Day One Leadership

Why Succession Planning taken a step further, in conjunction with Leadership Transformation programmes, gives you the competitive edge…

Your organisation may be ready with its next handful of leaders in the wings through excellent succession planning, vetting out their Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes (KSA’s) and preparing them for their next experience, yet do they have what it takes to actually lead?

Leadership is about creating change and inspiring others to care about the change. It is sharing the strategic vision and getting people aligned with it, not necessarily executing it. It is a way of communicating, and, we believe a way of being, that is conscious and intentional. Leadership requires at the bare minimum, knowing yourself, seeing the other clearly as they are, as well as their potential. Leaders have strong emotional intelligence, agility, adaptation of communication style and, of course, good leaders “read the room”.  

Going from management to leadership requires some form of personal transformation and being promoted from one level of leadership to another also requires a different skillset as each additional level “up” comes with increased complexity and abstraction away from actual “on the ground” challenges. However, often processes within organisations overlook this and instead rely on a person’s years of experience, or the manager who groomed and advocated on behalf of the more junior colleague, or the high-performance evaluations to propel one into leadership. 

In other words, “some luck”.

We take for granted that staff members who are demonstrating the KSA’s for their job and show the aptitude to learn and grow into the next level are ready for promotion. But are they? Often, we put a check by the person’s attitude, intellectual power and creativity, or perhaps they have proven themselves with a big project. Of course, those are important and should be a part of the decision to promote someone. But what if we promote them with the assumption that they already have the leadership skills required at the level we are promoting them into? Could it be possible it takes months or years before these individuals start understanding the level of leadership (let alone the leadership behaviours at that level) it requires to perform at their new position? The impact on the organisation is costly in terms of time, money, employee health and attrition.

Firstly, we must understand that there are different types of leadership skills based on seniority level (Supervisor, Director, VP, SR VP, Exec). Over the years, Corporate Learning and Development functions have rolled out various trainings to prepare leaders for their roles either before they receive the role, such as “High-Potential” training, or after they are in the role, such as a Senior Leadership 3-day training workshops. These are all potentially effective approaches for developing leadership, yet are they just informing candidates of what it takes to lead, or actually transforming their behaviour and habits for the level they need to operate in now or next?

We can do better. Just as there are outdated leadership theories, we also have outdated approaches to leadership training. Learning and Development, as well as Talent functions in most companies, work hard to justify and lobby for the need for leadership development. Their ROI would be improved if candidates actually transform their approach and way of being beyond just gaining ”head knowledge” from theories such as the widely popular Kouzes and Posner (Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enabling Others to Act, Encourage the Heart), or the research and lecture-based approaches favoured by any number of business schools.   

We have the opportunity to raise the bar so we teach and mould leaders through reflection and self-awareness, assessments and simulations, role practice and applied projects that all encourage the formation of new habits, new thinking and new ways of being. To raise it even higher, specific bespoke leadership level development in conjunction with succession planning!

At Holos, we incorporate an approach that looks at transforming individuals towards greater self-confidence, and humility, becoming assured visionaries with the skills to influence, inspire, build teams, deepen trust and empower people to do and be their best at work, and in life too.

Genuinely preparing our next leadership cohort should be a prerequisite rather than relying on luck and hands-on experience to learn once they get in the job or wait for the next leadership class to roll out.

In the competitive marketplace, we have today, your competitive advantage might be defined by not losing any money or time waiting for your new leader to perform. But, instead, it could be defined by your new leader stepping into their new role on Day One and successfully leading positive change!  If you were the coach of a soccer club, wouldn’t you want a well-trained, capable goalkeeper who can also inspire, communicate and garner the respect of his team before kickoff? We don’t have 3 seasons to wait to be competitive, nor can we wait for half-time to do a reset. The time is now!  

We advocate to support leaders to develop their authentic style and become good leaders during succession planning prior to when they are given the position to lead. 

We call our approach “Day One Leadership”.

At Holos, we collaborate with you to design a transformative programme for your leaders in conjunction with your succession planning efforts. We get “your next leadership level” ready for your cultural and business needs so they can execute their new responsibilities immediately, be less of a “gamble,” and be successful leaders from Day One!

This article was written by Holos Change Agents, Rob Brown & Dr Julie Compton.

If you are interested in having a conversation about how we can co-create and develop outstanding leaders from Day 1, reach out to us at hello@holoschange.com.