Power-crazed leaders are not what we need ...

So the Work Foundation has just discovered what we have known for some time – power-crazed leaders are not what we need (The Guardian, Saturday 16 January 2010). The trouble is that’s exactly what we’ve got (I’m exaggerating to make a point).

Our global benchmark data for leadership behaviours explains this very dilemma.

The high performance benchmark level for each High Performance Behaviour (HPB) is indicated by the horizontal purple line.

Ideally what we would like to see is for all HPBs to be developed above the benchmark line. Clearly that isn’t the case. What we see is a skewed profile of HPBs across the world.

The well developed behaviours on the left side of the diagram are those needed to run a unit in a more traditionally structured organisation. This is characterised by people who are good at planning, can solve problems, they have good presentation skills and are able to build confidence in others and make things happen. These skills are important, but the Work Foundation claims that these aren’t so important today.

According to the Work Foundation what we do need is “a much more subtle, people-centred approach to leadership.” We agree, but if that’s what we want them we’ve got to do something about developing the behaviours on the right side of our diagram. Three HPBs in particular (empathy, team work and conceptual flexibility) are critical in building relationships and fairness, but as the diagram above shows they tend to be poorly valued and developed.

Without urgent attention on these HPBs in particular – and we’re talking reliable individual assessment to identify gaps and then tailored development to address them – the new, ‘people-centred’ leaders that we urgently need, will fail to materialise.