Leadership Framework

Happy Friday,

Leadership improvement offers the biggest opportunity for enhancing the performance of most organizations. Not so much at the CEO level, where scrutiny is the greatest, but after that...

Leadership, as a job, exists primarily to multiply the impact of others, thereby multiplying the power of the organization. As such, leaders are the most powerful lever a CEO can pull to rev up success.

Yet leadership, in general, has remained a widely underperforming self-inflicted wound for two reasons: 1) leaders are too often selected for reasons other than leadership aptitude, and 2) leaders are usually expected to be good managers, not good leaders—big difference in outcomes.

Put plainly, people aren't awarded leader titles because they're great leaders, and once there, they aren't expected to be great leaders. Not always, but often. Nevertheless, in my experience, they are universally good, accomplished people who want to do well in their new roles. What they need from the organization is a roadmap—a Leadership Framework. 

A Leadership Framework is a structured outline of the critical leadership competencies, behaviors, and expectations that guide leaders’ actions and development in your organization. It’s a roadmap that provides clarity, consistency, and alignment of best leadership practices across your entire organization. That’s right, it’s heaven.

Here’s why you need a Leadership Framework: 

1.     Clarity – It defines what leadership is and what leadership success looks like.

2.     Responsibility – It refutes leadership as a reward, emphasizing instead the seriousness of the responsibility.

3.     Consistency – It defines best leadership practices expected across all levels and departments.

4.     Alignment - It aligns leadership with the organization’s values, goals, and strategic priorities. Hence, all leaders sing from the same hymnal, row in the same direction, and steer the ship of progress with a unified purpose. (smile)

5.     Development—It provides a common foundation, helping all leaders identify areas for growth and providing guidance on enhancing their skills.

6.     Recruitment and Selection – Obviously, it would inform recruitment. The alternative is uninformed leadership recruitment, which is widely the norm.

7.     Performance Management—This is extremely important. Once you define performance, you can assess it. Lousy leaders need to improve fast or go. A leadership framework enables an assessment of leadership competence and a sound basis to demand immediate improvement or removal from the role.

8.     Succession Planning – Defining good leadership makes identifying and cultivating better successors easier.

A clear, well-defined leadership framework strengthens organizational culture, enhances leadership effectiveness, and drives organizational performance and innovation. It only needs to be 2-3 pages long. Write it, or send me a note, and I’ll draft one. 

It would be wise to get this done soon so your organization is stronger and better prepared to grapple with the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Wishing you the best,

Dave

Your feedback and blowback are always welcome here: dave@goodnewsfriday.com

All past topics available @ goodnewsfriday.com

Once again, written by me, not ChatGPT: valuable speed assist and blunder avoidance by Grammarly