The Organisational Leadership Audit

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Context

One can consider leadership in several ways, especially the question of how to improve it. The most popular way is to equate leadership with individual leaders. We can identify known leaders - usually but not necessarily successful ones - Ernest Shackleton, Jack Welch, Richard Branson, etc. We can study the role and preoccupations of such leaders. We can examine their character, qualities and values, their chosen style, skills and behaviour, and their upbringing and development. And we can attempt to learn from all of this and try to replicate the patterns in others.

Most leadership programmes therefore assume that the way to improve leadership in an organisation is to improve individual leaders. This school of thought usually takes 'improve' to mean 'develop'. Many people who are concerned about the quality of leadership automatically think in terms of leader development programmes. And they assume that leadership means personal leadership and means leading people.

But there are other ways of thinking about leadership, and there are other ways of thinking about its improvement. We don't need to focus so strongly on individuals, and there are risks in beginning our thinking here. There are routes to improving leadership in an organisation beyond personal development activity.

How else might we consider leadership?

One is to think of leadership exercised by a team, such as an executive board or management group. Another is to apply leadership to things like innovation and ideas, including 'thought leadership'.

More radical is to think of leadership as a characteristic of the organisation itself. A company may be admired for giving leadership to its market sector. It may be recognised as a leader in corporate responsibility. In the public sector a council may provide strong leadership in local government.

We can also conceive of organisations as systems, and of leadership as one component in that system along with structure, culture, values and so on. Good leadership then becomes a key resource: one of the organisation's prime assets.

The important thing is to be clear about the organisation's needs and aspirations for leadership. And what are the needs of stakeholders to receive leadership - what is leadership to be used for? We can then consciously begin to manage leadership. Yes, from the organisation's perspective, leadership itself has to be supervised and co-ordinated by key executives, odd as that may sound at first.

If we associate leadership too strongly with individual leaders (whatever their level), the more likely it is that we will treat the subject as a branch of personal development. Even if individuals improve their leadership skills, the business's needs as a whole for leadership will almost certainly remain unmet. But if we associate leadership directly with the organisation, the more likely it is that the business's own needs will be met. And the more likely it is that leadership strategy will take account of society's, and other stakeholders', needs and expectations for business leadership in the new economy of the 21st century.

The popular model assumes that the sum of individuals attempting to exercise leadership will deliver leadership for the organisation as a whole. In reality, however, unless the organisation itself plays a direct part in the process, that outcome is unlikely. To achieve this larger goal, organisations must deliver a shared, honest and valid purpose, a conscious and supportive leadership culture, a leadership structure that works, and an absence of obstacles to individual leadership.

Hence, leadership cannot be left to individual leaders. Nor can it be left to agents such as management development departments or contracted trainers. Improving leadership is a strategic activity before it is a training activity. The strategy - indeed the lead - needs to come from the organisation itself.

Paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address in 1863 when he spoke about democratic government and the people, we are interested here in leadership

This holistic approach combines context, focus and purpose. The key question for organisations becomes:

How well is leadership being managed
from an organisational perspective?

This model and its accompanying audit will help you to answer that question.

Please note that this approach is not advocating organisational leadership as a replacement for individual leaders and their leadership. Nor is it intended to replace leadership development programmes. It offers a complementary and reinforcing perspective, especially for improving leadership at an organisational level. One of the model's benefits is that it can help to make development programmes more robust and rooted in the organisational context and concerns.

Business benefits

The audit concept

The audit looks at what the organisation is doing and not doing. It looks for gaps in current practice, as well as evaluating how well various policies, processes and programmes are working.

The term 'audit' means assessing, checking, evaluating and improving. It combines a gap analysis and health check with improvement advice. The process is designed to help organisations think, compare, illuminate, learn, plan and improve.

Each audit theme comprises two main components. There is first a descriptive part or 'learning input', containing a definition, discussion, explanation and advice on the particular theme. This is immediately followed by a questionnaire that enables you to assess the organisation. It helps you to measure current performance in each theme's subject area and identify the gaps and scope for improvement.

The audit's themes

There are six distinctive areas united by a common question:

1. Responding to the new environment
This looks at the implications for organisational leadership of the changing business environment - political, social, legal, political, technological, ethical, ecological, etc. We examine stakeholder expectations and pressures, as well as the changing demands for, and expectations of, leadership in the new environment.

2. Mapping the organisation context
This builds on the first theme. It explains where the 'internal organisation' needs to be headed in order to serve the needs of the business. It captures the extent to which leadership resources are matched to the challenge of internal change.

3. Challenging the leadership culture
This theme looks at the existing leadership culture ('what leadership is like round here') and where it is aligned with espoused behaviour or is dysfunctional in serving the organisation's goals.

4. Attaining leadership competence
This theme considers the extent to which leadership competencies are used to add value to the organisation. It is concerned with the relevance of these competencies to the organisation's current concerns and opportunities.

5. Managing leadership across the employment spectrum
This theme looks at the means by which the Human Resource function 'manages' leadership talent in a systematic way at all points on the employment spectrum. The aim is to attain strength and a joined-up approach along the whole chain.

6. Supervising leadership development
This theme looks at the nature and quality of the connection between those responsible for overall business strategy and those charged with the development of leadership and HR management. It is concerned with the nature, extent and quality of supervision and official 'oversight' of (not by) leadership.

Who the audit is for

The Organisational Leadership Audit is designed for those with responsibility for ensuring that an organisation is well led.

Facilitated workshops

Workshops are a good way of augmenting the learning process, because they help:

Workshops are also a useful way of involving a wider group in the planning process by enabling managers to step outside the daily operational system and view matters strategically from an objective perspective.

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    © William Tate, Prometheus Consulting, 2003

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