Why Organizations need to measure their Quality of Leadership
Just google it and you'll find hundreds of thousands of resources analyzing the cost of bad leadership - from negative impacts on productivity to the increased cost of health care as a result of stress. In this post, I focus on the impact on every organization's most vital and critical asset - its employees.
Many organizations talk about how important their employees are and how they invest in their employees' personal development - some even talk about it in their core values.
But how many organizations really know the impact of the people they have put in leadership positions on the employees that they say they value? How many know which of those with leadership titles, from the first-line manager up to the CEO/President/equivalent, are using their influence to create environments where employees can thrive and reach their success potential?
How many know which of their leaders are actually doing the opposite - to the detriment of both the employees under their supervision and to the organization? How many know which of their leaders' actions and attitudes are bringing their organization closer to their vision, or further away?
In my experience, the influence of good leadership on employees pays off in dividends while bad leadership is much, much more detrimental, as illustrated below.
Investing in leadership skills is not only the right thing to do - for both the leaders and the employees - organizations can't afford not to if they want to succeed. It's the difference between talking about values and taking the actions that support those values.
While the true cost of bad leadership is often obscured by the organization's performance metrics, either because organizations aren't measuring the right things or aren't measuring things the right way, the effects will eventually show up in the organization's performance.
So what can organizations do to support their leaders' skills? They can invest in training to help leaders learn the right things to do and why they matter. They can invest in coaching to both support leaders in their day-to-day challenges and to continue their leadership development. Most organizations' leaders have very little support from their own managers, because their own managers are so busy with their own responsibilities or because those managers haven't taken the time to develop their own leadership skills.
Organizations can also monitor the impact of their leaders and managers on their employees through employee engagement feedback (surveys, listening sessions, 360 degree assessments, etc.) and through other metrics such as productivity, work quality, and retention of personnel. It is important to note that providing a safe environment where employees can trust that they can have real conversations without fear of retribution is critical for any of these tools and strategies to be effective. If not, you will get the false results of employees telling you what they think you want to hear in order to maintain their own safety. If you're not sure where your culture truly stands, consider engaging someone like me who can provide an independent assessment while guaranteeing your employees' confidentiality.
The bottom line is that valuing employees and encouraging good leadership starts at the top. If an organization truly values its employees, then its highest leaders will set the bar through their words and actions each day, and bad leaders will either leave or be removed.
Conversely, good people will leave bad leaders.
What does your organization's actions show about what they truly value?
What can you learn by looking at who is leaving and those who are staying?
If you are an organizational leader who has not invested in your organization's leadership development, put your values into action! Ask yourself, can you continue to afford not to?
Does this resonate with you?
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