More often than not, the tradition approach to senior leader assessment and development fall short. Such is the assertion of David Reimer, Adam Bryant and Harry Feuerstein in their excellent article ‘The Four X Factors of Exceptional Leaders’ (click here). The two main failure points raised in the article are an illusion of validity of the skills of exiting leaders, and a disproportionate focus on skills that should be prerequisites.
What does this mean? Simply that pace of change in business today means that the existing skills of leaders are generally out of date in a short period of time. When recruiting, organisations need to focus on the future, not the present in terms of what skills are needed. And secondly, too many organisations similarly emphasise the need for skills like having a strategic mindset, financial acumen and other typical skills. However, what organisations need are the ‘X factor’ skills that are going to take the organisation to the next level.
So what might it be that ‘X factor’ leaders do? The authors list four such skills, and while you really need to read the whole article to get the most about these, following is a quick summary for you:
- They simplify complexity and operationalize it. That is, they take ownership of complexity by creating simple, operational narratives around it that can be readily understood and embraced by those that work for them
- They drive ambition for the whole enterprise. Leaders with the X factor burn down silos and instead embrace the entire enterprise in their thinking and planning.
- They work well on team they don’t lead. Being a challenge for many leaders, this skill means the best of the best play well on other teams and don’t try and take over and instead nurture the teams.
- They build leaders. The measure of a true x factor leader is in the number of leaders they have developed, especially those whose perspectives differ from their own. They actively recruit and engage differing perspectives within their team, and promote non-traditional candidates.
The X factor – do you have it? The Avondale Business School can help you develop your leadership potential. To find out how, simply contact Dr Warrick long, Leadership postgraduate studies coordinator at [email protected].