Executive Presence is frequently talked about in the business world. It’s meant to describe those employees who have the “right stuff” for promotion into leadership roles and positions. While many might believe they possess the proper leadership competencies and personality traits to move up, their boss and peers might not have the same perspective.
While our firm has the luxury of working with some really terrific companies around helping develop their leaders for the future, not every company understands the need to be congruent on what they say they want in their leaders' behaviors AND what they actually get in behavior. We are always amazed by the notion that some companies prioritize a leader's results over bad leadership behavior without even considering how this could affect the company's reputation in the long run.
Two thirds of responders to a recent survey complain that people in their company need to step up - they need and want them to take more responsibility. One way to instill that in the culture is through a commitment to coaching. But very few companies are actually committing resources—time, money, strategic thought and execution—to providing managers with coaching skills that ensure the development of talent and the encouragement of individuals taking more responsibility.
As my daughter swam in the state long course swim championships this recently, I thought about how her swim coach needs to train and develop her swimming talent just like a manager who needs to train and develop the talent on his team. After each race during the competition, he talked to her about what she did well and what to focus on for the next race. He makes training fun sometimes and more challenging at other times to push her to higher goals; and listens to her when she reaches a plateau and is frustrated from her lack of progress.
We work with companies to create cultures where business results flourish. Most of the time, we are called in because an engagement survey has produced some abysmal results, or retention of top talent is waning or because a new change transformation initiative is failing.
Partnering with a C-level executive or a top leader in HR usually produces a desire to see leaders at the top engage in developmental practices that support their people so that the people take better care of the results.
