Management are the central organisational activity in any organisation. The capability of the organisation to achieve its business strategies in the light of the critical success factors largely depends on the capability of its managers. Organisations are experiencing significant changes, with the most significant change in growing international competition. Only the most efficient firms are surviving.

In increasingly competitive environments, there is a greater need for Managers to lead effectively. Emerging Managers, those who have progressively obtained the role mainly through expert knowledge, tend to lack the essential leadership skills. If organisations want competitive advantage, then they must ensure employees are continuously trained and developed. Some of best benchmarked organisations understand the importance of this.

A CIPD survey carried out in 2005 found that Leaders in the UK often lack dedicated attention from their superiors to help them develop in a planned fashion through continuous learning, both from job experiences and more formal training activities. Hence they tend to arrive in leadership positions less well prepared than their counterparts elsewhere and they inspire less confidence in their ability to execute strategies successfully.

Prevention is better than cure; however such a small minority of organisations understand this within the context of leadership and people development. Common sense and experience tells us that a proactive approach needs to be adopted, especially in the present climate!

What are the proactive steps to effective leadership? The first and most important step, that any organisation should do, is to assess the current leadership – this identifies gaps in attributes. There are a number of attributes which include: general intelligence, personality, technical or professional knowledge and skills such as listening, delegating and sharing. Some attributes are difficult to work with, e.g. personality; however strategies can be implemented to help strengthen some of the key aspect of a particular personality or leadership type.

Once the current leadership is assessed, strategies can then be implemented to address the gaps. The implementation needs to be considered in congruence to learning styles. It’s imperative that the right strategy and intervention is implemented and then critically reviewed and changed as necessary.

A systematic and flexible approach is needed to help turn leaders in to effective ones. For example there needs to be a structure which takes into account the situational approach, e.g. the group, the task in hand and the organisation. With careful planning, implementation and review, there is no reason why leaders cannot have the opportunity to be more effective, determined and progressive – key attributes needed for the 21st century organisation.

Written by Tajinder Sian, BA (Hons) MA ACIPD ACMI @ culturescape