5 CENTS Leadership Tool — ETHRWorld

In today’s day and age, whether it is a Country, Economy, or a Company, all have the pressure to perform and stay ahead in the game. The degree may vary from time to time but underlying expectations are quite clear — Perform, Perform and Perform. Obviously, if performance is so important and needs to be continuously enhanced, all eyes are on the leadership that is leading this pack.

While the jury is still out whether leadership is an art or science (or perhaps a blend of both!), one thing is quite obvious that whether it is a country or an economy or a company, the differentiating factor is the ‘capacity and capability’ of the leaders to lead, direct and course-correct from time to time.

One of the most burning question as a Performance & Career Coach I get from the Founders/CEOs are about the ways to enhance their leadership effectiveness. Let me acknowledge that there are a couple of excellent leadership effectiveness tools in practice in the market, however, I feel the issue of leadership effectiveness is so big and complex that I can easily suggest one more tool for this. This tool has been tested by me by way of coaching multiple leaders across sectors, organization sizes, and countries, and now I can claim with all modesty that this tool if applied properly can show some really promising results for the company. Just to clarify, I have applied this tool to companies only, as I have been part of the corporate world and never got an opportunity yet to apply this for a Country or an Economy directly.

This tool is called ‘5 CENTS Leadership’ with the following attributes :

1. Collaboration: Business is a game of collaboration and no leader can imagine doing it all alone. He has to be a concertmaster who has to orchestrate and synchronize different tunes (personalities). Leaders find this too difficult to do, as this involves managing different temperaments & skillsets and to bring this in unison is not an easy task. It is expected that as a leader one should stitch all together in one fabric that takes the organization flag to a new high.

2. Experiential: A leader is a chief architect whose job is to make sure that be it customers, employees, or other stakeholders, all have a happy experience with their organization’s product and services. Leadership effectiveness requires cascading desired experience to the last person standing (facing stakeholders) to give the same delight, every day, every time. This complexity increases manifold if the size of an organization is huge and operate in multiple countries with varied culture.

3. Novelty: Leaders are expected to be visionaries which means they should bring newness to the organization all the time. Routine is boring and quite easy for bright followers to feel their job mundane and move out for other exciting opportunities with the competitors. The leader needs to continuously innovate, experiment, and create a feeling of novelty all the time, so everyone feels connected and excited with the work they are doing.

4. Talent: Can an organization survive this cutthroat competition without having talent on its side? The answer is No. A leader has to scout for talent all the time. Talent that is not only good for the current situation but talent which can take the organization to the next level in the future also. Talent comes with its own tantrums and in today’s day and age, it is very difficult to retain them. By bringing personal touch, the leader has to ring-fence talent so that the business does not suffer due to lack of talent.

5. Sustainability: Leadership is not a one-time activity and success has a limited shelf life (unless you repeat it again). Leaders cannot rest on their laurels and every day they have to lead with the same passion and determination. A leader needs to keep an eye on the system, processes, and agility of its operations all the time to ensure business continuity. On one hand, the leader needs to ensure fast-paced growth and on the other hand, the leader needs to ensure that there is no turbulence when they grow. One of the litmus tests for leaders is to win every time, every day.

While I agree that leadership effectiveness is largely dependent on the personality profile of an individual, still having a framework like ‘5 CENTS Leadership’ can bring some method to the madness. Based on my experience, this tool can be applied regardless of the size & nature of the business. These are simple yet effective and are non-sequential which means they can be applied in any order or can be partly applied. However, for better results, it is advisable to apply this in totality.

Hope ‘5 CENTS Leadership’ tool is much more than five cents…!!

Originally published at https://hr.economictimes.indiatimes.com on August 29, 2021.