Leadership by algorithmIs there a single, right way to lead? Research suggests not, the methods explored in this chapter suggest not, and common sense suggests that a one-size-fits-all approach could be disastrous because organisations exist for diverse purposes and develop unique cultures. Leadership development programs generally teach a best-practices model, but experts suggest that individuals trained in leadership techniques that are contrary to their own natures risk losing the authenticity crucial to effective leadership. A promising path to leadership may therefore lie in algorithms.

If you've ever taken a strengths-based assessment such as the Harrison Assessment or Gallup's Clifton Strengths-Finder, you know that surveys aimed at discovering your personality, skills and preferences result in a personal profile. These tools are helpful, but algorithms can take your leadership development to the next level of personalisation and application. They can take the results from each survey you complete, for instance, and use them to create a leadership program that matches your needs and abilities.

As the founder of management coaching organisation TMBC and author of StandOut, Marcus Buckingham is an expert on creating leadership programs. He recommends the following steps:

Step 1: Find or develop assessment tools. These might include a personality component, such as a Big Five inventory test, and can include other tests that companies can resource or create according to the leadership characteristics they are seeking to monitor.

Step 2: Identify the top leaders in the organisation and administer the tests to them. This step is not to determine what all the leaders have in common but to group the top leaders into categories by their similar profiles.

Step 3: Interview the leaders within each profile category to learn about the techniques they use that work. Often these techniques will be unique, unscripted and revealingly correlated to the strengths in each leader's assessment profile. Compile the techniques within each profile category.

Step 4: The results of top leader profile categories and the leaders' techniques can be used to create an algorithm, or tailored method, for developing leaders. Administer the assessment tests to developing leaders and determine their profile categories. The techniques from successful leaders can then be shared with the developing leaders who are most like them because they share the same profile category.

These steps provide a means for successful leaders to pass along to developing leaders the techniques that are likely to feel authentic to the developing leaders and that encourage creativity. The techniques can be delivered in an ongoing process as short, personalised, interactive and readily applicable tips and advice that yield results no two-week leadership development course could achieve.

Questions

If you have participated in leadership development programs, how effective did you find them in teaching you techniques and giving you practical strategies that you could use? What could they do better?

How suitable do you believe Buckingham's steps would be if you were deciding to implement them in your current (or future) organisation? Why or why not?