Many of us look at people in positions of power and think that we’d do a better job.
While it’s rarely that simple, in some cases we might be right. Yet many people are naturally reluctant to assume these positions, even when the stakes and profile of the job are significantly lower. That’s a problem for businesses, many of which are suffering a leadership crisis.
Having leadership ambitions is one thing, but many people seem put off by the prospect of leadership, and think they wouldn’t be good at it. The reality is that leadership is neither as scary nor as difficult as many people think—it just requires training, acclimatisation, and the willingness to learn and improve.
Follow the leader
We wouldn’t want to imply that leadership isn’t consequential. In business, the role of leaders can’t be overstated. A great leader can take an acorn of an idea and coax it into a giant oak tree. A bad leader by contrast can salt the earth in which the acorn is planted before it can even send out a tentative green shoot.
However, the pipeline of great managers seems to be running a little dry. The right people aren’t always accelerated into leadership, and an increasing number seem to be opting out. A recent white paper by Investors in People found that only 18% of employees without management responsibilities find management roles “aspirational and inspirational”. A full 52% meanwhile do not see management as an aspirational career path, and are even actively avoiding it.
In spite of the usual increase in pay and benefits for career progression, a growing number of people seemingly don’t want to be managers. Reasons cited in the white paper include the added stress, not enjoying the idea of managing people, a perceived lack of support, a lack of positive examples, a lack of trust, and the prospect of too much paperwork. Fundamentally, many employees seem to think that leadership just isn’t for them, meaning businesses are missing out on potential talent.
The identification issue
Some people may not be cut out for leadership, but leadership also isn’t what many people think. 74% of people in the white paper describe middle management roles as high stress, and few people either highlight or are aware of the different aspects of a leadership role. People may perceive that leaders are responsible for making tough decisions and prioritising business objectives over people’s wellbeing. But this can be misleading, and is only one element of what business leadership entails.
Management, for example, may involve things like driving productivity or resolving disputes. But it’s also a process of supporting your team’s wellbeing, providing inspiration, solving problems, and bolstering relationships. One thing might put someone off considering a leadership role, but leadership is multi-faceted. Just because you don’t think you’re good at or wouldn’t enjoy one aspect, doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be good at others.
Sometimes it’s not individuals who are ruling themselves out of leadership roles, but leaders who are ruling other people in. Making a decision on who has good leadership attributes and would make a good manager can be just as difficult as seeing those attributes in yourself. Someone who is naturally gregarious and confident might appear to be a good fit, but ultimately lack many of the qualities they need to succeed in a given role.
Why leaders are born and made
It’s certainly true that some people are naturally better leaders than others. But it’s also true that a large part of that deficit can be made up through training. It’s also true that this training isn’t offered enough, either to prospective leaders or newly-chosen ones. The research above indicates that a whopping 82% of people promoted into management roles receive no training whatsoever. This does an enormous disservice to those individuals, and might be contributing towards people’s reluctance to take up those roles.
It’s also a problem that’s frustratingly easy to solve. Training is important in all aspects of business, whether it’s for new recruits to learn the ropes, or to keep experienced staff abreast of new processes and ideas, and get rid of bad habits. For managers, this takes the form of courses like our Introduction to First Line Management, which builds key communication and planning skills that help you to manage both your workload and your colleagues.
There’s also value in training aspects of work that new managers might not have encountered before, such as our Managing Challenging Conversations course, or Managing Poor Performance and Difficult Behaviour. It’s often these aspects—having to have tough conversations with your colleagues and friends—that new managers can find most off-putting, an issue we’ve written about before.
Having prior management experience also doesn’t always mean that you will fare better when promoted, or moved to a different kind of leadership position. Courses such as our Management Development Programme or Senior Leadership Development Programme can help to plug gaps in knowledge, but also hone in on your individual strengths and weaknesses, and provide tailored support that helps you to become a better leader.
And finally…
Leadership isn’t always something that people arrive at naturally. Sometimes, you need a little push in the form of positive reinforcement and examples, revealing the leadership traits within you. The problem is when this is more of a shove from the leaders above you, and the right training isn’t provided to support this journey.
Thriving in a leadership role means identifying the leadership attributes you do have, but also undertaking training to fill in the blanks, and maximise your potential. With the right knowledge and support, we should be able to empower a whole new generation of leaders—and provide the inspiration for a whole lot more.
