Most leaders of people will tell you that their greatest assets are their employees and will wax lyrical about their importance. However, few seem to be able to actually back up these words with actions, and fail to build a powerful sense of commitment and loyalty that provides a real competitive advantage to their organisation.
Great people leaders think about the trajectory of current trends that in future may effect, or even totally disrupt their industry. They engage in conversations far and wide, from the top to the bottom of their organisation, and they are open to learning about areas outside of their expertise. They listen and incorporate the views and ideas of their employees, fostering greater employee commitment to the resulting strategy.
Most leaders now also understand the benefits of a positive culture. They define it, they build practices that support it, and they definitely don't leave it to chance. They constantly use tools to measure it, and they invest in it. Great people leaders know that they themselves have significant responsibility for setting the tone from the top through their actions, and they're willing to take tough decisions to deal with those who are seen to be renegades.
Often, leaders tell us that they are too busy keeping the "show on the road" to work on the "vision thing". However, if the vision isn't compelling, the troops will be missing a key driver for their performance - they'll be missing a sense of purpose. Beyond a certain point, purpose beats pay every time when it comes to what really matters to employees. Vision isn't a once a year event. It has got to be daily, live, authentic, and front of mind in everything a leader does.
A leader's ability to build trust determines their future success. Trust is not some amorphous concept - rather, it is a set of tangible behaviours and competencies that leads to people recognising your leadership as legitimate, and becoming willing followers. Today, leaders who demonstrate their competence, deliver on their promises, whose actions match their words, who show appreciation, who have high levels of integrity, and who are viewed as benevolent will receive a 'trust dividend' - higher productivity, less conflict, greater innovation, and a host of other business benefits.
In one of the biggest trends that we're identifying on a global level, organisations are devolving control to employees, choosing what projects they'll work on, with whom they work, choosing their direct boss... and even electing the CEO! If a leader truly wants an empowered organisation where front line employees are able take personal responsibility for their decisions, distributing power at every opportunity is worth investigating.
The highly networked nature of the modern world means that every employee has a global reach at their fingertips. Great leaders default to sharing information. Board minutes, salary information, senior teams personal performance goals (and scores). In fact, there are some organisations that share so much financial information, their employees are deemed to be insider trading if they buy and sell shares!
Finally, great leaders are obsessed with performance - differentiating performance, monitoring high performance, aligning behaviours and values, and identifying those who are delivering on all counts. They understand the frustration felt by talented individuals when they see the poor performance of a colleague not being managed. These leaders understand the power of simply saying "well done", and make use of a full range of reward and recognition best practices to do so.
These are the actions that today's great leaders are doing with consistency - building deep loyalty, strong employee commitment, and a high performance culture. As your human assets are often your greatest financial investment, it's crucial that your leadership brings the greatest possible return.
John Ryan, CEO, Great Place to Work Ireland
The views expressed in the posts and comments of this blog do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute of Directors in Ireland. They should be understood as the personal opinions of the author. The content of this blog is for information purposes only and the Institute of Directors in Ireland is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied.