The Assessment and Development of Leadership: Overview 1• ‘Are leaders born or made?’ Discussed ever

since Plato raised it nearly 2,500 years ago•The issue today is the relative contributions of

genetics and environment, with implications for selection and training

•Leaders develop in part through early influences in life and work

•Competency models are a common basis for leadership assessment, training and development

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The Assessment and Development of Leadership: Overview 2•Competencies are knowledge, skills and personal

characteristics associated with effective leadership•Examples of useful assessment practices are

leadership assessment centres and diagnostic questionnaires

•Effective leadership development practice entails linking an intelligent, integrated, comprehensive strategy to the organization’s vision, purpose and core values

•Effective leadership development also focuses on specific desired leadership behaviour

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The Assessment and Development of Leadership: Overview 3

• Barriers to leadership development are mostly personal but also due to organizational culture or politics

• Personal barriers can be removed or reduced by using psychological principles and experiential learning: self-awareness is the starting point

• Several considerations and principles are involved in designing and conducting effective leadership development programmes

• Validated results from leadership development programmes show that leadership is not only partly genetically determined but also developed through learning

• Leadership education & development have become a huge industry

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Are Leaders Born or Made?• ‘Are leaders born or made?’ Discussed ever since Plato

raised it nearly 2,500 years ago• The issue today is the relative contributions of genetics

and environment, with implications for selection and training

• Studies show 30-60% contribution of genetics to variations in leadership

• Opportunity and experience early in life contributes to leadership development significantly

• Leadership clearly can – and should – be developed: genes make leadership more or less likely but environment – in particular learning – enables leadership to develop

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So Leadership Can Be Learned & Developed but…•there is no single template of leadership

behaviour, and leadership is a process within the organisational context; so ▫how do you chose how to develop leaders and ▫how can organisations bring out the qualities

needed in their leaders?

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Also…

• “Leadership cannot be taught as a list of skills. Nor can it be bolted on to management development, as leadership is totally different and requires different thinking. Leadership potential is already in the individual and therefore requires recognition, development, growth and practice. A week’s training course will not achieve this – it requires much more” (Owen, 2001)

•Knowing what to do and how to do it is necessary but not sufficient; it requires willingness and practice

•Developing the leader is not effective in a vacuum; you need to create organisational structures and culture that enable effective leadership

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How much is done?• 78% of organisations report plans for LD activities in

the next 12 months and 13% didn’t know• No significant differences across sectors• Most common focus: producing a common standard of

behaviour as a part of changing organisational culture, then developing high-potential individuals as executives

• Nearly two-fifths of respondents report that inadequate training/lack of training affects the leadership capability of middle and front-line managers in their organisations and a fifth that it affects the leadership skills of the senior team.

(Cipd, 2014, Leadership & Development)

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What do organisations do?•Recruitment & selection: activities to attract

external candidates at any stage (graduate/experienced eg interviews, assessment centres, internships

•Talent Management: a wide range of activities designed to recruit, retain and develop talented individuals – with a focus on attracting external talent as well as nurturing internal talent eg Talent spotting; graduate programmes, leadership programmes

•Succession planning: identifying and developing potential future leaders or senior managers, as well as individuals to fill business-critical positions, either in the short- or the long-term.

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So how do organisations currently maximise leaders capability to lead?1. Select individuals with leadership capability often using competency models2. Identify development interventions eg.•Significant leadership challenge at an early age• Positive & Negative role models•Being thrown in at the deep end•Mentoring, coaching and consultant relationships•Experiential leadership development courses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdb42B1i8XY•MBA and professional qualifications•International or multicultural exposure•Voluntary and community work•Team sports

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Common approaches

•Leadership competencies, used to select, develop and assess leaders

•Assessment centres•Diagnostic questionnaires

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Leadership Competency Models• Competency models are a common basis for leadership

assessment, training and development(used by a majority of companies in the private sector and now also public sector)

• Competencies are knowledge, skills and personal characteristics associated with effective leadership, often with building blocks for development

• Competency models are subject to several criticisms but generic models do predict leadership behaviour; and the more specific the model, the better

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Leadership Competency Models•Several methods are used to develop leadership

competency models eg job analysis, critical incident technique, repertory grid techniques and the development of behavioural anchored rating scales.

•Generic leadership competency models exist, such as the EFQM model, and there are models for specific contexts, such as the Royal Navy Sea Command

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Activity

•Read the case study: Leadership Potential, Assessment and Development for Sea Command in the Royal Navy.

•Answer questions 1-4 in pairs; be prepared to argue your points

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Leadership Competency ModelsFor Against

• Rational approach• Can be used to develop

leadership programmes• Clear for leaders what they

need to develop• Can be linked to corporate

strategy

• Too complicated & conceptual• Too focused on the past/present

and not enough on the future• Too divorced from the

situation/context• => sets minimal standards of

leadership rather than standards of excellence

• Criticised in the NHS for reinforcing individualistic, ‘heroic’ approaches.

• Reductionist, universalist, traditional, behaviourist and functionalist (Bolden & Gosling)

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Assessment Centres for Leadership Potential and Development Needs• Assessment centres now used by over 90% of Fortune 500

companies• These are processes (not places) over 2-5 days that combine

multiple assessors, assessees and methods – psychometric assessments, individual presentations, interviews, simulation exercises such as role plays, group interaction tasks, email in-box exercises and in-basket exercises

• Use leadership competencies that either are generic or reflect specific needs resulting from research in the organization

• Psychometric reliability and validity – and hence assessment and prediction – can be very good

• Yet only 5% of organisations with talent management activities felt that assessment centres were effective (CIPD, 2014)

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A Typical Leadership Assessment Centre Programme (1 day programme for graduates /young talent)

09.30 Coffee10:00 Introductions and presentation by the employer10:30 Verbal and numerical reasoning tests11:15 Personality questionnaire12.00 Individual Task: Case Study/Role Play12:45 Lunch with managers and current employees13:30 Interviews14:30 Individual task: Presentation 15:30 Refreshments15:45 Group task: Case study exercise17:00 Debriefing17:30 Depart

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•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHTUjgpYRwc

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Activity•Look at the given competency model•Assess which competencies could be assessed by a

▫Group activity▫Individual presentation of case study analysis▫Psychometric test

• In a group:▫Complete the group exercise▫Individually assess your leadership competencies

using the assessment template▫Discuss as a group whether you believe the group

exercise is effective in identifying the competencies sought

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Diagnostic Questionnaires for Leadership Potential and Development Needs

•These are proprietary psychometric personality questionnaires and either proprietary or customized questionnaires based on one or more particular model(s) of leadership or set of leadership competencies

•Usually web-based, but also paper-based, and often using 360-degree assessment

•Diagnose organisational leadership development needs, provide individual feedback, enable programme evaluation, useful for leadership research

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A critique of current Leadership Assessment and Development• Individualistic: develop leaders not leadership• Conservative: old dressed as new in risk-averse training

industry• Elitist: rather than distributed• Technocratic: leadership turned into a set of

competencies• Business-focused not leadership focused: business

schools focus too much on the functions of business and not the experience of being a leader

• Gap between theory and practice: academics/trainers too distant from practice

• Add-ons: Central topics often taught as add-ons rather than integral to company strategy

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A critique of current Leadership Assessment and Development•Lack of coherent and effective strategies for

leadership assessment and development•Over-use of general theories of leadership

rather than specific leadership development needs

•Lack of managers’ leadership self-awareness•Lack of assessment of leadership needs•Lack of investment in leadership assessment

and development•Lack of evaluation of leadership development

programmes

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Yet…

•In 2008, according to a survey by DDI and The Economist Intelligence Unit. 55% of CEOs and senior leaders globally expected business performance to suffer in the near future due to a lack of leadership capability

•The DDI estimates that less than 10% of those who take part in leadership development programmes actually do anything to develop themselves.

• http://www.executiveboard.com/exbd/human-resources/succession-leadership-development/executive-development/index.page?

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Barriers to Leadership and Leadership Development•In the individual:

▫Low self-esteem▫Lack of self-confidence▫Fear of failure, shame or social disapproval▫Cognitive constriction▫Adverse consequences of stress

•In the context:▫Hierarchy and bureaucracy▫Short-term, bottom-line focus▫Individualism▫“Us and them” mentality

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Overcoming Personal Barriers to Leadership Development

•Desensitization of fear and anxiety•Reinforcement of effort and improvement•Psychoanalytical re-enactment of behaviour•Assessment and development of social skills•Use of group dynamics theory

Norman Dixon (1985)

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Leadership Self-Development Model

Self-controlSelf-awareness Self-

confidence

Success/failure Self- realization

Challenge

The Leadership Trust (2002)

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Self-respect

Leadership Development Strategy - 1•Effective leadership development practice entails

linking an intelligent, integrated, comprehensive strategy to the organization’s vision, purpose and core values - few organizations have such a strategy

•Socialization into the organization of newly appointed leaders (‘on-boarding’)

• Individual, team and organization-wide leadership development assessments and plans based on them

•Commitment to and accountability for leadership development, driven from the top

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Leadership Development Strategy - 2•A leadership development core business strategy

in its own right•Reflects the desired culture of the organization•Relates leadership development both to

enhancing current job performance and to equipping leaders for more challenging roles

•Uses the most relevant leadership development activities reflecting individuals’ learning styles

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Leadership Development Strategy - 3

•Uses development analysis and planning procedures

•Uses measurable goals and monitors progress•Integrates leadership development programmes

with management and human resource systems•Considers contextual factors – PESTLE•Evaluates the overall value of the programme

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Designing Leadership Development Programmes•Practice should be informed by both basic and

applied research•The variety of individuals’ learning styles need

to be considered•Self-awareness needs should be encouraged

through constructive feedback – self-awareness is associated with high performance

•Relevant development activities and processes need to be used

•Transfer of learning from the programme to the job needs to be ensured

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Effectiveness of Leadership Development Programmes•Many examples of leadership development

programmes with validated positive behavioural and financial results using varied criteria

•Traditional classroom-based programmes have little sustained impact on leadership development

•Leadership development is not an event but a process that takes place in a variety of situations

•Techniques are available for assessing the impact of programmes – such as changes in behaviour, impact on the organization, return on investment

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Case Study: John Lewis

•http://jlpjobs.com/graduates/•http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/

careers/employers/john-lewis-partnership/•http://www.thelivingleader.com/john-lewis-

embrace-the-whole-person-approach-to-development-and-further-their-reputation-as-a-savvy-employer/

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Case Study: Sainsburys

•https://sainsburys.jobs/Graduates/Information•think fast, adapt quickly and be able to

communicate clearly, engage colleagues and influence those around you.

•http://www.theguardian.com/careers-advertisement-features/10-things-know-sainsburys-graduate-programme-leaders

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Learning Outcomes

•By the end of this session, students should be able to:

•Explain the current thinking with regard to the assessment & development of leadership

•List the types of interventions and approaches used by organisations

• Identify the criticisms levelled at current approaches

•Explain the barriers to effective leadership development

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