As a Leader, Are You a Sail or an Anchor?

Bring up the topic of growth with any senior leader, and you are almost certain to be told two things – their organization isn’t growing as quickly as management thinks it should, and no one seems to be able to put their finger on the exact reasons why.

We fund investment in growth initiatives, but somehow we are still unable to meld our labor and capital into a cohesive force for good. We struggle to weave together the wisdom of our Baby Boomers, the focus of our Gen X’ers, and the energy of our Millennials into a seamless, winning team. We grapple with the technology at the core of our business, while an elite competitor somehow appears to wield it as a strategic scalpel. Again and again, our organizations aren’t as successful as leadership thinks they should be, and no one is quite sure why. It’s genuinely mystifying.

What’s routinely missed in all this is that while labor and capital are essential ingredients in the recipe of growth, they are no longer enough. The central challenge for any organization is that, in a world where everyone has access to the same capital, technology, skilled labor, and markets, how do you out-perform the competition? New research from The Leadership Circle shows that the answer to that question is a simple one – the sole remaining differentiator is leadership. 

It turns out that while growth is sometimes capital-intensive and sometimes labor-intensive, it’s always leader-intensive.

Let’s put this in personal terms - the quality of your leadership may be the only differentiator available to you, and if you are like the vast majority of leaders, you are essentially blind to the impact you’re having on your team. It’s time for each of us to deliberately explore this blind spot. Are we anchors holding our team back, or sails that catch the wind and pull our crew forward? It’s something that each of us needs to know and take ownership for. 

But there’s a problem with this approach. Rational management principles state that when organizations consider investment in new equipment and employees, the decision is based on the expected Return on Investment (ROI). In contrast, leadership is seen as an unquantifiable “soft skill” with, at best, an indirect impact on key metrics like growth and market share.

There’s no analysis of the Return on Leadership (ROL), because that’s ridiculous, right?

Where’s the data that proves that investing in leadership makes business sense? How can we drive a business case, alongside our ROI calculations, to assess, budget and grow our Return on Leadership, and reap the rewards?

That’s now possible, using new, statistically validated leadership assessments tools that link the impact of individual leaders to critical metrics like revenue, sales, profitability and market share. New research proves that the key to this quest to find growth where none existed in the past – is Creative leadership, focused on Vision, Engagement and Execution, in that order. The ability to objectively envision a future worth striving for, create a path to get there and engage others in the effort is essential to navigating change driven by the relentless forces of technology and globalization.

The bottom line is that good leadership, which can now be defined, quantified and cultivated, is great business. 

For organizations, that means that alongside the returns on investment – the ROI - they have always expected from labor and capital, they can now plan for an ROL – the Return on leadership.?

Dennis Brouwer is the author of The Return on Leadership: A Three Step Plan to Navigate Change and Unlock Hidden Growth, now available for pre-order on Amazon. More information is available at www.ReturnOnLeadership.info.