Fostering more and better leadership is a challenge for executives across all industries. Target’s former interim CEO John Mulligan recently commented in a letter to the company, “All across Target, we need more ‘leadership’ and less ‘committee.'" Target took steps to act on Mulligan's words by renaming its executive committee the "leadership team" in order to reduce feelings of bureaucracy, as well as restructuring its offices to encourage greater collaboration among executives and employees. As Target's new externally-hired CEO Brian Cornell now takes the reins on Mulligan's leadership-building initiative, he faces pressures not only to successfully lead, himself, but also to promote greater leadership throughout the company.
But what are the fastest ways to cultivate leadership within a company? What lessons can leaders apply as they strategize new ways to encourage employees to step up and drive efforts toward achieving the organization's major goals? How can leaders effectively communicate the company's vision?
First, executives need to start from a position of wanting to develop new leaders. Some executives fall into the trap of feeling entitled to their leadership role, whether by virtue of an over-strong belief in their own abilities, or simply a loss of perspective regarding the potential of the team around them. Taking a moment to step back, consider how those above, below and around you view you as a leader can help executives avoid this trap and better relate to the employees they seek to develop as co-leaders.
Jimmy Leppert reminded us that many executives fear the power held by their employees, while they really should be leveraging this force. Laying out a clear future vision, engaging in informal conversations with individuals and groups and celebrating when employees take chances, regardless of the results, will help leaders increase the probability of success in achieving company goals.
One of the quickest ways to generate new leadership is to let natural leaders already working within your company rise to the surface. This “insourcing” keeps your product and service experiences and expertise in-house, allowing for an improved customer service experience, reduced need for experts to manage outsourced relationships and lower operating costs. Companies tapping into existing employees will find, nearly universally, that they not only have the capacity to take on these additional projects, but also that many do so with enthusiasm, jumping at the chance to lead innovative initiatives.
Once you have your pool of top leaders, it’s time to train them to leverage the position to greatest effect. Great leadership always begins with vision. This is such an intuitive concept, as Ken Perlman points out, even children’s toys such as LEGO utilize it when the product features pictures on the box presenting a clear future vision for the what the pieces inside could create. At the same time, with hundreds of tiny pieces, missing even a few blocks quickly teaches the importance of considering alternative routes to achieve the desired result. Allowing people to deviate from the instructed plan and encouraging and rewarding those who experiment, learn and build is key to great leadership.
Internet sensation Batkid demonstrated the power of using one simple, inspirational idea to connect with your people that engages the masses, compelling versus delegating your people to act and pointing people toward creative thinking and away from relying solely on data. The dynamics that made Batkid successful are the same dynamics that help leaders drive successful organizational transformations.
Even those visions which seem out of reach don’t stop great leaders. They aren’t afraid to challenge the rules and re-imagine reality – whether it’s giving employees permission to break through silos to test new ways of working or being willing to go back to the drawing board in solving a thorny market problem. When wrestling with difficult change, strong leaders start by asking “what works?” regardless of how “things are done,” and are fearless in challenging the status quo in the pursuit of solutions and better business techniques.
Perhaps the greatest challenge of being a great leader is learning to have to confidence to step back when necessary and trust your team to try, fail, learn and succeed on their own. It is the lesson learned, rather than the lesson taught, that will have the most powerful and lasting impact on employees. The best executive leaders don’t give away the answers to business challenges, but instead let their teams experiment with new ideas and encourage testing and failing quickly.
The best examples of leadership from our work with companies across multiple industries show that leaders who stand out above the crowd share some key characteristics. They seek to develop more leaders and talent within their organization, and they don’t fear losing their status as a result. These exemplary leaders have a clear vision for the future and aren't afraid to change the world to achieve it. But they also know their team will be most effective if left to their own devices to learn what techniques will work best to accomplish change and make the future vision a reality.
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