Improving your leadership effectiveness

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Marshall Goldsmith wrote an interesting article “Great Leaders Are Made Not Born” discussing leadership development effectiveness, when Marshall Goldsmith and his partner Howard Morgan, conducted an extensive study on leadership development programs involving over 86,000 participants in eight major corporations. Their finding were that…

“Leaders who participated in a development program, received 360º feedback, selected important areas for improvement, discussed these with co-workers and followed-up with co-workers on a consistent basis (to check on progress) were rated as becoming dramatically better leaders — not in a self-assessment, but in the assessment of co-workers — six to eighteen months after the initial program. Leaders who participated in the same developmental programs — and received the same type of feedback — but did no follow-up were seen as improving no more than random chance.”

Marshall Goldsmith provided the following suggestions as to how we can increase our leadership effectiveness:

1. Get 360º feedback on your present level of effectiveness — as judged by co-workers that you respect.
2. Pick the most important behaviors for change — those you believe will enhance your effectiveness as a leader (i.e., “become a more effective listener” or “make decisions in a timely manner”).
3. Periodically ask co-workers for suggestions on how you can do an even better job in your selected behaviors for change.
4. Listen to their ideas (don’t promise to change everything) and make the changes that you believe will further increase your effectiveness.
5. Follow-up and measure change in effectiveness over time.

Direct feedback is essential to our development as leaders. Critical feedback is often missing simply because we fail to ask for feedback. Why not ask a trusted co-worker this week for feedback on your leadership effectiveness?

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Feedback, Mentor, Coach, Coaching, Management, Development, Leadership Development, Personal Development, Growth

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Tagged as: Feedback, Growth, Leadership Development, Leadership Practices, Learning