Head of L&D at banking giant outlines criteria for judging leadership potential
By Martin Kornacki (21-01-2010)
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Speaking on Thursday, at a Kenexa leadership seminar on developing talent, John Mahoney-Phillips said that the most important skills leaders possess are universal and can be identified in individuals as varied as Gandhi and Winston Churchill.
During research for a professional doctorate Mahony-Phillips identified the six dimensions of a successful leader as the capability for continuous learning, complex thinking, emotional intelligence, accountability, resilience and collaborative working.
Taken together, from a talent management perspective, they most consistently predict future leadership potential in employees, he says.
“The world is getting more complex, we need people to connect the unconnected and see patterns in bits of data and behaviour that may be seemingly unrelated,” he said.
“We are in a world were there is a mass of information that is hugely fragmented and so we have created a new challenge in bringing this all together and sorting the wheat from the chaff.”
To enable this new leaders must be continuous learners. Mahoney-Phillips’s says this type of learning is one of the critical factors in predicting whether leaders will be successful in the future.
“You need a certain amount of emotional resilience to put yourself in a position that is uncomfortable, difficult, uncertain and unknown and you need another set of skills that allow you to reflect and think how you can change your behaviour on the basis of what you’ve experienced,” he said.
That kind of emotional intelligence, in his view, must reach beyond the ability to read emotions in yourself and others and work as a tool to engage colleagues through their feelings.
The six core leadership skills outlined at the seminar are part of a competency based performance management system that Mahoney-Phillips developed for his professional doctorate in occupational psychology.
Pilot studies carried out during the development of the system, which will be made available to organisations later this year, have shown it gives both more accurate measures of performance and clearer identification of development needs than current methods.
“These skills we can go some way to future-proofing the capabilities that people will need when a time arises when we don’t yet know what the demands on leadership will be, the ability to be a reflective learner, to have emotional resilience and intelligence are actually essential in the toolkit of the successful leader of the future,” Mahoney-Phillips concluded.
Readers Comment
Posted by: Keith Paine
Added Friday, 29 January, 2010, 16:31
I'm assured it is "Collaborative Working"
Posted by: Amanda J Dale
Added Friday, 29 January, 2010, 13:32
I believe in the last paragraph it mentions about being a reflective learner, so maybe this is the 6th competency. I'd be interested in seeing the pilot material if anybody knows how to get a hold of this - or any other competency based performance management model for leadership skills training. Amanda Dale - amanda.dale@caledonian.com
Posted by: Keith Paine
Added Monday, 25 January, 2010, 11:24
Follow up to my first post - just realised "numeracy" wasn't in there!
Posted by: Keith Paine
Added Monday, 25 January, 2010, 11:17
Am I missing something? During research for a professional doctorate Mahony-Phillips identified the six dimensions of a successful leader as the capability for continuous learning, complex thinking, emotional intelligence, accountability and resilience. isn't that 5? is the 6th - the X factor!
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Added Friday, 05 February, 2010, 13:39
You are absolutely correct Keith - the sixth competency has been returned to its rightful place on the list.