We have a General Election in the UK on Thursday 8th June 2017. The result of which will determine who will lead our country for the next five years. According to the BBC some of the key issues are: Brexit and the Future of the UK; Health & Care; Immigration; the Economy & Taxes; Education & Family.
Many political observers believe this is straight race between two people who want to lead us and become our next Prime Minister – Theresa May (Conservative) and Jeremy Corbyn (Labour). One Social Scientists says this election will prompt some thoughts about what party leadership really requires – and how voters can be encouraged to choose those candidates who are more likely to be effective.
I decided to look at Political Leadership from the perspective of Business Leadership. Let’s see what you, my Blog Readers, think. This is your chance to vote. Not on who should lead the country, but who shows the best leadership characteristics.
I run a Coaching for Potential workshop as part of my Coaching Master Class Programme. In this I invite participants to speculate on the behaviours that may indicate leadership potential in their direct reports. After some team based brainstorming they come up with great lists of leadership characteristics. Then, in true TV Chef style, I do a reveal – “Here’s one I prepared earlier“.
In developing the Coaching for Potential workshop I did extensive research into what the experts were saying characterised a good leader. I settled on the list from one leadership guru. Ram Charan’s book ‘Know How’ is subtitled “The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don’t”. He identifies eleven criteria for spotting future leaders in an organisation. Here is the Ram Charan list I reveal to my workshop participants:
- They consistently deliver ambitious results.
- They continuously demonstrate growth, adaptability, and learning better and faster than their excellently performing peers.
- They seize the opportunity for challenging, bigger assignments, thereby expanding capability and capacity and improving judgment.
- They have the ability to think through the business and take leaps of imagination to grow the business.
- They are driven to take things to the next level.
- Their powers of observation are very acute, forming judgments of people by focusing on their decisions, behaviours, and actions, rather than relying on initial reactions and gut instincts; they can mentally detect and construct the ‘DNA’ of a person.
- They come to the point succinctly, are clear thinkers, and have the courage to state a point-of-view even though listeners may react adversely.
- They ask incisive questions that open minds and incite the imagination.
- They perceptively judge their own direct reports, have the courage to give them honest feedback so the direct reports grow; they dig into cause and effect if a direct report is failing.
- They know the non-negotiable criteria of the job of their direct reports and match the job with the person; of there is a mismatch they deal with it promptly.
- They are able to spot talent and see the ‘gift’ in other individuals.
Now decide which of our would-be political leaders best matches the eleven characteristics in this list. Its your chance to vote.