Leadership. It’s the most critical aspect of any organisation, and yet often the least understood and nurtured. In today’s corporate world, formulating your own leadership strategy is essential. This may sound intimidating, but it can be  simpler than expected and far more rewarding than you may have imagined. Here are some basic guidelines to help make sure your organisation isn’t just turning a profit, but continually developing its leadership muscle for sustainable success.  

1. Get the right people in the room

No man is an island, and no leadership strategy should be one either. Developing an effective strategy will involve a team effort. Make sure you include a range of people in creating your strategy – this will help to create a more balanced view and outlook.

2. Look out for gems along the way

The creation of the strategy is a mix of logic and art, involving both left brain and right brain work. While determining the number of leaders required is often a straightforward extrapolation of growth targets, defining the desired leadership culture is a much more non-linear process. Just as with peer reviews, the process can also produce useful conversations that may have never taken place before. These conversations themselves may act as interventions that begin shifting beliefs and values in your organisation.

3. Dream big

Get everyone to imagine what the leadership culture would be like if the organisation were fully implementing its business strategy and operating as effectively as possible. What behaviors among leaders would one observe? What shared beliefs would be held by all leaders that support and reinforce those behaviors? What things would employees, customers or other stakeholders be saying about leadership in general? What behaviors would be visible and reinforce the kind of culture that is desired? What behaviors would be called out as indicative of “good leadership” and rewarded accordingly?

4. Don’t neglect the details

In creating a leadership strategy, failing to be as detailed as possible in describing the leadership culture that is required to implement the business strategy will lead to oversights later in the process.  This in turn will erode strategy implementation and interfere with effective performance.

In creating your own leadership strategy, remember that a healthy leadership development ethos is likely to help you attract and retain the talent you need to take your organisation further. Implementing a culture of company-wide 360 Assessments through Origin is an excellent way to sustain this kind of progressive corporate culture and spot potential leaders and/or any disconnect between your ideal culture and the real one at hand.
Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/12/19/the-1-reason-leadership-development-fails/

Leadership Models, Methods, and Applications, by Bruce J. Avolio, John J. Sosik, Dong I. Jung, and Vair Berson

Developing a Leadership Strategy, by William Pasmore, Ph.D.

Measuring and Modifying Behaviour, by DBM.