Leadership

Article Type: Editorial From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 11, Issue 2

This issue of Strategic HR Review focuses on the theme of leadership. The theme is approached from varying angles, ranging from the development and performance of individual leaders through to the conditions that are conducive to a collective leadership approach.

In “The emotional profiles triangle: working with leaders under pressure”, Catherine Sandler puts forward a model for helping leaders deal with extreme pressure. Drawing on her own experience and field work, she identifies three ways in which leaders respond when pressure becomes overwhelming. There is the emotional response of feeling high levels of anxiety and this triggers the brain to respond to threat, resulting in unskillful or dysfunctional behavior. In the emotional profiles triangle, these emotional responses and associated negative behaviors correlate with three leadership types/strengths, allowing leaders to identify themselves – at their best and their worst – and prepare for or deal with any negative behavior they may display in stressful times. The author also puts forward three case studies to show how this self-awareness can be used within a coaching environment to help leaders apply it to their own situations and learn to better manage and lead when under pressure.

“Accelerating leadership performance in the first 100 days”, by Niamh O’Keeffe, examines the support required by new-to-role leaders in the first 100 days after they start their new role and how the HR function can provide that support. The author cautions HR professionals to look beyond the initial investment in time and resources involved in the recruitment of a new leader, and to avoid the trap of believing that a properly recruited leader will not require training and development. Instead, she advises HR teams to put in place a robust first 100-day plan for an effective leadership transition. She gives practical advice on what the plan should encompass and how to put it together, and advises strongly on the need for external professional help so that leaders can be open and honest in addressing the challenges that face them in their new roles.

“A changing leadership landscape: the development implications”,by Helena Clayton, focuses on the “wicked problems” facing leaders today and the impact this has on learning and development programs. Wicked problems are those that have not been faced before in the same way, and therefore do not have a tried and tested solution. Their uniqueness requires leaders to take a new approach to problem solving, including looking at the bigger picture, cultivating self-awareness and taking into account the views and experiences of others in a collective leadership approach. This naturally has implications for leadership development and how HR and L&D professionals help leaders develop the skills and knowledge required in this new environment. New knowledge is required, as are new ways of learning that will help harness collective knowledge and create ways of quickly putting new knowledge into practice. The author combines research and a case study to put forward practical advice for HR professionals looking to meet these L&D challenges.

In his paper, “Transforming business leaders into talent champions”,Christoffer Ellehuus looks at how organizations can support leaders in their own skills development. He starts with an insight into leadership research carried out by the Corporate Executive Board’s Corporate Leadership Council. The research explored managers’ skills, their knowledge, the proportion of time they spent on tasks related to their role and their attitude towards talent management. The results clearly set out the business case for good talent management skills, with good talent management linked to strong revenue and profit performance, as well as improved employee effort and retention. However,a low percentage of leaders successfully combined a commitment to talent management, with an ability to deliver, showing a need for motivation and leadership development focusing on this area. Based on the research the author identifies four types of leaders classified by their views on, and abilities to deliver, talent management, and provides guidance on how organizations can help to transform leaders into talent champions. He concludes with two case studies of organizations that are focusing on supporting their leaders as they rise through the ranks.

“Leadership by design”, by Dr Penny Tamkin, puts forward a link between outstanding leaders and an environment of devolved, dispersed leadership. The author charts the changes that have taken place over the last few decades in leadership thinking – the move from autocratic to democratic, the opposing points of focus on leaders versus leadership, and the more recent focus on collective or dispersed leadership. While it would seem that the focus on individual leaders and their behavior and traits does not reconcile with the focus on collective shared leadership, the author suggests that the two are linked. She draws on research into the traits of outstanding leaders and narrows them down to three key shared characteristics, which combine to embed collective leadership within an organization. Outstanding leaders empower others, they value people and relationships, and they enable others to perform – and these traits create the conditions for dispersed, devolved leadership.

Sara Nolansaranolanshr@emeraldinsight.com