Identifying and selecting potential leaders is a critical objective for ensuring a sustainable and competitive organisation, says Mark Bugeja, Head of HR at Nectar and FHRD board member.

According to sixth century Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu sixth-century Chinese philosopher, leadership is the ability to hide your panic from others. That said, the modern definition of leadership is becoming much less about the power vested by a single person and more about a collective process in which the authority and power is shared by a group of people with a shared interest, according to Richard Branson (Virgin Group Founder). Personally, I would be more inclined towards the meaning anticipated by Branson.

There are as many different ideas of what a leader is but fundamentally, leadership is a social process that involves influencing others. Leadership is inspiring people to live the vision, mission, and values of the organisation (SHRM, 2021).

The methodical development of good leaders is central to the long-term organisational success, yet many companies often overlook it or undertake leadership development in a haphazard fashion. It always troubles me when I hear references to ‘our leadership team’ because such exclusive terminology gives the impression that a company has a few exclusive leaders and worse so by default everyone else is not a leader!

Leaders should not be the ones who have the most beautiful offices or the privileged ones who hold gorgeous job titles. You can be well below the CEO yet still be a valuable leader; irrelevant if it has to do with your workplace, your sports team, or within a philanthropic organisation.

Case scenario

At my workplace, we’re always on the lookout for raw people, who during the interview process prove they are ready to excel, they want to use this opportunity to showcase their creative side and most importantly, demonstrate a positive attitude towards learning. Reason being that we are different from our competitors hence we cannot simply poach from other FMCG companies, but it suits us more when we recruit and develop talent. These people are already showing signs that by time they can also become good leaders and since our company believes in the spreading of authority through a collective approach, the good news for these new employees is that the company is ready to give them a much bigger stage where they get a chance to show how well they can perform if they will be guided and given the right tools to prove it.

Mark Bugeja

As an HR professional, I am proud to say that many of our existing leaders have had humble beginnings, yet they have succeeded in their roles and got promoted, therefore a crucial part of our success story belongs to them.

Traits and behaviours of leadership skills

Identifying and selecting potential leaders is a critical objective for ensuring a sustainable and a competitive organisation.

Leadership is a behaviour, not a position

Leadership consultants Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman interviewed hundreds of business leaders and ranked the top competencies of key leadership skills. The five most common traits and behaviours are: (1) inspires and motivates others, (2) displays high integrity and honesty (3) solves problems and analyse issues (4) drives for results and (5) communicates powerfully and prolifically (Inc, 2018).

Leadership is a behaviour, not a position. A manager has a position and a role to facilitate processes and products. Whereas leaders empower people to make decisions that supports the goals and vision.

They are not necessarily born as leaders, but people can learn leadership behaviours. It is the responsibility of every manager and HR professionals within an organisation to identify this behaviour within their team members so that the company can hone their attributes to become better leaders.

How can we develop leadership qualities?

HR professionals should lead in the creation of a leadership development strategy and see through its implementation, taking into consideration the measuring return on investment (ROI). The size and type of an organisation will influence how such developments are set up and structured. Such an investment costs money therefore the commitment of the senior management team is pivotal. These development plans should be designed in a way that it supports both the organisation strategy and the individual needs to be effective. For example, if a business life cycle is in a growth phase, means that more leaders are needed to support this evolution meaning that more learning opportunities should be made available. These courses should comprise of on-the job training with the aim to enhance leadership knowledge and skills from other competent leaders.

Most importantly, one should never perceive leadership development as a luxury item subject to a quick cost-cutting exercise or worse so, viewing effective leadership as synonymous with effective management. At my workplace we use the 9-box grid that evaluates an employee current and potential level of contribution to the organisation both in terms of performance and potential. Employees who fall under the ‘stars’, ‘high potentials’, ‘core players’ and ‘high performers’ are considered as the future stars since they have been identified to have the potential to grow into more advanced roles. These are our most valuable employees and play a critical role in succession planning.

Conclusion

We are in the middle of the fifth industrial revolution where employees want more empowerment and companies are focusing on shifting workplace priorities to support remote working. Add to that, there’s also a gross imbalance between human capital supply and demand and during times of change, strong leadership is a must even in terms of employee morale (BBC, 2021). Leaders are a fundamental channel of organisational culture, both creating and sharing the feeling of what it’s like to work for your company. The same leaders will harness individual efforts towards the collective goal and help their companies achieve excellence.