Are your up and coming leaders coping or thriving - Viewpoint - careers advice blog Viewpoint careers advice blog

Are your up and coming leaders coping or thriving - Viewpoint - careers advice blog How to ensure you are providing the scaffold to help your talent build their leadership style. It’s a well-trodden path into management: an outstanding producer or technical expert seeks or is offered responsibility and challenge.   The talented employee continues to carry the responsibility for their  existing workload, but has now added leadership of a team or a project to that load. It would be fair to say many of us in leadership have walked a similar path and wear the lessons learned along the way namely that the role of a manager is highly complex, and requires the simultaneous spinning of many plates. Many  often find the major challenge is one of coping with trying to maintain their quality of output while taking on ever increasing leadership responsibilities. So does your organisation set your junior leaders up for success? Read up on variations of leadership or what it takes to be one and you will generally find sensible and accurate advice around how important mind-set is; why organisations developing leaders should recruit for learning aptitude and the reasons why creating the right culture, having a set of values, emotional intelligence, mentors and so on are all vital. All these things are absolutely relevant; however, many organisations rightly realise that some lessons can only be learnt through first-hand experience (and first-hand mistakes) made whilst their employees walk the path of progress. It might sound obvious but a question worth asking is, ‘What structure or scaffold does your organisation provide to support your leaders when they are developing their style?’ Five levers for leaders In a typical professional services firm there are five interactive opportunities or levers for leaders to influence their teams: Role modelling best practice, performance, values and behaviours. Holding a one-on-one meeting with each of your team consistently. Monitoring, measuring and influencing performance and engagement using coaching and counsel. Hosting team or project meetings regularly. Using these meetings to direct strategy, facilitate collaboration and coordinate group activities. Understanding how your role influences culture through creating and coordinating cultural artefacts for the team. Taking the time to acquire and share knowledge about the internal and external environment simple as reading the news! Create and facilitate a knowledge management process that enhances the above four levers. Finding the time Most individuals with leadership potential understand the importance of different mind-sets and the use of the above activities. Yet the middle manager struggling to cope often doesn’t have time to create this space to “work on the business” rather than “in it”. It’s an important task for the strategic Human Resources Manager to assist their organisation to provide up and coming leaders with an understanding of the right activities a leader can use as well the right mind-set or role to play in each situation to help them on the path to success. // Want to further hone your leadership skills? Our leadership tips and advice will help you become the leader you want to be