How well does your organization understand leadership at all levels?
Ask this question, and a bigger picture invariably emerges. Here, the human factors come to the fore. The Anna Karenina test can be applied: all organizations are happy in the same way; but all unhappy organizations are unhappy in their own way.
A consistent organization-wide agreement on leadership behaviors and the values that underpin them will generally produce a happier (and therefore more efficient) environment at a team, department and organization level. Disagreement in values will produce an unhappy (and therefore inefficient) environment.
One answer to this is more training. The military has around 15% of its personnel in formal training at any one time, and we might add almost all in informal training on the job; commercial organizations often envy the consistency of military thinking about leadership, yet have less than 1% of staff in training. It follows that at 15%, an entire organization could be radically changed, improved or altered in a matter of a few years; at 1% it would take a century, many commercial generations. Where speed of change is important, higher levels of training are needed.
The purpose of any leadership training is to inculcate an organization-wide understanding of what great leadership is, from the CEO to the caretaker and from those in Finance to those in the field.
In our field research, we find that organizations in which many people have experienced the Heartstyles Indicator and who understand the Heartstyles model and approach also begin to share a common language and appreciation of behavior. This shared language can be powerful in enabling many people to identify and embrace opportunities for personal growth and to encourage others to grow. Training and leadership programs can provide a great platform to support your growth journey.