Identifying and Developing Great Leaders

The following article is an excerpt from John DiJulius' new book, The Employee Experience Revolution: Increase Morale, Retain Your Workforce, and Drive Business Growth

“When your company says you want your employees to be leaders, what that really means is that you want their emotional commitment to your vision. A leader’s emotional commitment is about taking on the company success as a personal crusade.”

–Stan Slap

Developing leaders to avoid accidental bosses

An article in Fortune titled “Nearly all bosses are ‘accidental’ with no formal training—and research shows it’s leading one in three workers to quit” shares research conducted by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) revealing that many of those promoted into managerial positions are all title and no training. These startling findings revealed one in four people in the workforce have management responsibilities, yet very few have been trained to do their jobs.

CMI’s research found that an incredible 82 percent of bosses are “accidental managers,” and what’s even scarier is 25 percent of those are in senior leadership roles. This is negatively impacting employee morale and a third of employees are quitting their jobs.

Employees who say their manager is ineffective feel seriously less satisfied, valued, and motivated in their job than those who described their managers as effective. Fifty percent of employees surveyed who are unhappy with their manager say they are planning to quit within the next year.

Employees are not the only ones with low morale. Many of these accidental managers were high-performing employees prior to being promoted without any leadership training. According to CMI’s research, managers aren’t confident in their own leadership abilities, with many struggling when it comes to dealing with the multiple issues facing their team members at work and in their home lives.

When entrepreneurs start a company, they find a few crazy people to join them, people who see how their vision will change the world. That founding group of employees rallies together, makes ridiculous sacrifices, fails, innovates, fails some more, and eventually figures it out. Why? Because the founding team members were in the foxhole with the entrepreneur. It was “them against the world.”

After they get through that phase, growth comes, and more employees are needed, resulting in layers of leadership, and now you have employees being hired by people who don’t have that fuel and emotional connection to the original rebels. You lose your mavericks, and the soul of a start-up disappears. The magic that was a magnetic force attracting rock stars who would follow the founder into battle is gone. Now it is about growth and hitting our numbers, productivity, and efficiency.

An infinitely better alternative is to build and develop great leaders. The key is to replicate that entrepreneurial spirit, instilling it into the next generation of leaders who will rally their teams around the company’s cause. This is much easier said than done. If your leaders are not infused with that energy, your employees never will be.

Building a great internal culture and leading the Employee Experience Revolution starts with developing great leaders, making your existing ones better, and creating a pipeline of emerging talent who can be the next generation of great leaders in your company.

Leadership burnout

The Great Resignation wasn’t only about turnover among employees. Leaders at all levels moved on for the same reasons employees quit, including burnout and lack of respect, meaning, and purpose in their careers. Just like the hasty way in which organizations replaced employee turnover, companies compromised when replacing their leaders and/or rushed the process, setting up their emerging leaders for failure and additional stress.

Leaders at every level bore the brunt of turnover and attrition fallout, especially middle managers. When a team member quits, it is almost always the leaders’ responsibility to pick up the pieces. Rehires don’t happen overnight. Shifts need to be covered, and an attempt needs to be made at keeping up morale among employees who have chosen to stay. Interviewing, training replacements, and dealing with customer complaints that inevitably come with newer customer-facing employees all have to get done.

Over the last few years, we have asked more of our leaders than ever before. Let’s reward them, help them, support, train, and inspire them. To retain existing leaders and attract future leaders, let’s make leadership something that people once again aspire to.

Identifying your emerging leaders

Emerging leaders are team members who not only perform their jobs well, but also demonstrate potential for growth and leadership beyond their current roles, primarily by demonstrating emotional intelligence. They are also willing to take on challenges and are proactive in seeking solutions. They demonstrate a natural ability to inspire their colleagues. The following are some specifics to look for in your high performers:

Qualities for identifying emerging leaders

• Overall job performance: This one is obvious but often given too much weight in identifying a future leader. Future leaders can stand out due to consistency and results. But this is not the only measure to use.
• Showing leadership tendencies: Even while being a member of the team, leaders of the future may show leadership qualities such as supporting fellow team members, taking the lead on projects, or superior problem-solving.
• Innovation: Future leaders do not subscribe to the “we’ve always done it this way” mentality and are not afraid to propose new solutions. Thanks to their focus on problem-solving, they often find new and more efficient ways to do things.
• Adaptability: Adapting to change is critical in today’s business landscape. Future leaders are the ones who embrace change and look for new opportunities to grow and learn.
• Communication: Effective communication is key to strong leadership. Your future leaders will not only demonstrate the ability to communicate clearly, but also, and maybe most importantly, the ability to listen actively and take direction.
• Collaboration: Leaders understand the value of teamwork and collaboration. Your future leaders will be those individuals who contribute positively to group dynamics and support their colleagues.
• Ownership: Emerging leaders take ownership of their roles and responsibilities, going above and beyond what is expected. They proactively seek opportunities to make a difference and don’t wait for directions.

Recognizing those who show initiative and responsibility can lead to the discovery of potential leaders. Once an emerging leader has been identified, what are the next steps to take for continued development? Find ways to get them active within the organization outside of just their current role. One good way is to invite them to join a project steering committee where they can interact with leaders, oversee timelines, and communicate progress.

John R. DiJulius III, author of The Customer Service Revolution, is president of The DiJulius Group, a customer service consulting firm that works with companies including Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, Ritz-Carlton, Nestle, PwC, Lexus, and many more. Contact him at 216-839-1430 or info@thedijuliusgroup.com.