How Effective is Your Leadership Team?

July 15, 2024
Employee Learning and Performance Solutions

How effective is your leadership team? Is this question contemplated in your management circles? Is there an expectation that through individual introspection and group reflection, leaders will have open, difficult and honest conversations about the effectiveness of the leadership team and the courage to implement and sustain changes?

In this article, we spotlight five factors that influence leadership effectiveness. Effectiveness is the degree to which something successfully produces a desired result[1] and leadership is the art of influencing people so that they will willingly strive to achieve the group’s goals.[2]

When these two definitions are combined, your leadership team must view effective leadership as the degree to which they successfully influence, motivate and sustain high performance that is underpinned by employees’ zeal and confidence resulting in the achievement of goals.

Five variables that can influence the efficacy of an organisation’s leadership team are:

Vision & Clarity
Leadership Style
Adaptability
Development & Support
Accountability & Feedback

These variables can either propel your team towards excellence in producing the desired outcomes or impede growth.

Leaders who do not have a clear vision risk creating confusion, disengagement, underperformance and efforts being misdirected. Theodore Hesburgh states,

“The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.”

So, the questions you should be asking are:

What is the vision being trumpeted by your leadership team?
Does your leadership team buy into the company’s vision with enthusiasm, zeal and confidence (recall the definition of effective leadership)?
Do your employees’ efforts articulate the vision forcefully?

Leaders who are hesitant towards or do not understand the company’s vision will struggle to influence, motivate and sustain high performance. What is desired are leaders who can see (and build) an idea or picture in their imagination and to think about or plan the future with imagination and intelligence[4]. With this foresight, the vision must be accessible and communicated with simplicity.

To augment the communication of the vision, your leadership team is encouraged to be ethical leaders who demonstrate integrity, accountability, and reliability so that the vision can be trusted.

The impact of the different leadership styles within your company should not be underestimated. The style chosen can have positive or negative consequences for employees’ performances. So, ponder these questions in your circles:

Which style of leadership is penetrating your organisation?
Do your leaders foster an environment of fear, micromanagement or indifference?
Is your company a habitat that offers support, empowerment and collaboration to ignite results?

The behaviours demonstrated by leaders may be comfortable for them. However, are they the best, and are these behaviours aligned with the company’s values, beliefs, practices, and methods of meeting business objectives?

To complement your review of the effectiveness of your leadership team, spend some time defining the desired leadership culture for your organisation. This will outline how leaders should interact with each other, employees and stakeholders.

Over the last few years, the execution of work and the workforce’s needs have changed. These changes are influenced by intergenerational differences, artificial intelligence, remote work, childcare, work-life balance, pandemics, and customers’ expectations, among other things. How your leadership team proactively or reactively responds to the changes can unintentionally undermine the success of a department and, by extension, the company.

For the leadership team to be effective, members must rise above their perspective, have an agile mindset, and be resilient in identifying and addressing emerging trends and threats.

In your leadership reflection, consider the following questions:

Do your leaders demonstrate the competencies to develop people, processes and systems capable of adapting to change?
Are your leaders cultivating an ambidextrous organisation? Can they complete today’s business objectives [5] while expecting changes and researching innovative and creative ways to meet the demands.

Professional development and support should be part of your company’s business strategy to nurture and enhance competencies. A strategy at the corporate level that is delineated at the operational and individual levels will communicate the high priority placed on team members’ development and resource investment. This will likely result in the benefits of retaining top talent and planning for the future of work.

Fostering an environment that encourages learning and participation will demonstrate to team members that they are valued and that your leadership team sees the potential in their abilities. To encourage this environment, the leadership team must be equipped with coaching skills. Coaching is an investment in the team’s development while inspiring members and leading to improved performance, self-esteem, and greater collegiality.

Three questions for consideration are:

What percentage of the leadership team intentionally provides learning opportunities for their team?
What are the common complaints from staff regarding development opportunities?
Are leaders providing their teams with opportunities to transfer their learning?

Accountability may be scorned or viewed negatively, as some feel that it only applies to team members who are answerable to management. However, effective leaders hold themselves accountable for their actions and understand that being answerable to team members demonstrates their commitment and feeds the employee relationship. Building professional relationships on accountability also includes peer-to-peer accountability.

For your leadership team to be fully effective, it is recommended that accountability be paired with feedback. After clearly communicating the vision and ensuring everyone is aligned with the company’s priorities, it must be supported with timely, constructive and transparent performance feedback for growth.

Performance feedback should not be reserved for the yearly appraisal session but should be expected at regular intervals as part of the communication loop. These ongoing real-time conversations should include praise, areas for improvement, and check-in conversations that provide opportunities for guidance and ideas to ensure success.