Grow your practice by growing your leaders

Your people are stressed, tasks are getting left behind, and everyone is struggling to keep up. When you’ve grown enough that it’s time to add a new layer of management, you have two choices: promote from within, or hire from without. While both have their challenges, most firms choose to developer their own people rather than trying to bring in outside talent.

So how do you help someone go from, for example, a front-line manager to a director?

Leadership Dimensions

There are five core dimensions of leadership:

• Technical proficiency and vision – knowing the work that needs to be managed. 
• Effective communication – being able to understand the people around you and having them understand you
• Emotional intelligence – managing yourself in stressful situations; helping others learn to do the same
• Decision making – knowing different mechanisms for making decisions and problem solving, and applying them appropriately
• Adaptability – the ability to recognize when change is required and putting that change into place

Identifying Needs

As a practice leader, you must be able to assess your leader’s aptitudes in each of these dimensions and give them guidance for improvement in each area. Many delivery-focused firms have front-line managers with deep technical experience but little to no knowledge of how their practice actually functions. Technically astute leaders may have blind spots around how they behave under pressure. Monitor the performance of your leaders and align with them routinely on where they can improve. 

Measuring Progress

Keep records of both your assessment of your team’s leadership skills and their self-assessment. Make development of these skills a priority on par with business outcomes, and be clear what you need to see from them in order for them to move up. 

Implementing Change

Leadership is typically not a class to be attended; it’s better thought of as a series of behaviors to be managed. Coaching people yourself to enhance these skills can be challenging, particularly when you have your own needs and pressures. Therefore it’s critical to manage your own workload so that (a) your people have an example to follow; and (b) you’re in a position to step back and help them with their needs instead of focusing on your own. 

Conclusion

Your organization cannot scale without effectively delegating work and managing it. Clearly leadership development is a critical skill for any leader to enable growth, reduce burnout, and retain top talent. Evaluate the five dimensions of your people and discuss them regularly, and develop a process for enhancing their skills. 

At Koehn Consulting we offer clients support in all aspects of consulting advice, support, and staffing. Reach out to us today so we can help you grow your organization.