the 3rd annual leadership report card

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1 901A - 5670 Spring Garden Rd, Halifax, NS, B3J 1H6 | Web:www.BluteauDeVenney.com | Email:[email protected] The 3 rd Annual Leadership Report Card Looking in the Mirror Next Page Next Page Written by: Michael DeVenney Bluteau DeVenney & Company THE 3 RD ANNUAL LEADERSHIP REPORT CARD LOOKING IN THE MIRROR

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In the aftermath of The Great Recession of 2008-2009, leaders are faced with a serious organizational challenge: a workforce that is increasingly disengaged and burned out. Leaders only succeed by getting things done through others, and that just got tougher. As a leader, where do you start?

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Page 1: The 3rd annual Leadership Report Card

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

Next PageNext Page

Written by: Michael DeVenney

Bluteau DeVenney & Company

The 3rd AnnuAl leAdership reporT CArd

looking in The Mirror

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

leaders and what they feel they are getting. This results in further disengagement.

2. More than a 20% drop in employee satisfaction with senior leader performance signals a rising disappointment with a management culture perceived to be “results at any cost”. Although leaders’ perseverance was valued in the past, senior leaders are seen as losing their interpersonal connection with their people. Personal skills are the leadership characteristics that separate leaders who achieve sustainable success and those that fail.

3. What employees want from leaders remains stable. The top four leadership characteristics most valued by employees is the same year over year, regardless of gender or age. For leaders, there is clarity in terms of what they need to provide their people to improve performance.

With the challenging economic environment still upon us, many leaders have focused on doing what it takes for their organizations to not only survive but also to meet the increasing demands from markets and customers. In our Leadership Report Card last year, we noted a disturbing trend that the leadership drive for results was respected but it was happening at a cost: relationships with employees. This trend fully developed in the last year to result in a significant increase in disillusionment with leadership focused on cost cutting, time pressures, and increased production.

There is a concept in leadership called the wake. Similar to a boat on the water, leaders leave a wake behind them. The wake is determined by how you move through the water. Leaders who rush forward full force leave a volatile, choppy, and rough wake behind them that spreads out and has impacts on things far in the distance. They rock the boat; passengers get motion sickness and want to get off. Alternatively, leaders can plot a different course that considers the passengers and does not stir up waves and froth. These leaders leave a beautiful wake behind them that does not disrupt the environment yet still achieves the same results. Leaders need to check their wakes.

John C. Ryan, the President of the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), outlined in his research paper, “Accelerating Performance,” a glaring gap between the skills leaders have now and the ones they will need to achieve success in the next ten years. More than 97%

The Third Annual Leadership Report Card

“Looking in the Mirror”

Introduction

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Mahatma Gandhi

In the aftermath of The Great Recession of 2008-2009, leaders are faced with a serious organizational challenge: a workforce that is increasingly disengaged and burned out.

• Front line managers are the most disillusioned component of the workforce, and as they are the organizational lever to translate executive strategy to actual results, a spiraling disengagement in the overall workforce and a serious lack of performance have ensued.

• Workforce productivity is sliding further and further downward creating a real impediment to maintaining any form of competitive advantage.

• The makeup of the workforce is shifting with the increasing percentage of Millennial employees demanding a different way of doing things.

Leaders only succeed by getting things done through others, and that just got tougher. As a leader, where do you start?

Ironically, the first step is to hold up the mirror and look long and hard at the reflection. For leaders who want improved performance and increased effectiveness of their people working together, they need to first exemplify the desired behaviors. And they are not doing that now.

In our Third Annual Leadership Report Card, we found three key trends that are impacting organizational results:

1. With an 8% drop in the overall confidence of the workforce in their leaders, the gap is widening between what employees want and value in their

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

Summary of Results

Satisfaction with leader performance is now rated by employees at C+.

In our Third Annual Leadership Report Card, the evaluation by employees of how leaders are performing drops by 7.68%. The performance gap widens between what employees want and what they feel they are getting in their leaders. There is a margin of leadership performance under expectations of 21.4%.

of executives surveyed by CCL identified interpersonal skills as a key factor for leaders to achieve organizational results, yet only 47% of the same executives felt leaders today had those skills. However, there is a silver lining: interpersonal leadership skills can be learned.

Leadership starts with authenticity. To be an authentic leader, you start with self-awareness. We need to get feedback from the people we trust who will tell us the truth we need to hear.

“When we are young, we have lots of mirrors in our lives - parents, teachers, coaches, and clergy who look us in the eye and tell us what we’re doing well and how we could do it better. But the older we get and the farther up the

career ladder we go, we tend to leave those mirrors in the drawer. People tell us what we want to hear - and that

comes at a cost to us and our organizations.”

J. Barry Griswell, The Adversity Paradox

As leaders, we need to hold up the mirror and look closely. The solution to the complex challenge of increasing workforce performance and executing strategy lies in the reflection.

In our paper, we provide the path to clarify what leaders need to look for in the mirror and how to take steps to make the connection with their people and gain better results.

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

Top 10 Leadership Qualities Required and Assessed by EmployeesTop 10 Required Required AssessedLeading People 1 17

Building and Leading Teams

2 14

Generates Results 3 2

Resourcefulness 4 10

Participative Management 5 16

Adaptable 6 7

Building Relationships 7 20

Perseverance 8 6

Managing Interpersonal Relationships

9 3

Straightforwardness and Composure

10 9

The soft skills seem to be the hardest for leaders to develop and do well. The numbers show that leaders are losing the connection with their employees. Where is the drop in leadership confidence?

Most Significant Drops in Confidence by Leadership Characteristic

Declineof

12%from

2009

Declineof

11%from

2009

Declineof

10%from

2009

Declineof

10%from

2009

The leadership characteristics with the widest performance gaps have remained the same over the past several years.

Three key points are highlighted:

• What employees want in leaders remains consistent over time both by gender and across ages. Leaders do know what employees want.

• The greatest drop in leadership confidence (and the widest performance gaps) occurs in the area of interpersonal skills. Leaders are achieving results but not personally connecting well to their people. The result is disengagement.

• Confidence in senior leaders suffered a significant drop in the past year, and employees have lower confidence in leadership performance in senior leaders than any other leadership level in the organization.

Before delving into the challenges, there is a positive focus. Employees assessed leaders as performing well in the following three areas:

1. Being a Quick Study (mastering new technical and business knowledge quickly)

2. Generating Results (meeting commitments and executing as planned)

3. Managing Interpersonal Relationships(developing good working relationships)

Interestingly, only Generating Results of the three high performing areas is seen as a top leadership characteristic valued by employees. Generating Results remains the one characteristic needed in a leader from the employee’s perspective that also is assessed well consistently over time.

However, there is a real discrepancy between the most important leadership qualities employees require in their leaders and the perceived performance by leaders in those key areas.

Most importantly, the feeling is shared. Regardless of gender or age, employees shared the same opinions and assessments of their leaders. There was no significant difference in responses by male or female employees or across different age brackets. The satisfaction with leadership performance is consistent throughout the workforce.

Confronting Problem People

Compassion and

Sesitivity

LeadingPeople

Building Relationships

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

long term competitiveness. If people are not engaged to commit and apply themselves to working effectively together, there will be a rise of mediocrity.

Strategies for working well with others are not working. There is a rising epidemic of poor interpersonal skills. In senior leadership roles, the critical realization is that you achieve results by performing through others. It is more critical than ever to develop strong “soft” skills in relating to others. In a study by Daniel Goleman, results showed that 67% of the abilities deemed essential for effective performance in leadership positions were emotional or interpersonal competencies. Goleman found that emotional intelligence in leadership roles matters twice as much as academic intelligence or tactical abilities.

“There is always a gap between the way we see ourselves and the way others see us. The leader who wants to make a difference in the new reality needs to find ways to close

that gap.”

David Noer

Most leaders feel that the interpersonal connection is important, yet few focus on developing that capacity. This inattention has consequences: disengagement and an organization not reaching its potential. The primary tool in helping employees thrive in this new business environment is leading with interpersonal competence. To help someone else as a leader, you need to know yourself well enough first, so you can hear them. The most effective leaders seek feedback and have the courage to act on that feedback.

The key to building leadership confidence and workforce engagement is self-awareness in leaders.

Widest Performance Gaps for Leadership Characteristics

Performance GapConfronting Problem People 30.08%

Leading People 29.18%

Building Relationships 27.4%

Building and Leading Teams 26.85%

Participative Management 26.24%

The greatest shift in satisfaction with leadership at different levels of the organization is with the senior leader. The buck really does stop there.

What is behind the drop in confidence in senior leaders?

Results over the past few years of the economic crisis were achieved but at a cost. Employees did not feel that senior leaders were effective delegating to others, providing opportunities for growth and development, and acting with fairness in their decision-making. As well, senior leaders were not seen as being able to select and build an effective senior team. From the employee perspective, senior leaders were also not being seen as thinking strategically with decisions being made that did not manage the new complexity in the business environment. Basically, employees do not agree with senior leadership decisions.

In this case, actions do speak louder than words. Senior leaders are perceived by their employees as reverting back to an approach of telling and directing, reducing the inclusion and participation of the organization. The feeling was one of “just keep your head down and do the work”. Clearly, the perception of this approach is damaging engagement levels and productivity. In the pursuit of short-term results, the actual outcome may be a loss in

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

2008 2009 2010Performance Gap 16.38% 16.77% 24.46%

What has also stayed consistent over the survey period is what employees value in leaders. Four of the top five leadership characteristics employees see as most important in their leaders has stayed constant over the past three years.

Most Valued Leadership Competencies2008 2009 2010

Leading People Building and Leading Teams

Leading People

Resourcefulness Resourcefulness Building and Leading Teams

Building and Leading Teams

Leading People Generates Results

Generates Results

Generates Results

Resourcefulness

Adaptable Perseverance Participative Management

What employees value and want in their leaders is someone who can:

1. Delegate effectively to others, provide opportunities for growth and development, and act with fairness in decision-making to lead people effectively.

2. Select and build an effective senior team.

3. Meet commitments and follow through on their word to execute as planned, generating results.

Comparative Analysis

It is easy and convenient to point to market conditions and poor economics to explain deteriorating workforce engagement and sagging productivity in recent years. Employees are under high pressure, fearful of lay-offs, and feel tremendous stress in their work.

The truth is somewhat different. Much of the basis for declining engagement and productivity in the workforce can be traced to disappointment with leaders. The main cause of weakening organizational competitiveness is internal.

Leaders need to take responsibility, hold the mirror up, see the reflection, and have the courage to take action.

Looking deeper into our survey, we see key issues that are impacting organizational success:

• Leaders need to focus on building their self-awareness and emotional intelligence skills.

• Decision-making in the organization may not be the style that fits best with the bulk of employees.

• Employees are looking for more effective delegation and opportunities for development to empower them to grow their contribution to the organization.

• The focus needs to be on increasing teamwork and collaboration.

The critical theme that pervades the leadership performance perspective from employees for the prior three years is the widening of the gap between expectations and evaluations. It is truly a performance issue as employees’ expectations for leaders has remained relatively stable while the assessment of actual performance has declined over the same period. Employees are increasingly disappointed with how their leaders are performing.

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

performance as being 19.82% under what is expected. The overall evaluation for both genders is about the same for leadership performance: 67.02% for women and 66.92% for men. The difference is that women have higher expectations for their leaders.

Workforce studies consistently show that women place a higher value on collaboration, participation, and teamwork. Other research also points to the gender bias from an interpersonal perspective where women are more likely to make decisions that consider the impact on people first. More than 60% of women will start with the people aspect of a situation in making their decisions, whereas 79% of leaders in general (with about 70% being male) have been shown to start with the logic and facts of a situation when making decisions. How decisions are made in organizations today are in significant opposition to what much of the workforce would want.

The survey results also show a general agreement across age groups as to the evaluation of leadership performance against expectations.

Looking further at the numbers also reveal consistent themes across the generations as to what competencies are most important in leaders. Again, the striking similarity in the results is the focus on interpersonal skills and developing leadership competencies in working effectively with teams. Research identifies one of the defining characteristics of the Millennial Generation worker (born between 1982 and 2002) as the desire to work collaboratively with a team.

4. Think strategically, handle pressure, manage complexities, and make effective decisions being resourceful for their people.

What is most important is not a moving target as some leaders think. Leaders can meet employee expectations by focusing on these four key elements. Yet, employees see a significant shortfall in how leaders are performing in terms of the four key competencies.

Leadership Competencies

Performance Gap

Status

Leading People -29.18% 2nd Largest gap

Building and Leading Teams

-26.85% 4th Largest Gap

Generates Results

-21.34% 11th Largest gap

Resourcefulness -23.11% 8th Largest gap

The performance gap points to the trend that although we know what to do we don’t always do it.

There is also consistency in the leadership competencies that employees see as least important. The bottom three have been the same for each of the three years of our study.

Least Valued Leadership Competencies2008 2009 2010

Putting People at Ease

Career Management

Putting People at Ease

Career Management

Putting People at Ease

Career Management

Quick Study Quick Study Quick Study

Quiet leaders can be as effective in the eyes of their employees as the gregarious, extroverted leader. Developing and maintaining a personal network and quickly mastering new technical and business skills is not that important in a leader. Employees do not mind leaders taking time to learn new things and would appreciate less of a focus on public relations and networking.

A gender difference does exist in terms of the performance gap. Women assess leadership performance at 24.79% under expectations where men see leadership

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

What’s working for leaders seems to be more hit or miss. But there is a definite theme to what is not working about leader performance: emotional intelligence.

Leadership today is defined by remarkably complex challenges with solutions requiring more time and people. Being able to engage people and motivate their performance is critical to be successful as a leader.

The focus that leaders need to adapt to turn the engagement and productivity spiral around is internal. Leaders need to start with self-awareness and truly understand their strengths and the impact of their approach on others. Investment is then needed in developing emotional intelligence through interpersonal skills and communicating to their people more inclusively, transparently, and participatively. Leaders can then build teamwork by helping people understand expectations and dynamics supporting them to work well together.

The next step is internal.

Strategy

The numbers reveal that workforce satisfaction with leaders is down. Particularly for senior leaders in the CEO, President, or Executive Director’s chair - a drop in satisfaction of more than 22% over the past year!

The impact ...

Lower Satisfaction = Lower Engagement = Lower Productivity = Lower Profitability

Do organizations notice?

The difficulty in most organizations is the degree of self-medication. The productivity problem has been a part of Canadian business for many years, and most leaders just seem to accept it, self-medicate a few internal human resources initiatives, and get used to the pain.

The impact is becoming much more noticeable through the increased difficulty to execute effectively to generate results. Leaders need to get things done through people, and that is the only way that strategy translates to results. There is no shortcut. The Conference Board of Canada surveys CEOs and Presidents each year as to

Most Valued Leadership CompetenciesAge 25-39 Age 40-54 Age 55+

Leading People Resourcefulness Resourcefulness

Building Interpersonal Relationships

Leading People Leading People

Building and Leading Teams

Leading PeopleParticipative Management

AdaptableBuilding Interpersonal Relationships

Straightforward-ness and Composure

Generates Results

Generates Results

Building and Leading Teams

How did leaders perform for the generations? The following table outlines where each age group ranked leader performance high and low.

Highest Leadership Competencies - Performance Rankings

Age 25-39 Age 40-54 Age 55+

Depth and Perspective

Straightforward-ness and Composure

Adaptable

Quick StudyManaging Interpersonal Relationships

Generates Results

Differences Matter

Generates Results

Work and Life Balance

Lowest Leadership Competencies - Performance Rankings

Age 25-39 Age 40-54 Age 55+Compassion and Sensitivity

Participative Management

Leading People

Self Awareness Self AwarenessConfronting Problem People

Confronting Problem People

Confronting Problem People

Change Management

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

“As you were moved up the ladder the sources of honest and useful feedback became fewer and after a certain point you were pretty much on your own. No matter how talented and successful you are, you will make

mistakes. You will develop bad habits and behaviors that once worked that now will be rendered ineffective. It’s hard to see it when you’re in the midst of it - changes in the environment, the competition, or even personal circumstances can quietly guide you off your game.”

Robert S. Kaplan

Research completed by Robert W. Eichinger and Michael M. Lombardo identified six “quotients” in developing effective leadership - intelligence, tactical (being able to get things done), motivational, experience, learning agility, and interpersonal. For most organizations, people are promoted to senior leadership roles for reasons of tactical or operational capability and then fail to meet their potential due to interpersonal issues.

The interpersonal quotient is about both how well you handle yourself and how well you work with others.

• Are you self-aware and able to self-manage emotional reactions to situations? The more self-aware you are the more successful you are likely to be.

• Are you open to other people being aware of what communications fit and what motivates others? Successful leaders are genuinely interested in other perspectives.

• Do you work well both with and through others handling conflict, motivation, and creating shared meaning? Engagement results to a great extent from this ability.

Research shows that more than 60% of failure in senior leadership roles is due to problems with people. What is failure? Failure for a leader is not being able to engage the workforce to be empowered and motivated to invest their strengths and energy to perform at their best. Poor interpersonal skills in leaders is shown in over-managing people, insensitivity, defensiveness, arrogance, the failure to build teams, and lack of composure.

The good news is that interpersonal intelligence and skills can be developed at any time.

their greatest challenges. The number one challenge for several years is - no surprise - getting things done through others. Execution is suffering. A report published in the Harvard Business Review in 2008 revealed that for most top organizations, only 8% of strategies achieve their intended results while a staggering 37% get nowhere. The most organizations can seem to achieve is about 63% of their potential. We estimate that the average strategic execution rate is probably about 45% to 53%.

We can do so much better, and it starts with leadership self-awareness. The “soft” issue of leadership has the hardest impact. Organizational leaders in Canada talk about poor productivity and the need to stimulate business through lower corporate taxes and keeping inflation low to boost workforce productivity. That is not the answer for Canada!

A recent report released by the TD Bank Economics Department outlined that the issue that has helped kill Canadian productivity is a “complacent business culture”. Leaders accept low engagement and low productivity .

The key to increased productivity is internal. The answer is very internal in that the buck stops at the CEO’s desk! Productivity is an outcome of an engaged workforce which is a result of effective leadership. The critical link to move more money to the bottom line from increased productivity is better leadership.

Leadership is the answer, and organizations need to take it seriously. From our survey, the satisfaction is clearly down for employees with their leaders, particularly senior leaders.

The critical skill that will result in more effective leadership is interpersonal competence. The survey responses clearly indicated a theme of better interaction between leaders and their employees. To help employees thrive in our new world and be more satisfied with their leaders and, in turn, increase their engagement levels, they need to see a better personal connection.

Leaders need to step back, take a breath, and look in the mirror. We can all point to other people and things to try and explain the problem but it will come back to the person in the mirror.

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

Recommendations and Action Plan

The leadership relationship with others is complex. To best understand the dynamics of workforce satisfaction and engagement the solution starts first with self-awareness for the individual leader.

As a leader, self-awareness comprises two facets: personal strengths and interpersonal impact. Leaders build confidence from having a clear and tangible knowledge of their natural strengths, enabling them to be authentic in their approach. Effectiveness as a leader is more about how others see and experience your leadership and is based on gaining honest and full feedback on the impact of a leader’s actions and behaviors.

We recommend three steps for leaders to take to build their interpersonal competence and overall effectiveness:

1. Complete psychometric assessments to accurately identify and describe the leader’s personal strengths. We recommend two core assessments (Kolbe and MBTI) to gain clarity of instincts and personality strengths. With these two assessments, leaders can apply their strengths most effectively to the three components of leadership: leading self, leading others, and leading the organization. These assessments can be accessed at www.bluteaudevenney.com.

2. Work through a multi-rater assessment on overall leadership performance. Multi-rater (or 360 Degree) assessments provide a confidential way for the people around the leader (peers, colleagues, reports, and others) that impact most on the leader’s success to provide honest feedback on actions and behaviors. This feedback can be life changing in providing leaders with the information they need to grow and be at their best. We recommend the Benchmarks assessment as the most thorough and practical tool for leaders to gain the needed feedback. This assessment, and other multi-rater options, can be accessed at www.bluteaudevenney.com.

3. Have a private conversation with the person in the mirror by reviewing questions (developed by Robert S. Kaplan) that ask each leader to honestly assess their leadership. The questions for the “Leader in the Mirror” are included in this paper.

Our survey highlighted specific areas of interpersonal competencies that would be most highly valued if developed further:

• Leading people more effectively by delegating to people, providing broader employee growth opportunities, and acting with fairness towards people while seeking to hire talented people. Specifically, developing this competency would involve delegating important work (not just things the leader does not want to do), providing prompt and honest feedback (good and bad), pushing decision-making down to appropriate levels to empower people, not having favorites, coaching people to grow, setting a developmental environment, recognizing and rewarding hard work and dedication to excellence, promoting achievement, interacting to motivate people, and taking time to listen.

• Building and leading teams by resolving conflicts more effectively, hiring people that are not only technically competent but also that work well with others, motivating people through goals and communication, appreciating diversity, helping people understand their roles and see their valued contributions, and encouraging and involving their teams.

The first step for leaders to solve the productivity problem and increase employee satisfaction and engagement is to sit down and look in the mirror.

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

employee satisfaction with leadership which is directly linked to declining engagement and Canada’s most pressing business issue: poor productivity.

It is convenient to look for a culprit externally or to place the blame on the economy. In doing so, organizational leaders will miss the real solution for a more competitive Canada: leadership.

Most importantly, after the clarification of strengths and impact provided from these three steps, a final step is required, and it is the most difficult for all leaders. Knowledge is only valuable if it is applied. The last step of the self-awareness process for leaders is to have the courage to take action from what they learn. Assessments and feedback will highlight both areas of strength and challenge. The real gain for the leader and the organization will result from the leader putting in place an actionable and measurable development (a template is located at www.bluteaudevenney.com).

A more self-aware leader will have a more effective impact that will be felt throughout the organization. The right assessments and the right development plan will cause real shifts in employee satisfaction with leadership and support increases in overall workforce engagement.

With the foundation of self-awareness, leaders can build an effective framework to make shift happen:

• Develop a communication strategy and plan for the different levels of leadership to result in a more inclusive and participative approach with teams and employees including vision, strategy, change, and progress.

• Deal more effectively with not only people problems but people opportunities as well. Invest in a talent review process that identifies performance and potential challenges and growth openings. The talent review process will provide a framework for making the right investments in the right people as well as a consistent and unbiased way to work with workforce performance. For more information, visit www.bluteaudevenney.com.

• Invest in building the teamwork for your workforce. Help people understand the expectations for their work, the contribution they make to the organization’s success, what results they are accountable for, and the dynamics of how to work better together. Our team-building programs can be accessed at www.bluteaudevenney.com.

People are the key business differentiator. The ability to execute on a strategy is more a function of how to get people engaged than the brilliance of the strategy. Leaders need to focus on their interpersonal connection with their employees. Our survey highlights a decline in

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

o Are you delegating sufficiently? Have you become a decision-making bottleneck?

• Evaluation and Alignment

o Are you attuned to changes in the business environment that would require a change in the way you organize and run your business?

o If you had to design your business with a clean slate how would you design it? How would it differ from the current design?

• Leading Under Pressure

o How do you behave under pressure and what signals are you sending your employees?

o What types of events create pressure for you?

o Are the signals you are sending to people helpful or are they undermining the business?

• Staying True to Yourself

o Does your leadership style reflect who you truly are?

o Do you assert yourself sufficiently or have you become tentative?

o Are you too politically correct?

o Does worry about your next promotion or achievement cause you to pull punches or hesitate to express your views?

(1) From Robert S. Kaplan, What to Ask the Person in the Mirror, Harvard Business Review, January 2007.

Appendix One - The Person in the Mirror Questions(1)

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world” .

Mahatma Gandhi

We encourage you to take two hours in a quiet place where you can be alone and think honestly about your answers to the following questions. Being truthful will provide you with the best results. Review each of the questions below and write out your answers. Once you have completed, think about where you can make a change to improve your leadership impact.

• Vision and Priorities

o How frequently do you communicate a vision and priorities for your business?

o Would your employees, if asked, be able to articulate the vision and priorities?

o Have you identified 3 to 5 key priorities to achieve the vision and communicated these?

• Managing Time

o How are you spending your time and does it match your priorities?

o How are your reports spending their time? Does it match the key priorities for the business?

• Feedback

o Do you give people timely, direct, and constructive feedback?

o Do you have 5 or 6 people around you who will tell you the things you may not want to hear but need to hear?

• Succession Planning

o Have you, at least in your own mind, picked one or more potential successors?

o Are you coaching them and giving them challenging assignments?

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

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Acknowledgements and Disclaimer

In March 2010, Bluteau DeVenney and Company informally surveyed employees in organizations located in Atlantic Canada. The objective was to assess the confidence people had in their leaders – how did employees evaluate leader performance against expectations.

The survey asked respondents to rank the importance of twenty-one key leadership characteristics. The leadership characteristics have been identified as determined by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), a globally recognized leadership research and education institution. Furthermore, respondents were also asked to evaluate how their leaders were performing currently in relation to the same twenty-one leadership characteristics.

Results were received confidentially. Participants were drawn from private and public corporations as well as non-profit and government organizations in many different industries and sectors.

Responses were tabulated internally by Bluteau DeVenney and Company with no adjustments made to the participants’ responses.

Bluteau DeVenney and Company thanks all participants who responded to the survey.

The authors and publishers of this work and the accompanying materials have used their best efforts in preparing this work. The authors and publishers make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of this work. The information contained in this work is strictly for educational purposes. Therefore, if you wish to apply ideas contained in this work, you are taking full responsibility for your actions.

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The 3rd Annual Leadership Report CardLooking in the Mirror

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