The problem is (yes, “problem”, not challenge, not issue, no fancy language ... it’s a real problem!) that leadership competencies are variable based on both personal and environmental factors.

Oh, did you think leadership was a set of rules anyone can follow and be a good leader? Bzzzz! Wrong answer!

Think about it, in one environment, possibly at work, Jim (hypothetical leader), may be a phenomenal leader, but then put Jim in a different environment, possibly at home, and his ability to lead dwindles.

Sound familiar? But it does not need to be as defined as work and home; the same can be said from company to company, bowling team to bowling team, classroom to classroom.

Why?

Because corporate culture/environment affect who we are, and who we are as leaders.

The personal factors may effortlessly match one environment and thus leadership is almost natural, but it may be a total mismatch for another, thus leadership may suck.

This becomes obvious in some situations where people are promoted because of their competence and ability to get results. When they reach certain levels, the environment for their personal leadership characteristics changes and they transform from competent team leaders or managers, to incompetent people in leadership positions.

So, that brings us to the solution.

How do we nurture “competent” leadership in line with organizational objectives and coordinate with HR and its succession planning?

First, there are a few traits we must inculcate in our would-be leaders before we can nurture their competence:

1. Flexibility — the great thing about flexibility is, well it’s flexible, there is no defined flexibility, it is the very notion of being able to change when things change. Without flexibility, a leader is doomed to his own leadership matches with his own process and own perspective. With flexibility, the leader can grow and redefine the environment to meet the objective and can harness the potential of multiple processes in a diverse group.

2. The ability to do what he/she says, some would call this integrity (a highly overused word), but in reality it has nothing to do with anyone’s version of honesty or fairness, only do what you say.
The rest, well, before building a strategy we need some fundamental knowledge. To build leadership competency, your future leaders need to know who they are! I mean, how can you be flexible if you don’t know what you need to be flexible from? Flexibility is the ability to think and act outside your own reality.

“Becoming a great leader is not a destination, it is a journey. Every new situation we fail in or make the wrong decision for provides a new dimension to our greater leadership ability.”

Step 1: Building a leadership competency development system requires the process of getting your people to know who they are. This starts with the genetic way they communicate and process the world around them, this part of the process is identified. This is where HR steps in, the coordination and strategic objective of getting people to know who they are, and overcome the ego and time barriers to the effort.

Caution! Do not use personality tests. They tend to over simplify the nature of human beings and allude to unrealistic classifications. This is about identifying “communication” patterns and perceptions. I personally recommend using the Colored Brain Communication Inventory (CBCI), which is very specific to identifying these processes and the “software” that each person has developed. You can find the CBCI at  www.coloredbrain.com.

Additionally, we should identify the “perception gaps” — how your leaders view themselves and how it is different from how their peers, superiors and subordinates perceive them. These perception gaps can be identified with the Human Drive Mirrored Assessment (HDMA). You can find it at www.humandrive.net.

Once knowing the fundamentals of personal perception, we need to know about the environment that influences our reality and affects the actions we take in that environment.

Step 2: Know the environment our leaders will operate in, what will be their challenges and what roles do they need to play to influence that environment to meet
objectives.

Knowing the intricacies of your corporate culture sets the basis for who they need to be as leaders to enroll others to be the best they can be and evolve their culture to a more effective and passionate organization. To discover your corporate culture, take the complementary corporate culture evolution evaluation at www.cultureevolution.com.

HR should choose various individuals at different levels, senior management, middle management and front line staff, to take the assessment.  

“Only if we understand the roles we play in our failures, is it easier to invent new roles to fashion greater successes.”

This foundational awareness is required for a strategic application, without psychological intelligence about the people, their environment and how the two interact, your leaders look through only one reality (their own), they often tend to make others (who are looking through their reality) wrong, which perpetuate a dysfunctional environment or work culture.

Step 3: Now we are ready to set the structure to nurture each leader’s “ideal leadership identity” in line with their personal factors and the current environment.

The objective: bring out the best of who they are to affect the specific environment so your people become more successful. This is where the “flexibility” and “do as you say” comes in.
Each person already has what it takes to be a good leader, but they need to find it from different facets of their identity, and those facets may not manifest themselves at work, but by setting a structure through which the environment can support those better leadership traits.

So, what are the steps and structure to cultivate this ideal leadership identity?


The writer is the principal founder of the Directive Communication Methodology and ranked as one of the world’s top 10 leadership professionals by Global Gurus International. The websites can be viewed at www.directivecommunication.com and www.carmazzi.net.

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