Identify New Leaders

In our article on \"The Impending Leadership Crisis,\" we emphasize the critical need to identify and develop potential leaders at all levels. [Our articles on Coaching and Mentoring reveal how to develop employees, including potential leaders.]

Here we show how to identify those new leaders. We propose nine essential traits (emphasizing the three, which are unique to leaders), describe four methods to spot the traits, and disclose the underlying secret to revealing a leader\'s potential.

The Traits

You are a leader. So, why not look for someone just like you?

Well, as you may realize, this would not enhance diversity and might lead to potential discrimination.

Also, although many of your traits are relevant, many have nothing to do with leadership; and some of your traits may be counterproductive.

Better to start with a blank sheet of paper and determine the essential traits of leaders.

We\'ve determined nine such traits. The first three are:

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1. Integrity
: Honest, congruent between word and deed, competent, trusted, respected

Although you might organize or label these differently, we expect that you would include these on your own list. We submit, however, that these traits are not unique to leaders. You want all of your employees -- certainly your professionals -- to possess such attributes. And that\'s how we classify this group -- the Professionals traits.

The next three traits we\'ve determined are:

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1. Responsibility
: \"The buck stops here.\" Assumes responsibility, is accountable

We think this group ratchets it up a notch. Leaders definitely need to possess such traits. But then, so do entrepreneurs (e.g., independent consultants like the authors). Thus, we classify these three as Entrepreneurs traits.

As you look at the list of six thus far, what element is missing? We submit that it is ... interaction with people.

With that in mind, here are our final three -- the traits unique to Leaders:

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1. Influence
: Develops strong working relationships, builds rapport quickly, strong team player, works effectively with people, expresses views clearly and with impact, politically savvy

All nine traits are important, but anyone in your current workforce whom you would even consider for leadership development should already possess the first three Professionals traits.

So, focus on the traits unique to Entrepreneurs and, especially, Leaders.

Spot the Traits

Now that you\'ve determined the traits to look for, how do you go about detecting them in your current employees (or in outsiders)?

There are four methods:

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1. Examine Previous Experience (and outside activities)
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2. Observe Current Behavior
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3. Assessment Instruments
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4. 360 Feedback
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We regard the first two as essential. The other two methods are optional, but can be quite useful.

When examining Previous Experience (and outside activities), look at:

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• What leadership positions (formal and informal) has the individual held?
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• What leadership roles has s/he assumed (regardless of position)?
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• How effective was s/he in those positions and roles?
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• What traits (or their absence) did s/he demonstrate in these positions and roles?
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• What traits (or their absence) has s/he demonstrated in non-leader roles?
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Then look at Current Behavior ... asking the same kind of questions you asked for Previous Experience:

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• What leadership roles has the individual assumed in the current job?
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• How effective is s/he in those roles?
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• What traits (or their absence) is s/he demonstrating in these roles?
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• What traits (or their absence) is s/he demonstrating in non-leader roles?
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This should give you a pretty good sense whether the individual has what it takes to fill your shoes. But you can supplement this with a couple other techniques:

Assessment Instruments are questionnaires, which rate the extent the individual has displayed the traits - both self-assessments and assessments completed by others. These are available from many outside consultants.

360 Feedback is an assessment instrument completed by: superiors, subordinates, peers, and self - thereby providing a complete 360 view of the individual. These also are available from many outside consultants, e.g., PDI\'s PROFILOR and DDI\'s Leadership Mirror.

Opportunity

Trait spotting is a somewhat passive process. It is necessary, but not sufficient. You need to do more than just observe and assess.

There is an additional question to add to each method:

Has s/he been given the opportunity to demonstrate these traits?

We call this the Harry Truman Factor.

During his brief Vice Presidency, the relatively unknown and untried Harry Truman was in the shadows of charismatic Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Upon FDR\'s death, when Truman was thrust onto the world stage during the last year of WWII -- that is, when he was given the opportunity -- he demonstrated his own unique style of leadership and the ability to make the tough decisions (e.g., dropping the atom bomb and, during the Korean War, firing the popular General Douglas Macarthur).

You may have noticed our use above of his trademark, \"The buck stops here.\"

So...

Provide your professionals the opportunity to rise to the challenge.

Make sure that your employees who exhibit the Professionals traits are given opportunities to demonstrate the others.

The Grimmes conduct customized onsite training workshops and large group presentations for organizations in every sector of the economy. Their groundbreaking book on managing people in today\'s workplace will be published by AMACOM in the second half of 2008. Visit their main website at http://www.GHR-Training.com and topic-specific http://www.Employee-Retention-HQ.com ... and read issues of their own e-newsletter at http://www.WorkplacePeopleSolutions.com

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