Erasmusmundus Lot 8

Mailpost and Leadership

WHO WANTS TO BE A LEADER?
LEADERSHIP TRAINING – IS IT NECESSARY?
Organisations spend billions of dollars on leadership training every year. They send managers and manager-wannabes to a wide range of leadership training activities, formal MBA programs, leadership seminars, weekend retreats, and even outward bound adventures. They even appoint mentors but much of this effort to train leaders is probably a waste of money. Let’s base our thoughts on looking at two fundamental assumptions that underlie leadership training.
Mailpost
The first assumption is that we think we know what leadership is?
Experts cannot agree if leadership is a genetic trait, a characteristic, a behavior, a role, a style, an ability or a learned attribute. Further, they cannot even agree on whether leaders really make a difference in organisational outcomes. For instance, some experts have persuasively argued that leadership is merely an attribution made to explain organisational successes and failures, which themselves occur by chance. Leaders are the people who get credit for successes and take the blame for failures, but they may actually have influence over organisational outcomes.
Mailpost
The second basic assumption is that we can train people to lead. The evidence here is not very encouraging. We do seem to be able to teach individuals about leadership. Unfortunately findings indicate we are not so good at teaching to lead.
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There are several possible explanations. To the degree that personality is a critical element in leadership effectiveness; some people may not have been born with the right personality traits. A second explanation is that there is no evidence that individuals can substantially alter their basic leadership style. A third possibility is that even if certain theories could actually guide individuals in leadership situations and even if individuals could alter their style, the complexity of those make it nearly impossible for any normal human being to assimilate all the variables and be capable of enacting the right behaviors in every situation.
Mailpost
Leadership training exists, and is a multibillion-dollar industry, because it works to some degree. Most Leaders would agree that although some knowledge is gained during atraining session, for the most part it is the confidence to lead that is greatly enhanced. Leaders are decision makers which are rational and emotional beings.

Mailpost
Would a company like General Electric spend literally tens-of-millions of dollars each year on leadership training if it did not expect a handsome return? I don’t think so! And the ability to lead successfully is why companies pay CEO’s millions and in some case over $100 million to ensure the success of the enterprise. Under their leadership, many companies have experienced spectacular growth including shareholder gains.

Mailpost
While there are certainly disagreements over the exact definition of leadership, most academics and business people agree that leadership is an influential process whereby an individual, by his or her actions, facilitates the movement of a group of people toward the achievement of a common goal. Ensuring that the group have a culture of working together in a Team spirit and respecting their leader is of prime importance.
Mailpost
Do Leaders affect organisational outcomes in all situations?
For instance, the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) resulted in the collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments and downturns in stock markets around the world. In many areas, the housing market has also suffered, resulting in numerous evictions, foreclosures and prolonged vacancies. It is considered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Mailpost It contributed to the failure of key businesses, declines in consumer wealth, substantial financial commitments incurred by governments, and a significant decline in economic activity. Many causes have been proposed, with varying weight assigned by experts. Both market-based and regulatory solutions have been implemented or are under consideration, while significant risks remain for the world economy over the 2010–2011 periods.
Mailpost

National business’s like MailPost (franchised delivery Network) and many others in a start up phase launched their services during the GFC. In this case a high growth cycle practically came to a standstill. Mr Peter Kritas, the CEO and founder of MailPost Australia Limited from July 2006 till March 2009, was asked to step aside and allow new management to take over the Leadership of MailPost during a very critical period. During difficult situations, it is not uncommon to lose confidence in the Leadership and change management to try and fix the situation. This sort of behaviour should always be exercised with caution as it can do more harm than good. There are clearly some business situations that are beyond any Leaders ability to rectify and wasting time and resource in a change of management is not the best option. In many cases Leaders need more support during a crisis from their management Team to maintain confidence.
Mailpost
The case of MailPost is a clear example of an innovative business model, whereby its Unique Selling Proposition (USP) was actually a franchisee investing and having a stake in the MailPost business, thus offering a higher level of guaranteed service than what was available through an employee or contractor model that was the norm. This USP during a GFC also became the “Achilles Heel” as recruitment of franchisees practically came to a standstill. MailPost relied on a recruitment schedule to establish the mailpost letterbox distribution service on a National basis. Whilst the CEO had a track record of positive growth and profits prior to the GFC and maintained a positive attitude towards a solution to get through the crisis, this leader was not supported but was rather asked to step aside.
Mailpost

There is no doubt that the recent Global Financial Crisis had a huge impact on many CEO’s around the world whether their business was established or in a start up phase. Stress levels reached new heights for leaders as the economic pressure were felt.
Successful Leaders anticipate change, vigorously exploit opportunities, motivate their followers to higher levels of productivity, correct poor performance, and lead the organisation toward its objectives.
A review of the leadership literature, in fact, led two academics to conclude that the research shows consistent effect for leadership, explaining 20 to 45% of the variance on relevant organisational outcomes.
Training and the effectiveness of leadership programs vary. They will because the programs themselves are so diverse. Moreover, people learn in different ways. Because some leadership programs are better than others and because some people participate in programs that are poorly matched to their needs and learning style, we should expect leadership-training effectiveness to have a spotty record. So decision makers need to be careful in choosing leadership training experiences for their managers. But they shouldn’t conclude that all leadership training is a waste of money.
In conclusion we say that leadership training is a more positive feature provided it is imparted to managers who have come up in the organisation to a certain level by their natural ability and the leadership training will definitely hone their skills to achieve much better performance and capable of taking higher responsibilities.

Tags: Mailpost