Every organisation understands that it needs to recruit and retain talented leaders for the future. As a result there has been a “war for talent” as organisations search top universities, business schools and indeed their competition for young people with potential.
A central question in this quest is to know what one is looking for, and secondly how to assess or measure it. There is a research literature on this topic, covered below, but to be most useful, line-managers need a jargon free and accessible toolkit which explains what to look for and how to measure it.
Over the past 50 years there has been a sustained effort to find the individual difference factors which characterise the successful business leader. Dozens of studies in the management and social sciences have yielded similar results. That is, researchers looking at leadership in different countries, different business sectors, and at different stages in the business cycle have consistently shown up the same set of factors. It is therefore these characteristics that one needs to search out to be sure people have the sort of leadership potential that one is after.
Five factors come up again and again. Most are relatively easy to specify and measure by a variety of standard technique like structured job interview; references; job history but also importantly psychometric tests measuring both ability (intelligence) and preferences (personality).
The Five Factors and How to Measure Them:
1. Cognitive Ability
The single best predictor of leadership/management success is intelligence, particularly at higher levels of management. This is not to be confused with formal education, though they are modestly related. Managers need to be bright enough: that is they require some minimum level of intelligence to do the job well. As one goes up the organisation jobs become more complex: One needs to be more intelligent to do them well. Further things can change or need changing and leaders have to understand those issues. The research literature indicates a number of important points with respect to intelligence:
- Followers like, respect and support brighter leaders.
- Brighter leaders are both seen as, and are, more effective than less bright leaders.
- Brighter leaders are better at transforming organisations and managing change.
- Brighter leaders have more (intellectual) self-confidence and suffer less stress.
- Brighter leaders learn faster, are more positive about personal growth and are more adaptable.
All senior management positions require a basic level of intelligence which can be specified as a cut-off score on tests. This is not to say that leaders need to be exceptionally able: however, it is important they reach a minimum level.
The measurement of intelligence is both straight-forward and accurate. There are numerous tests to choose from which all yield similar results. Many have been designed to test thinking and reasoning in business contexts. It is advisable to use 2 or 3 shorter tests so as to avoid bias or error. Testing need not take more than half an hour.
It is very important to choose tests that do not disadvantage any groups such as non-English, first language speakers, dyslexic individuals, etc. This area is well researched and appropriate tests may easily be sought.
2. Stability
Senior management and leadership positions always involve stress. People have to make hard decisions, take risks, face criticism and endure set-backs. They need to be hardy and resilient to respond to the pace and challenges of modern business life.
The single best predictor of stress reactions is a person’s emotional stability. Less stable people are, in essence, prone to neuroses. Unstable people tend to be tense, touchy and thin-skinned. They can have rapidly fluctuating moods, and be very brittle.
The research literature suggests that:
- Unstable people are prone to anxiety and depression. They often make bad decisions because of this.
- Unstable people are particularly vulnerable to stress and stress-related illness. Neurosis is closely related to absenteeism.
- Unstable people can be self-pitying, self-defeating and prone to a depressive, gloomy outlook.
- Followers report having considerable difficulty with the moodiness and vulnerability of unstable managers.
- Stable leaders, by contrast, cope well under inevitable periods of stress.
- Stable leaders tend to have healthy adaptable coping strategies whereas the opposite is true for their less able colleagues.
Stability is relatively easy to measure through questionnaires, as well as by looking at an individual’s health record. It can also be subtly assessed via references. White it is true that people tend to under-report their anxiety, vulnerability and self-consciousness on questionnaires there is ample evidence that these measures and reliable and valid and can pick up signs of stability and instability.
3. Conscientiousness
Every business leaders needs to be hard-working and self-disciplined. Business leaders have to be dependable, reliable and responsible. They need to be responsive to various stakeholders – their staff, colleagues, customers and share-holders. They have to learn to be efficient and organised. They need to understand the need to plan ahead and to ensure things are always done to the required standard.
The research literature has shown the following:
- Conscientiousness is closely related to competence which is one of the highest-rated virtues followers want in their managers.
- Conscientiousness determines a manager’s dedication, deliberation and dutifulness.
- Conscientious leaders are hard-working but they learn to work-smart as well as long hours. They understand when and why they need to go the extra mile.
- Conscientious leaders tend to be achievement-oriented and aspirational for themselves and others.
- Conscientious leaders deliver on their promises which are realistic and they tend to follow ethical rules sensibly and sensitively.
Conscientiousness, the work-ethic or prudence is measured straightforwardly by questionnaire and through the examination of a person’s track record. People are very quickly observed by others to be well organised and constantly striving to reach their goals. On the other hand the easy going, poorly organised, often careless and rarely-planful individual is not difficult to spot. These observable behaviours come through on references and 360o feedback reports.
4. Emotional Intelligence
Management and leadership is a social activity. Leaders have to inspire and support their staff. They are in the motivation business. They have to understand themselves and other people. Emotional intelligence, in essence involves understanding and be able to influence other people. But it also involves self-understanding or awareness and the knowledge of how to deal with set-backs. Emotional intelligence is essentially about having social skills, charm and insight. Emotionally intelligent leaders understand the importance and power of emotions in everyday life. They are good at the emotional regulation of everyday life.
The research literature shows that:
- Emotionally intelligent leaders are liked, trusted and admired most by their staff.
- Leaders with high EQ always get the best out of their staff and are hence highly productive.
- High EQ leaders are particularly successful in difficult times when organisations are under considerable pressure.
- High EQ leaders understand important psychological needs of their key staff members and are very good at getting the best out of them.
- Emotional intelligence is linked to being more assertive, empathic, optimistic and self-motivated.
There are many tests of emotional intelligence but only a few that have been well researched. Once again, interviewers and references help in finding out about emotional intelligence once people know what things to look for. Questionnaire measures tend to provide a very good all-round picture of the emotional self-awareness and skills of managers.
5. Motivation
Motivation is the engine of leadership success but it needs direction. People are quite clearly motivated by different things – power, influence, control, recognition. The great problem with the concept of motivation is that it appears at the same time all encompassing and vague. People are motivated to achieve a goal: the more motivated they are the more time, effort and energy they are willing to put into achieving that goal. More importantly most of these goals are not easily satisfied and this motivation does not stop once they have been achieved. This is true of both psychological goals like recognition and more objective goals like monetary reward.
The research literature suggests the following:
- All people are motivated to seek recognition and reward from those they work for, to boost their self-esteem.
- Motivated leaders are often particularly sensitive to issues around fairness – that is that reward is directly related to effort, that output and input are closely linked.
- Motivated leaders have realistic expectations and set for themselves and others attainable but stretched goals.
- Motivated leaders understand the importance of giving and receiving feedback.
- Motivated leaders are less distracted by set-backs.
- Motivated leaders learn from their mistakes and direct their efforts most efficiently.
Of all the five factors it is often most difficult to measure motivation. This is primarily because people cannot, rather than will not always tell you what really motivates them. Clearly some people seek out different rewards than others. But all are motivated by recognition and by personal achievement. There are questionnaires that measure a person’s values or goals which help explain what they are specifically motivated to achieve. However, interview references and track record give good details about a person’s energy, hunger or drive. This explains therefore both what specifically motivates people and how much energy they put into the task.
Conclusion
There are five definable, measureable and necessary characteristics of highly successful leaders. They need to be bright, stable, hard-working, socially-skilled and drive. They are necessary but possibly not sufficient in the sense that one may need other characteristics as well
It is important to define the behaviours associated with their characteristics so that non-specialist line managers are clear about what they are looking for and why. Further it is always important to inspect the total profile of an individual. There will of course be important differences between successful leaders. Yet it is crucial that they all have the above characteristics to thrive and prosper in a changing, complex and challenging business environment.
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