As a leader, what is it like to be around you?
Leadership is often thought of in terms of the leader themselves; are they charismatic, are they decisive, how intelligent are they etc. But is that the right starting point for understanding leadership and how we develop it?
How about we turn it all on it’s head. If leadership is about generating high performance in others, shouldn’t we look at leaders in terms of the impact they have those they lead?
There is lots of evidence now that the biggest lever on performance in an organisation is the climate – and that leaders have the biggest impact on this. So, within a leader’s sphere of influence, the sort of ‘micro-climate’ they create is perhaps a key issue to understand. How does their behaviour reward and encourage the behaviour in others, and are they getting the behaviours they want from their followers?
To really harness the ‘micro-climate’ a leader first needs to understand the motivational realities of what make each of us tick. And it’s not easy. People are human after all and they are changeable and inconsistent – a moving target really.
The most successful leaders vary their focus, behaviour and style to meet the demands of the organisation alongside the motivational demands of their followers. They are able to give people the opportunities to meet their motivational needs in a positive way that benefits both themselves and the organisation. That is what creating a successful performance climate is all about. Leaders need to ensure that opportunities exist for their followers to:
- Know the longer term direction and have clear goals
- Be enthusiastic about the job and be interested in it
- Know the rules and what is expected of them
- Question the status quo, be critical, make suggestions
- Take responsibly and be accountable for what they do
- Co-operate and help others
- Feel safe and values as an individual
- Enjoy a ‘team spirit’
It’s a tall order, but one worth striving for.
The Apter Leadership Profiling System measures the micro climate that leaders create by asking the leader about the climate they are trying to create and by asking their followers about the climate they experience. Only once you have measured these eight ‘climate conditions’ can you start to prioritise what is most important given the particular challenge the leader faces. Then you can work with the leader to help them ease off on some ‘conditions’ they may be over playing (eg, over focus on goals whilst trying to enhance the creativity in the team) and start to develop the leader towards filling the gaps where they are underplaying a condition.
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