I recently read that amateur golfers like me should spend about three hours per week on the practice range trying to refine our games.
It makes perfect sense.
Golf is an activity that requires a lot of muscle memory. The process is well known to most recreational golfers: Learn how to make a good swing, and then practice it thousands of times until it becomes automatic.
All this made me wonder: What if business leaders spent that much time each week working on their leadership skills? How much more effective would they be at influencing their people to get better results?
Why don’t more leaders ask for help?
Today’s business leaders have a broad array of options for improving their leadership game. There are courses—both in person and online—and some organizations provide coaching. These are critically important opportunities for struggling leaders to become good—and for good leaders to become great.
Leadership skill development provides opportunities to ask questions, try new things, and address shortcomings. Elite athletes engage in this process all the time because, even though instruction and practice can be hard, they know it’s the path to better performance. Let’s face it—there’s no such thing as a good athlete who isn’t dedicated to practicing their skills.
Unfortunately, I have found that far too many organizations don’t offer leadership skill development on a consistent basis. And when they do, far too often, leaders don’t make the time for skill development. It is one of those things that can be put off over and over again.
A recent study published in Training magazine revealed that more than one-third of surveyed organizations were spending less than 10 percent of their overall development budget on leadership skills. At the same time, only 25 percent of companies were devoting more than 40 percent of their budgets to leadership skills.
What does this mean to leaders on the frontline? A recent Harvard Business survey of leaders at all levels of organizational hierarchy showed that despite a healthy appetite for skill development, only about half of frontline leaders ultimately get the support and help they want or need.
Why do we ignore that which we know can help our leaders improve their people-leading skills?
Personally, I think that outdated thinking about leadership—both by organizations and by individual leaders—is a big factor.
Old-school myths about leadership still rules the corporate world
Too many organizations still think great leaders are born and not made. That’s why many employers continue to promote employees with top technical skills into leadership roles without offering them (or being concerned with) an opportunity to learn the necessary skills to be effective people-leaders.
As leaders move up the organizational ladder, there are persistent assumptions that every promotion is validation that you have acquired all of the skills necessary to be an effective people-leader. Many are shocked to learn that as they progress—from manager, to manager of managers, to leaders of functions or divisions—what may have helped them in their last role is no longer adequate to manage a new or expanded role.
Although some skills and behaviors are needed at every stage of your leadership journey, every new leadership challenge requires a different set of skills. For example, with time, leaders learn how to run their business or function. However, few learn how to transform their businesses—which is a very different skill-set.
Slow and steady wins the leadership race
Finally, I find that far too many organizations lack the patience to build better leaders. Just as it is with golf, the key to better leadership skills is a focused practice plan that is applied without distraction over the long term. Once again, golf is a good example of this principle.
As most golfers know, working with a professional coach or expert is key to success. The same goes for leadership development. Finding support that helps identify improvement opportunities, understanding what to do differently, and getting feedback on how it is going are key to getting the best results.
With all that food for thought on the table, I think I’ll now go and hit a couple of buckets on the practice range. Afterward, I’ll do some reading about leadership best practices, talk to some trusted peers about their experiences, and set some leadership goals for the next few months.
When you think about all the challenges we face these days, leadership practice not only makes perfect, it makes perfect sense.
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