Leadership: one of the most frequently written about and long debated subjects. As a result, understanding the many conflicting philosophies on the area; from situational leadership to transformational leadership and on again to contingency theories; can cause confusion. Add to this the many business books written by successful leaders and their commentators and it’s easy to understand how people become confused.

Despite myriad theories, we believe that key to it all is one very simple factor - there is no point in having just one great leader.  Leadership is no longer just about the inspirational and visionary CEO who has their image on the office wall, above the company’s mission plaque and values. Today, to the person on the front-line, their immediate manager is the leader. It’s this person they see daily, the individual who exemplifies everything that the company is about, how things are ‘done around here’ and the one who can help guide their career path; making aspirations a reality. Leadership has become a team activity.

This is why we firmly believe that to have any chance at all of getting the people stuff right and achieving business success, organisations must now create leaders at all levels and this has to be done from day one. If hand on heart your leaders at all levels aren’t up to scratch; it’s time to take action. Here is our five point plan to ensure you are building and / or fine-tuning your leadership capability at all levels:

1. Spend time defining what makes a great leader in your organisation

In the same way an organisation would define its mission and values; it’s vital to spend some time defining the key leadership characteristics that leaders should exert, or be developed to display within your organisation. How does a leader behave and communicate? Once you’ve defined your ‘leadership non-negotiables’, and remember to keep it simple, set about developing these traits in everyone (leader or otherwise). Remember, great leaders are complex beings; diversity is desirable so the important factor is that they are not routinely displaying the opposite behaviours as this would cause damage and disrepute.

2. Start improving capability at all levels now

Develop your desired traits by focusing on one or two at a time; making sure everyone can progress. For example if one of the desired attributes is courage ensure your leaders are supported to make decisions alone; with mistakes being celebrated rather than disciplined thus encouraging bravery to face harsh challenges and make calculated risks. By breaking it down into manageable chunks you’ll be on the way to improving leadership within your organisation. And then they begin to develop the same traits in others; leading by example and passing on knowledge, beliefs and technique.

3. Developing leaders at all levels is a lifelong process

Whilst the cliché ‘great leaders are made, not born’ is a very attractive notion to theorists, development companies and business leaders; implying that if an organisation simply ‘does some leadership development’ then they will breed great leaders and thus great success. The reality is that developing leaders takes more than a few leadership sessions; in fact it is a process which should begin from day one and continue until that individual decides to move on to pastures new. It will not be wasted investment. Not everyone will be the next managing director or chief finance officer; however all will benefit from the leadership skills which they have obtained; enhancing capability across the organisation and creating a confident, powerful and more productive workforce. You know what that means for the bottom line.

4. Introduce low-cost leadership development

Leadership development is not something which should be ‘done’ to people. In fact we believe the leader or potential leader should take their own responsibility for development; driving their own progress. Have leaders create their own goals and key milestones; setting deadlines to achieve. Anyone who is serious about their leadership career should also find themselves a mentor; an individual they regard as an inspirational leader and who they can learn lessons from. Coaching is also a great tool; it requires a little more investment however the returns are great.
Other low-cost leadership development methods include:
• Job swaps, work shadowing, client visits
• Projects and self-study
• Chairing meetings, working parties and committees
• Non-executive directorships / trusteeships – paid and unpaid
The critical factor is that leaders in the making must have access to this development on the way up – once they’re there it is too late.

5. Grow your own

Once you have defined how leadership works within your business and the characteristics recognised in each you can bring this into your recruitment process. Using the characteristics shortlisted; attempt to identify these in the individual at interview stage – allowing you to recruit potential leaders. By doing so you can start developing them and imparting knowledge from day one; however make sure expectations are managed by checking aspirations, development plans and personal circumstances regularly.

Continue to test and inspire these identified ‘rising stars’ by providing internal challenges, projects or using external secondments and experiential learning to keep things fresh. Provide lots of feedback so progress can be measured and managed.

Having a robust talent management system in place will also support your leadership pipeline by ensuring succession planning is always up–to-date and future leaders can be identified –at the click of a button if this is online.

Jane Sunley is CEO of talent management specialists, learnpurple ( www.learnpurple.com ), and author of people bible, ‘Purple your People – the secrets to inspired, happy, more profitable people’ which can be purchased via http://amzn.to/qn617X . This article is based upon the chapter ‘Leaders at all Levels’.