(92c) Assessing Leadership

"Think for a moment about the worst people you've ever had to work with, people who have been the biggest problems for you in your organization. Now ask yourself this question: Did they think they were a problem? Chances are - no, they didn't. In fact, in all likelihood everyone elso could see that they were a problem, but they couldn't see it. Very interesting, the very people who are a problem can't see that they are a problem. This phenomenon has a name - self deception. As you can imagine, such self-deception has immense implications for personal and organizational life. For how is improvement possible when those most in need of improvement don't feel the need to improve?" The foregoing is an excerpt from training materials created by The Arbinger Institute. Arbinger is an organization dedicated to helping individuals and organizations overcome the powerfully negative effects of self-deception. As a human capital consultant, with 25 years experience in assessing leadership talent, recruiting leaders, coaching leaders, teaching leadership, and practicing leadership myself, I have dedicated the better part of my professional career to understanding the key characteristics of successful leadership. The ability to minimize the influence of self-deception is the key to effective leadership. Specifically, mastery of five principles separates strong, effective leaders from the rest. These principles are: 1)focusing on the shared objective; 2) building strong relationships with one's manager and co-workers; 3)building strong relationships with team members; 4)teaching and helping; and 5) correcting effectively. Each of these abilities requires the former. If an individual is struggling with one of these principles, the answer lies in the former. I and the associates in my firm have assessed hundreds of leaders from multiple organizations and cultures. We have yet to find an exception to our hypothesis. This paper explores what specific characteristics we look for in assessing leadership talent. We will explore what works and what doesn't. We will outline why we believe leadership effectiveness is largely determined by something deeper than our outward behavior, and that it is skill requiring application practice regardless of natural aptitude.