A leader's job is to make a successful team – if the team succeeds, the leader succeeds. Because a team is constantly evolving, leadership must continuously adapt to the current needs of the team. With HFMtalentindex/Assessio's newly developed 'Leadership Feedback' tool, you can measure how effective your leaders are and initiate behavioural change.

Leadership is the most important work environment factor

Effective leadership gives managers the tools to build high-performing teams that feel strongly committed to their mission and to each other. These teams perform beyond expectations because the qualities and competencies of the entire team exceed individual performance. The manager who is able to guide a team to the highest level of development can gain a lot from that. However, worldwide research shows that only 18 per cent of all managers succeed in their mission. The lack of leadership also has other consequences: employees quit their jobs and the productivity of the team as well as the engagement of employees in the organisation decreases.

Leadership is without a doubt the most important work environment factor in an organisation. Effective leadership is indispensable if the organisation wants to maximise its potential, achieve its goals and make the teams work well.

Employee surveys

Annual employee surveys certainly give an indication of how leadership works and how high the level of engagement in the organisation is, but whether it leads to change is questionable. The results of an employee survey provide some insight but say nothing about how each manager can improve their leadership. Another problem is that the study is often extensive and data collection takes a lot of effort. Management looks at the result, which can be quite unclear in some cases, and then nothing happens.

Leadership based on the needs of the team

There is not one type of leadership that works in all situations, a team has different needs depending on the stage of development it is in. In a team that has just been formed, there is still a lot of uncertainty. The employees, therefore, need certainty and direction. The leader must be proactive, clarify the team's goals and be straightforward about what is expected of everyone. As the team matures, more coaching leadership is needed where employees are given more influence and responsibility.

Over time, the ability of employees to self-direction increases, allowing the manager to take a step back. Only when a team reaches the final stage of development can it be described as high-performing. At that point, the team takes great personal responsibility and puts all its energy into the tasks it has to solve. The fact that there are relatively few teams that reach this level is due to many things; lack of leadership being one of the most common.

To meet the needs of the team, it is important that the manager is informed about what is going well and what is not quite there yet. The team may find the manager too controlling, bad at delegating, or that the manager needs to listen more. The feedback from the team gives the manager an indication of how functional the leadership style used actually is.

Unlike 360-degree feedback tools, this development tool focuses on one-sided feedback: from the team members. The feedback is based on the most critical aspects of leadership:

• The ability to facilitate change and development.
• The ability to coach and listen.
• The ability to work strategically.
• The ability to work operationally.

These aspects are crucial for all leadership positions and provide managers with insight and incentive to steer their leadership in the right direction. Team members evaluate how well the leadership style fits the needs of the team, rather than how good or bad the manager is.

This is how a Leadership Feedback process works

• The feedback tool is a web application that is built based ib information from the organisation and the leaders and teams to be involved.
• The employees who have to provide feedback are given a link to the questionnaire, which takes approximately five minutes to complete.
• To help the manager understand the effectiveness of the leadership style and how it changes over time, a point scale from 0 to 100 is used. The closer to 100, the better the leader succeeds in meeting the needs and wants of the team.
• The scores and comments of employees create a clear basis and incentive for behavioural change.
• HR and the management team get an overview of the average scores of the managers and what has changed since the last feedback round.

Resulting in behavioural change

Everyone knows by now how effective feedback is. At the same time, it can be frustrating to receive feedback. For example, the manager may have implemented the goals and strategies of the organisation on several occasions, only to find out, upon receiving feedback, that this information has not gotten across at all.

It might be the case that you have not made it clear or not have done so often enough. Then the challenge will remain unchanged and that in itself can be an important insight. Then there is something to be fixed. Anyone can change their behaviour as long as there is insight and an incentive. If all managers in an organisation make a small change in the right direction, it will make a big difference in the end.