Leadership Selection: How a Data-Driven Approach Transforms Organizations and Prepares Them for the Challenges of Tomorrow
The success of any organization is based on the quality of its leaders, yet despite the critical need for effective leadership, organizations tend to struggle to identify the right leaders. Over half of the newly hired or promoted leaders will fail within their first 18 months, and the cost of failed leadership selection efforts is enormous.
Effective Leadership
Effective leadership fosters healthy work environments, boosts employee engagement, and drives team performance. An effective leader can build and maintain a high-performing team, create a positive work environment, inspire trust, and is capable of handling challenges and conflicts.
Good leadership positively affects customer satisfaction, revenue, productivity, and more. But, good leadership also creates behaviors that trickle down through the organization. Behaviors include developing self and others, strategy, cooperation, integrity, and global thinking. These positive behaviors can significantly affect an organization’s ability to sustain success during turbulent times.
Identifying Leaders
Traditional hiring practices often rely on resumes and interviews, which may not accurately predict a candidate's leadership abilities because they often prioritize charisma and likability over characteristics that determine effectiveness. As a result, organizations may select leaders based on a candidate’s confidence rather than competence.
However, there is a better way.
Understanding the Dynamics
The first step in selecting more effective leaders is to understand the dynamics of the team they will lead. By looking at the team’s situation, needs, and performance expectations, you can identify the behaviors and characteristics a new leader will need to bring together or maintain a high-performing team.
Identify Success Factors
In addition to understanding the team’s dynamics and needs, reviewing the job requirements and expectations is essential to identify how success will be measured. Often, organizations will use the success or failures of the previous leader to judge their current candidates. However, this assumes the newly hired or promoted leader will have the same behaviors and values. By reviewing and establishing success factors, organizations can better ensure the candidate they select is a fit.
Incorporate Data
Incorporating scientifically valid assessments provides objective data to evaluate a candidate’s potential and increases the likelihood of selecting a leader with the necessary qualities to succeed.
Combining assessment data with expert interpretations based on the needs of the role, the team, and the organization's goals can help increase the likelihood of identifying effective leaders who can increase engagement, retention, and performance.
Integration Coaching
The first 3-6 months for a new leader are critical to their long-term success, yet many organizations only focus on the basics of onboarding and miss the integration support new leaders need. A joint research initiative between Genesis Advisors and Egon Zehnder found that leaders who experience transition coaching can get up to speed 50% faster and make decisions to advance the business earlier than leaders who only experience onboarding. This can be exponentially more challenging when leaders are operating within a remote environment. Providing your selected candidate with integration coaching within their first 3-6 months increases your new leader’s probability of a successful transition.