Training Magazine Middle East December 2014 | Page 44

Leadership

leadership

BY ADRIAN WAITE

At The Monthly Senior Management Meeting in a random MNC.

Ops Director - “Oh, watch out for Mohamed when he gets back on Sunday.”

Ops manager - “Why?”

“He’s away on that “Super Outstanding Leadership Program” in Switzerland, his head will be full of nonsense when he gets back! Don’t commit to any of his new ideas, Give it a week or so until it wears off and he’ll get back to normal.”

“Why do we waste so much money on these trainings? I’m booked to go on the course above that in Q4,”

“The ‘Superstar Bosses of just regular Outstanding Leaders program’ in Hawaii?”

“Yes, that’s the one!”

“Oh, I did that last year! Brilliant 10 days!!”

“What did it cover?”

“Can’t remember really, but gosh, it was good! I almost wish we worked somewhere that we could use all that theory, but bless those consultants and trainers!! They don’t have the first clue what we deal with in the real world.”

“So why don’t we just use our internal training department?”

“Ha Ha!! Our trainers??? Ex-operations who’ve been on a PowerPoint course?’ What do they know about world class leadership! No, it needs to be external if we want the best leaders…”

“But? …Never mind!”

If you’ve been a development professional for any length of time, I guarantee you’ve heard a version of this conversation.

Our colleagues in internal training certainly have the advantage of knowing the organizational culture, but that “insider” position can put them at a disadvantage in the eyes of senior leaders at times of change. Justified or not, there may exist a view that internal training lacks the experience to raise a business culture to the “next level” that so many senior leaders appear to aspire to.

On the other hand, external leadership development retains a mysterious kudos, which some would argue is directly proportional to their prices! But perhaps also a perception that vendors and consultants have worked with a wide range of organizations, and may therefore possess the magic formulae which could not possibly exist within the clients organization.

They are however routinely accused of lacking the depth of understanding of cultural and practical challenges in a clients organization.

So what does a development professional do when called upon to devise a strategy or advise senior leaders? In my humble opinion, the answer is actually pretty straight forward.

Remove the mystery and get the basics right…

In every airport bookshop there are shelves of titles devoted to creating an industry around the dark and mysterious arts of leadership, when in fact, the key indicators of highly effective managers/leaders are well researched and documented.

Filter out the vague, fluffy and generic models and develop a crystal clear core leadership skill set for your organization, based on painful reality, with super clear behavioral indicators!

44 | TRAINING MAGAZINE MIDDLE EAST NOV 2014

development