We take our cars for a service and MOT, we have dental check-ups, we service our heating and we go for all sorts of screening at the doctors. But, when was the last time you got your own personal leadership checked out, serviced or screened? We use our leadership every single work day for 8 hours plus and yet rarely ever do we see if our leadership and us as leaders are performing ok? At the very least we even very rarely ask for meaningful feedback on our leadership. The basic of all basic things we can do.
Your own 30 second leadership health check…
So here is my health checklist for your leadership. Keep a physical or mental note of your score please.
Your answers can be Yes, No or Sometimes. Be brutally honest with yourself!
- I mostly help my reports to find their own direction and answers
- I don’t have daily capacity for meaningful conversation with my reports
- My mindset is mainly team and people centric
- My value is focused on enabling the team to deliver
- I rarely work at the level beneath my paid role level
- Control in the team sits with the team
- I REALLY know my people (their values, motivations communication preferences)
- I know my team would support and trust me on tough decisions facing the team
- Coaching is a daily part of my leadership style
- I understand what is happening in my business AND share it with my reports
- Performance management is a daily activity
- Providing feedback is a daily activity and I look for opportunities to provide it
- My people have the opportunity to talk about what they want to talk about
- My 121s with my team are a priority, they and others know it
- I develop individuals and the team to be better than me
- I have a plan around my team’s development for the next 12 months
- I regularly set out to learn about and reflect on my leadership
- My team absolutely know that I trust them
The results…
OK so how did you do?
If you had primarily YES as your responses – good, keep at it, keep doing the good stuff. The areas where you perhaps said sometimes, what needs to change?
If you had primarily NO or Sometimes as your responses, I think your leadership might need a shot in the arm of development! What’s going on here? What is the cause of this?
Yes the ‘test’ was light hearted. A bit of fun. But, at the heart of it there is some serious messaging. The fact is as people leaders we should be doing ALL of the points above, it’s what people leaders are paid to do. Yet many don’t do these things AND neglect their own leadership development.
What to do..?
- Firstly, take some time outside of work to think about what kind of leader do you want to be? What do you want to achieve as a leader?
- Where are your skills, knowledge and behaviours lacking?
- What does the feedback you have received tell you? Not received any? Then go and seek some!
- Begin to shift your mindset and realise that leadership is about your people, not you, and you need to be the best version of yourself to lead them every day. So how are you going to do that?
- Start reading, some blogs, websites, articles or, dare I say, books, to whet your appetite. If you have a leader you admire, get hold of their biography and learn how they did leadership
- Speak to your L&D team and get their insight into what is coming up development wise for you
- Discuss it with your line manager they SHOULD be encouraging you towards this
- If you feel inclined, get yourself a coach to help you get some clarity and direction for your own leadership future and a plan for your development
Abintus, what can we do for you..?
We are experts at developing your people to become confident and competent coaches and leaders. Working with you to realise your dreams around leadership and coaching for your organisation
- Maybe you like the idea of having a coaching based leadership programme, let’s talk
- Do you have some leaders that need some extra support? Perhaps some external coaching can help?
- Do your leaders need to invest some time on their team’s development to build the team dynamic and engagement? We can help here.
- Wanting to support your existing coaches with development or supervision, check us out here
Nick Howell is an executive coach, facilitator and author of best-selling book, ‘Great Coaching Questions’ Contact Nick on 07867 785314 or nick@abintus.co.uk for a chat about development in your organisation.