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Silver Forest

Leading Questions

Published on June 7, 2018

Interview with Chris Roebuck, Hon. Visiting Professor of Transformational Leadership at Cass Business School by Jonathan Hawes, Managing Director of Silver Forest

JH: Chris, is there a single factor which is most common amongst outstanding leaders?

CR: I would say there are probably three critical factors:

Firm foundation of excellent task delivery skills - the ability to assess a situation, develop a credible plan to delver the required outcome, engage those who need to be involved in making it happen, brief them so everyone knows what they need to do, then either through your direction or better still their empowered delegation, start to take action. During the delivery supervise being as “hands on” or “off” as appropriate to optimise the performance of all. After the delivery review how it went with all involved to assess if things could have been done better.

Ability to get the best from people by having created an environment where they willingly give their best effort for you

Ability to focus that best effort on to what delivers success – alignment of operational action to strategic objectives though understanding the “big picture”.

JH: How easy or hard has it been to identify high potential for leadership?

CR: Identifying high potential has two key elements and a question on timing. First question relates to performance – is the individual performing better than peers ? Second is about potential – do they have the potential to go further. These are not the same thing. Performance does not equal potential. Organisations who make such an assumption can suffer a 50% failure rate on promotions based on this false assumption.

Potential is best indicated by behaviour – the ability to get things done through positive interaction with others, ability to learn and develop themselves, ability to take a holistic perspective and not just from their own position, ability to use change as an opportunity, and resilience to stress though managing self are the critical indicators.

The timing question is about is this the right time for the individual in terms of their own circumstances and ambition to undertake the inevitably challenging development which those identified as having high potential often undergo.

JH: What questions should we be asking of our potential future leaders to ensure that they are the right people to lead our organisations in the future?

CR: The first question has to be why do you want to be a leader, or be promoted to take on greater leadership responsibility. The answer to this and its authenticity indicates whether the driver is purely self focused or motivated to something greater than themselves, such as belief in the organisation or desire to contribute or develop performance of others. Simply put the more the answers to any questions indicate a “we not me” mindset more than a “me not we” the more likely the person is to be one of the right people.

The second question is do you have the capability to do the job in terms of simple practical skills in managing tasks and people to deliver the outcomes required. So essentially the ability to get the best from people and focus that onto what delivers success.

This is often summarised in the “what” and “how” questions – “what” are you able to deliver and “how” do you do it. The “how” includes elements related to the organisations values and how they treat people

JH: Have you seen the characteristics required of successful leaders change in the past 10-15 years and will they change in the future? If so how?

CR: The answer is yes and no ! “No” in the sense that what leaders have to give to get the best from people has not essentially changed in 2500 years. Aristotle said “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” That still applies. So the fundamental drivers of what people want from their boss remain constant, much of this is hard wired into our brains but there is variation in just how that might be delivered for different people's needs to match them and the context. This is why there is a “yes” related to a change in leadership.

As an example people always want to develop their skills and grow but how that can be achieved will vary over time and in different contexts. Aristotle didn’t have online video learning whilst we do. How leadership is delivered, but not its core content, has varied over recent times. We have seen a need for different leadership approaches – pre financial crisis and post. From boom to recession means different challenges but to meet those leaders still have to do the same things for people, it's just that in a recession things are much tougher.

Overall the modern context introduces more pressure to get it right, more pressure resulting from the volume of work and more pressure from the speed of communication. Thus above all the modern world demands leaders must be more capable than ever before in delivering what they have always had to deliver. Leaders have always had to inspire people to get the best and always will be that in ancient Greece or now.

JH: Do you see many people trying to fake these characteristics?

Not many but a few. The more sources of data you have and the more skilled those assessing the individual are the less likely they will be in faking successfully. In many cases it is feedback from peers and those who work for them which is contradictory to what the boss says that reveals the problems. These individuals are often successful in delivering outcomes but how it is being done is often the issue.

Again it is the “what” and “how” analysis that picks up the issues. However there is also an organisational risk where those assessing future leaders also consider the “what” significantly more important than the “how”. They adhere to the same view that the “ends justify the means” which those they are assessing adopt. Thus this potentially damaging behaviour is seen as acceptable.

Delivering the objective at any cost can be short term effective but is counter productive long term. In the end intimidation can only be effective for a few months, inspiration is not limited by time. As for faking it, it is only possible for short periods before others see the true individual so even if it is not identified on selection it becomes apparent in due course.

JH: What advice would you give to someone on the cusp of achieving a senior leadership role, for whom some of the requirements may be new, eg a first ExCo role; moving from a function head to a general management position eg FD to CEO?

CR: There are a few simple principles that can help.

  • Gather full information so you have a clear and accurate picture of what’s going on – not just data but listen to people, no matter how junior, who know what’s really going on in the organisation. This also alerts you to potential nasty surprises in the future. Speak to those dealing with customers if you are not customer facing.
  • Ensure your core task management skills are as good as they can be – prioritisation, time management, delegation, communication, giving feedback. You need to be a great operational leader to your new team as well as a strategic leader.
  • Make sure you are totally clear on the expectations of you both written and unwritten.
  • Broaden your understanding by all means possible of the whole organisation, the environment within which it operates and what the future may hold. Listen more than you talk.
  • Don’t just look at of what’s going on at the leading edge of your sector look at the leading edge everywhere.
  • You are now more visible and will be seen as a senior leader by everyone, some might say one of “them”, every action you take will send a message about you across the organisation – your capability, your values, the way you treat people, whether you think “we not me” or the other way round.
  • Use the idea of “serve to lead” as a guide. Never forget you have to be able to get people to answer yes to the two most fundamental questions 1 ) can you do the job, 2) can they trust you. You must get a yes to both.

JH: Is it helpful to study high profile role models and if so why?

CR: Yes it can be provided you understand that great leaders are not only drivers of events but also created by events. So they tend to match the events that create them. Historical examples such as Horatio Nelson, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi fit this model. It’s about them matching the context, and most of those were perfect for the moment in time but would probably have been a disaster in a modern corporate setting.

In organisations we don’t need great leaders who can change the world, just those that can get the best from people in an organisational environment. That’s a more realistic and viable benchmark and is much easier to achieve. But looking at what the best corporate leaders say does give indicators. Consistently when I speak to or interview such leaders it’s clear their ability to focus on people as a means to deliver success is the key. That act as part of the team and they get success via acting in a “serve to lead” way more than “do as you’re told”.

JH: Churchill or Roosevelt?

CR: Difficult – both had faith in their nations, were able to create a feeling of confidence during the most challenging of times, both would try new ideas if they might hold a solution to the problems, both dedicated to winning in the end no matter how long it took. That’s the WWII element, probably a draw, but in the longer term impact on their nations Roosevelt implemented much more in peacetime, especially related, moving the USA out of the Great Depression and rudimentary workers rights. So overall he wins.

JH: Bezos or Musk?

CR: Musk. Bezos has changed the business world and the way consumers think and act. Musk may have had less impact to date but some of the projects he has in progress could literally change the world and humanity, eg battery technology.

 

Chris Roebuck has been a leader in the military, business and public sector. He is a regular contributor on business issues for the BBC and other global TV networks, speaks frequently to leadership teams and conferences and is an advisor to business leaders globally.

By Jonathan Hawes