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In the past there were many more layers of management. Those days are long gone. As organizations flattened for efficiency, they lost critical training grounds for leaders.
Today’s prospective leaders are typically taking a bigger step up from being an individual contributor to a leader of others, and so the risk of damage to the organization has been made is significantly higher.
Are you noticing immature leadership? Here are some signs.
One simple and practical way to spot an immature leader is siloed behaviors from the team, meaning they may be unwilling to share information. They may be concerned about losing their job so they focus on self rather than team.
Watch for these traits that indicate a leader needs more development time:
- Focus on the “shiny objects” rather than define and drive toward a vision
- Be more concerned about being right rather than being accountable
- Lack the ability to listen well and tend to operate out of fear
Because immature leaders operate out of fear, that fear cascades down through the team which ultimately leads to inefficiencies and poor performance and attrition.
It’s a good case for a program of assessment and development of any in your company who are on a leadership track. Preparing people to become leaders is the long-term solution.
How to get your leaders ready for the role
Recognizing leadership traits in individual contributors before a promotion to a leadership role is a challenge, but extremely important and possible if you know what to look for.
Of course, KPI metrics are part of the equation, but you can go deeper. The key element for leadership success is an individual’s self-awareness and the ability to admit “I don’t know what I don’t know” and to be comfortable with that fact.
To start noticing your potential leaders, notice if they:
- Ask questions
- Admit mistakes or that they don’t know something
- Invite others to comment and not challenge them while listening and maintaining their composure
Since lack of self-awareness is such an important “tell,” a good way to measure one’s capacity for it is to provide learning opportunities early on in the onboarding of the employee. Assessments that uncover blind spots for individuals are critical in understanding how receptive that individual is to seeing things through a different set of lenses.
Assessing your organization’s next leaders’ soft skills allows you to take a highly technically skilled person and help them to develop those competencies which sets both the person and the organization up for success.
Jamesson Solutions offers turnkey assessment-and-feedback services, as well as assessment sales to accredited users. Find out more here.