4 Leadership Steps to Stronger Performance and Collaboration

$366 billion was spent globally on leadership training and development in 2019, with $166 billion in the US alone. However, there are still huge gaps in achievement and results for this investment.

Less than half of companies globally invest in their high potential and emerging leaders, for example. And even succession and leadership planning for senior executives is patchy and inconsistent.

 Over the past 20 years I have worked with organizations in a range of industries. I’ve talked with decision makers from CEOs to HR and L&D leaders, and many of them have pointed me to an inescapable conclusion: the leadership gap is growing, not closing.

Organizations are often more than ready to invest in training courses for specialist skills or short-term projects, but they are much less ready to pursue the long-term development of leaders for measurable and consistent results.

What is your investment plan for leadership results in the medium to long term?

Of course every organization has different priorities and resources. However, I have tried to get an overall picture by talking to more than 150 leaders and managers in pharma and biotechnology who are C-Suite or Senior VP decision makers, as well as Founders and CEOs of smaller companies.

Here are some of the replies and comments I have received:

•  Senior leaders and managers receive little or no training to succeed in a new role.
• Despite short-term courses in technical skills and change management, it is difficult to accelerate a long-term change initiative.
• Team members and leaders often find it impossible to get control of multiple priorities and overwhelm.
• Although strategic direction is clearly set and even if the vision is widely shared, many leaders lack the leadership skills to make strategy happen.
• Despite a high level of academic and scientific achievement, leaders struggle to influence more effectively in one-on-one conversations or to get an idea accepted throughout the organization.
• In the experience of many, a high-performance culture of scientific and technical achievement does not necessarily translate into strong leadership and collaborative skills
• There is no concerted effort, and no measurable approach to developing the attitudes and ways of being of the leader.
• Although many team members are distributed and operating virtually, leaders lack the tools and resources to build and lead effective diverse teams across the organization.
• With a few exceptions, leaders are aware that they are not developing a pipeline of leaders or preparing for succession or attracting great talent.

What lessons can we learn from this, especially in regard to the biotech and pharma industries?

Here are some of the Pain Points according to the leaders we surveyed:

1) Stress and exhaustion are widespread, resulting in a failure to hit targets and meet deadlines.

As several decision makers we spoke to pointed out, this is often caused by leaders trying to apply a perfectionist, planning, detailed and analytical mindset (based on high academic and scientific achievement) to a rapidly changing, complex and agile environment.

2) Uncertainty due to a lack of trust and engagement with other teams.

This was a common complaint, especially in regard to teams being dispersed and virtual, where little attention was being paid to leadership training and planning in order to improve alignment and collaboration.

3) Lack of time and overwhelming pressure of “priorities”

As many leaders explained, this pressure in turn leads to one-track thinking and tunnel vision, with each team focused on targets and results for their own team: i.e. operating in silos. Everyone in both large and small companies is inclined to keep information on a “need to know” basis rather than cultivating an open exchange of information

4) Leaders are presumed to have all the answers

Several decision makers thought that the pursuit of verifiable scientific answers meant that very few of them had the time or vision to empower others to share and collaborate more – to be coaches themselves. Whereas those who exhibit true leadership skills are constantly listening and learning from the information and people around them.

5) Progress and innovation are frustrated by seeking perfection

As a number of leaders explained, this overriding goal is the “holy grail” when rolling out new products, services or ideas. The very slow and careful pursuit of perfection is preferred to testing results along the way, for example, with minimum viable products (MVPs) and learning what’s working and what’s not in a progressive, collaborative manner.

6) Leadership is not understood as empowering others

Many leaders said that the root cause is a lack of understanding of the role of EQ ad well as IQ in leadership, along with a refusal to delegate or create a culture of agile thinking – rather than agile processes – throughout the organization. A discipline for details and analysis is a valuable professional asset, several added, but it can make it very difficult to let go to trust and engage with others.  

How Do Leaders Handle These Challenges?

1. They try to impose training on the unwilling

Thinking that something, or anything must be done to improve leadership, they outsource training on an ad hoc basis. This rarely works because the managers don’t really understand how it can be helpful, resent the extra pressure on their schedule, and don’t believe their efforts will result in any promotion or reward. There’s a lack of internal support because others have not experienced the training.

2. They focus on training rather than coaching

Leadership cannot really be taught via Powerpoint or by traditional speakers who give group workshops with talks and exercises. The emphasis needs to be on behavioural change through personal 1-2-1 coaching, with goal setting, stakeholder feedback, individual development plans and measurable results in the programme.

The costs of an executive coach can be lowered by giving younger managers a blend of group and 1-2-1 coaching with bite-sized content that can be consumed digitally.

Less than half of Millennial leaders receive coaching support to be proactive self leaders, despite being in the front line, and younger managers aged 20-32 receive no leadership training at all. Front-line and first-time leaders need to be coached as team players and leaders for bench strength.

3. They identify problems, rather than solutions

Leaders get stuck in the mode of identifying problems, complaining and laying blame on others, rather than focusing on bringing solutions to the table, new ideas and new ways to navigate into the future. These are all measurable results of good leadership coaching.

4. The real world and tasks get in the way of follow up or consistency

It’s often the case that even when leadership training is fitted into the manager’s schedule and priorities, the learning is lost in the tsunami of tasks and goals they have to navigate. If there isn’t follow-through after the training, or a system to build on the learning, the investment is wasted. It becomes simply a box-ticking exercise.

In my experience, if you want an actionable system with follow-through to create long-term results and measurable change, you have to invest in a consistent leadership coaching programme that can be implemented at all levels of the organization – including across borders, functions, geographies and mindsets.

As a leadership coach and consultant, I’ve developed a 4-part model for designing and leading coaching and training initiatives.

This “leadership toolkit” enables you to think and plan holistically for the leadership challenges of your teams so that the coaching is embedded in their daily habits and behavior, rather than forgotten as soon as the classroom course is finished.

The 4 A’s of Intelligent Global Leadership (IGL)

IGL coaching includes Intelligent Leadership, Global DISC and the proven Bamboo Strong? CQ Model based on decades of living and working globally as well as scholarly research in 72 countries to enhance your ability to build relationships, communicate, network, negotiate and lead in diverse workplaces across our globalized world – including at home and in virtual teams.

Whether you are leading an international project team, entering a new market or working together with colleagues of different backgrounds, generations, personality types, genders or cultures, the aim is to help you break out of your “silos” and become Intelligent Global Leaders for all occasions.

In the programme, we focus on leaders’ “inner core” strengths of resilience and flexibility, using self-assessments and 360 stakeholder feedback.

By unlocking leaders’ mental and emotional agility we help them rapidly adapt to dramatic changes, uncertainty and ambiguity in their professional and personal life.

Strengthening the Inner Core

Rather than focusing exclusively on “outer core” technical, scientific and functional skills, we develop “inner core” behaviours including collaboration, flexibility, teamwork and a willingness to take chances, listen, “re-imagine” outcomes and learn.

We confidentially engage with the leader in the four proven phases of our proprietary coaching process: Awareness; Assessment; Action; and Achievement.

1. Awareness

The leader experiences an in-depth diagnostic interview to establish the primary goal they want to achieve. The leader is assessed using our proprietary “inner-core” assessments that are complemented by stakeholder interviews and custom 360s to gain insight into their “outer-core” effectiveness.

2.  Assessment

Our assessments such as Global DISC foster a deep self-awareness and impact people in profound and meaningful ways. Our suite of scientifically designed instruments, backed by more than three decades of research, include solutions for leadership and personal development, collaborative teamwork, cognitive diversity, and mental and emotional agility.

We believe that by recognizing the whole self, in all its complexity, we can support individuals as they increase their self-awareness, channel their motivational energy, discover new opportunities for growth, and actively engage in their own development..

3.  Action

Rather than overwhelm leaders in one or two ad-hoc learning sessions (which are soon forgotten), we aim to partner with the leader to help them build and implement their custom leadership and personal development plan on a regular basis.

To fit into their very busy schedules, we organize short accountability check-ups two or three times a month. These sessions can also be arranged virtually, and if required, in small groups. This allows new habits and mindsets to take root without interrupting intensive work flows.

4. Achievement

The IGL programme is very “stakeholder” focused, in that leaders are guided to use their stakeholders throughout the process to gain powerful insights about their own leadership strengths and development gaps. We utilize the powerful and proprietary online LeaderWatch “mini-survey” process at monthly intervals to obtain feedback from stakeholders to determine if the leader is improving in those areas identified as critical in their leadership development journey.

Multi-dimensional workplaces, multi-generational workforces, a sharp increase in mental illness and digital disruption in every industry – these are all combining to make the modern workplace a real test of leadership ability. Left unchecked, these disruptors will massively affect an organization's ability to attract, engage, develop, and retain the talent needed to compete and thrive.

The 4-part Model of Awareness, Assessment, Action and Achievement in combination with Global DISC and Bamboo Strong Global Coaching offers a leadership development and training framework to comprehensively support your teams as they navigate the challenges of the 21st century.

Empowering Leaders To Achieve Measurable Results

We were working with a pharma (biotech) company seeking ways to empower leaders throughout the organization, in a globally consistent way.

The client believed that the need to respond quickly to change, build collaborative relationships, inspire and execute was now greater than in any of its previous ‘transformations’.

After a full analysis and leadership monitoring, we facilitated the launch of an IGL individual and group coaching programme to be replicated throughout the organization – in 1-2-1s, groups and virtual e-learning.

Critical goals in terms of change agility, emotional and cultural intelligence, managing diversity, networking, integrity and compliance were established. A vision was created for sharing among all leaders and middle managers, and progressively rolled out across teams and jurisdictions.

The results were extremely positive:

? The client increased ROI by 18% in previously lagging markets, where alignment and flexibility were poor

? An actionable plan was created for strengthening change leadership throughout the organization

? Senior leaders were the first to benefit from the plan and to ‘transmit’ the process and results to other teams and regions

? Two modules of the plan were included in the company’s Diversity & Inclusion Strategy

? Collaboration, creativity and innovation increased more than 30% across teams that adopted the framework and action plan

? Performance in terms of execution and decision-making improved at least 30%

So you see what happens when you put in place a sustainable and proven leadership development programme so that leaders at every level move forward in close alignment with your vision and goals?

They become no longer simply technical experts or defenders of silos, but true leaders and team players. Soon enough your results will show the difference.

If you’d like to achieve a similar transformation in your business we’d love to meet with you. All you need to do to lessen the strain is to set up a consistent, sustainable leadership development programme that is based on the 4 A’s and that can be accommodated in any intensive work schedule.

If this sounds possible for you or your leaders, I’m here to help. I invite you to join me for a Leadership Clarity Call in which we’ll:

• Create your 3 month leadership development plan
• Identify the road ahead and what goals can be achieved in the next week, the next month and what needs to be done to bring real and measurable results in the near future.

Now is the time to take action!

Schedule your clarity call and prepare yourself now by taking this short leadership quiz.