Can leadership be learnt?

The Centre for High Performance Development (CHPD) estimates that in today’s dynamic and competitive environment, 40% of business performance is determined by the capabilities of the leader.  With so much resting in so few, it is essential that we understand how to identify the leaders of tomorrow and whether they are born great leaders or whether they can be developed into a great leader. 

CHPD was founded on leadership research which has addressed two fundamental questions:

• Is it possible to identify leadership and team behaviours that underpin outstanding performance in dynamic, complex and competitive environments?
• Can people learn and develop these skills?

The research began by creating simulated organisations operating within environments which could be changed from being stable and simple to dynamic and complex.  Several of these simulated organisations were created and leaders and teams from different organisations managed them for extended periods of up to one year wrestling with the problems of running a dynamic organisation in an ever-changing environment.  The simulations were based on business, the military and national governments.

After some three years of research it became apparent that the simulations on their own were not producing tangible results.  Changing their approach, the experts introduced behavioural observation to the simulations and slowly patterns of behaviours emerged which correlated with superior performance in dynamic environments.  A cluster that we now call the “Thinking Behaviours” was identified.  Subsequent research identified three further clusters of behaviour that incorporate eleven ‘High Performance Behaviours’ (HPBs).  During the 1990s, the eleven HPBs were thoroughly validated at the London Business School by Dr. Tony Cockerill, who developed the methodology into a form that could be used by organisations across the world. 

The four clusters of 11 ‘High Performance Behaviours’ (HPBs) are thinking, developmental, inspirational and achieving and can be summarised as follows:

Thinking cluster
The three behaviours in this cluster are crucial to strategy formation, planning and the ability to see the '‘bigger picture’.  Whilst they make the highest contribution to performance they are often the least developed and least valued in most organisations.  When these are not well developed, organisations are constantly fire-fighting, the workforce is often confronted with many un-coordinated initiatives and lack of information leaves the organisation’s strategy vulnerable.

Developmental cluster
These behaviours are relevant to flat, flexible, team-based structures which have to integrate with other teams.  They improve the performance of people through development of their skills and creation of an atmosphere of learning.  When these behaviours are not well developed, an organisation can become fragmented and less than the sum of its parts.  For an organisation which relies on the quality of its people, under-development of this cluster represents an absolute limit to its growth.

Inspirational cluster
The behaviours in this cluster relate particularly to building confidence and excitement throughout the team and are crucial to achieve ‘buy in’ to ideas.  In a crisis where decisions are required quickly, these behaviours create an atmosphere of confidence within the team.  Without these behaviours you will see confusion, pessimism, lack of resources and direction.

Achieving cluster
These behaviours make things happen and break through bureaucracy.  They ensure that tasks are structured and that plans and ideas are implemented.  They give people responsibility and encourage continuous attention to improving the performance of all aspects of the team.  If this cluster is not well developed there may be a lot of talk and little action, a lack of empowerment and too much focus on non value-added activities.

According to CHPD, these clusters of High Performance Behaviours are not innate characteristics – in other words something you are born with – but, learned behaviours.  With in-depth assessment, strengths and weaknesses can be identified and following on from that, development plans can be agreed.

In addition to providing insights into the behaviours, CHPD has used feedback from thousands of assessments to create a validated benchmark for high performing leaders.  At six different levels of management experience, from a technical or functional role right up to cross-industry general management, CHPD can look at an individual’s total HPB score and determine whether or not they have the capabilities to perform at a high level in that role. 

CHPD’s research and experience is reassuring for those of us who have yet to achieve greatness in our leadership careers.  A second dimension to leadership not touched on here is what CHPD calls our ‘leadership preference’ – whether we want to be leaders at all.  Assuming that you do, it appears that if you build on your own High Performance Behaviour strengths and address your weaknesses, we all have it within ourselves to be high performing leaders.

Permission is required to reproduce this article. Please contact our media representative for further information.