Are You Ensuring Failure in Your Leaders?
The Gap in Leadership Development

The Study

A recent study examining leadership behaviors or strategies suggests that the emphasis currently being placed on leadership skill sets and techniques is insufficient. Before getting into particulars, a look at the study's statistics will prove helpful. The study was conducted by Gary J. Salton Ph.D. with the University of Michigan.

The subjects of the study consisted of 124 CEOs/Presidents; 460 Vice Presidents, 2,090 Managers/Directors, 295 Supervisors and 6,028 Non-supervisory individuals. Non-supervisory subjects were high level professionals such as MDs, Ph.D.s, CPAs, etc. The total number of subjects was 8,997. Targeted industries included hospitality, manufacturing, health care, finance, banking, non-profit, universities, government and others. Subjects came from all across the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and other locales.

What Was Discovered

No one likes to be pigeon-holed and we all have some of each of the strategies or styles
within us and every leader has a major style. This style or strategy is the first "tool" an individual draws from to resolve issues. However, since there are only four styles or strategies, the breakdown is relatively simple.

Keep in mind that each different behavioral assessment product lends its own "label" for each style. Here are ours:

According to the results of the study the most favored styles for organizational executives are Dominance and Influence.

Compliance and Steadiness are favored styles for "lower level" employees. Remember that "lower level" refers to mid and upper level management positions.

The following discovery from the study will be essential in your leadership selection process. The Steadiness and Compliance styles are better suited to "lower level" management positions as they understand how to effectively use information. These styles excel at the tasks involved at the mid and upper leadership levels. The Steadiness may resist change and have difficulty establishing priorities. The Compliance style may over analyze and research projects to death.

The Dominance style is a change agent willing to take risks and makes things happen. This style is great for the short term. Short term meaning they become bored easily. The Influence style uses thought to uncover new ideas, unexpected relationships and
motivates others.

For the Dominance style an organization must ask, "How much risk and change can we take?" For the Influencing style there is no cap on ideas, but at some point action must take place in order to implement good ideas. But are these the only factors to consider?

What About Other Factors

Other factors play a role in every leader's makeup. For example even people who have the same major behavioral pattern or strategy may have different motivational drives or values and this may "skew" the picture a bit. This will definitely have an effect on a leader's approach, drive and organizational emphasis. Another factor is the experience of each individual. Each of us has tutored under teachers named "Failure" and “Success" who have taught us much. Still other factors include: the industry and the life cycle of the firm, etc. And then there's intelligence to add another factor. What role does it play in strategic behaviors?

Anyone can be a genius regardless of his/her behavioral style or drive. Admittedly most behavioral assessments do not measure intelligence and typically intelligence tests do not measure behavioral patterns and morals might be best determined by a thorough background check. Therefore, it's important to have a full battery of tools integrated in your hiring system and to use them consistently. One of the best and most objective tools to consider is the use of assessments.

The Right Tools

No questions about it, knowing which individual to place in what position is critical.
The more tools you have in your hiring system the better you will be able to determine
the best leaders to bring on board. Assessments can play a critical role in your hiring process.
There are a myriad of assessments on the market and the choices may be overwhelming.

Here are some pointers to guide you in making your selection:

The person you choose to work with should be able to teach your staff how to expertly analyze assessment results. This can be a budget saving measure. If the assessments are to taken on line, ask if the company you work with can handle the administration of passwords, etc. for little or no charge.

Summary 

No one style fits every situation, organization or system. As Dr. Salton suggests, because one style is favored for a particular rank, "...does not mean that aspiring leaders should be guided toward the highest level of that strategy." Doing this
would set leaders up for failure. Rather every potential leader would be wise to match
the rank they wish to achieve with that level's "information processing profile."

Leadership selection at any level is not easy. Many factors play a role in an individual's skills, attitudes and behaviors. However, along with good interviewing techniques and background checks, assessments can play a vital and decisive role as a tool in your hiring system and help close the gap in leadership development.

How Performance Strategies, Inc. Can Help You Build Your Leadership Team:

We have over twenty years in hiring, training, coaching, and developing employees for leadership, management, and higher productivity. As co-founder of the highly successful Provino's and Scalinis Italian Restaurants and over 10 years in Human Resources, we bring both industry experience and a unique understanding of people to help ensure your success.

Staying on track is an important part of the process. Four factors are necessary for an
effective, continuous improvement plan and an effective hiring system:

PSI offers a variety of assessments, tools and processes to help individuals and organizations reach optimal success. With our experience in government, hospitality,manufacturing, medical, and education – not to mention dozens of other industries – you can be sure we can help you take your team to the next level. Call us at 404.320.7834 or 1.800.906.7834 today for a no obligation consultation. If you're looking for an affordable yet effective way to reduce costs, improve productivity and increase profits, then we want to hear from you.

All rights reserved Diane Bogino. You are free to use material from the Performance
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