Providing a foundation for sustained success

Applying Leading with Impact to your business

Leading with Impact is a framework built on market research and decades of experience. It provides a suggested structure that enables organisations to identify and develop world-class leadership today and for the future. Leaders who will not only be capable of achieving business performance and financial targets, but also of building a strong culture and connecting with people in a way that unites and engages a workforce in the pursuit of these objectives.

It’s important to remember that each organisation has its own unique context – and therefore any leadership framework must be specific to the business for which it’s created.

There are four essential steps for organisations committed to supporting leaders who create impact:

Step 1: Ensure your business objectives are relevant

Organisations must be explicit about what they expect from leaders, especially regarding the way they want them to lead. They can then more effectively mould their leadership framework around their business objectives, which should:

Meet priorities: All organisations have different pressures, challenges and opportunities that leaders face. Businesses must align their framework with their priorities, then cultivate leaders accordingly.

Use the business’ language: Each organisation has its own lexicon which should form the foundation of any leadership framework, allowing it to be accepted and adopted easily.

Reflect the business culture and values: What's important to an organisation and their people shapes the qualities needed in their leadership. A leadership framework should adopt these cultural aspects.

Step 2: Create a bespoke model and assess existing leaders

The leadership framework helps organisations assess existing and potential leaders’ attributes and capabilities, individually and as a group, based on a model created specifically for each business.

The assessment process creates a benchmark for leaders and identifies opportunities for development. Using psychometric testing and assessment, organisations can gauge the skills available and diagnose areas where further development is needed.

Step 3: Commit to develop

Tailored programmes and goals are created to help leaders address the gaps in their capabilities. By providing expert coaching, organisations nurture the leadership capabilities they need to drive performance and growth, and can focus attention on accelerating change across the wider business.

1 in 5

business leaders said they wouldn't be the leader they are today if they hadn't benefitted from development programmes; while a further 33% are keen to do more of them

The Leadership Conundrum, Right Management

Step 4: Evaluation and refinement

Measurement is essential to evaluate leadership performance and assess progress against clearly defined goals. Organisations must take an insight-driven approach by leveraging psychometric tools to create a baseline that will help drive development and coaching.

With a continuous cycle of measurement, refinement and development with clear evaluation tools, organisations can focus resources on the liability most likely to provide the greatest return in business performance.

By following these best practice steps for the comprehensive implementation and continuous improvement of a leadership framework, organisations can demystify what leadership should look like for their leaders, and set themselves up for sustainable, long-term success.