The Key Findings from a Study into Australian Leaders
In the largest ever survey of leadership in Australia, the Centre for Workplace Leadership have surveyed around 8,000 individuals. The first of its kind since the Karpin report in 1995, the study aimed to question whether Australian leaders are ready to meet the challenges of uncertainty, ambiguity and change that the future brings.
The definition of leadership used in this study was:
“…the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives.” Gary Yukl (2013)
Some of the key findings from the survey were that senior leaders play a critical role in keeping check on the many factors influencing the competitive position of an organisation, whereas frontline leaders have a more critical role in supporting effective operations and employee satisfaction and performance. They found that innovation is a key component for leadership and overall business performance.
Interestingly, they found that despite the key role played by frontline leaders, they are mostly neglected in overall investments into leadership development. For every $10 spent in senior leaders, only $1 is spent on frontline leaders (Mercer, 2013).
The study confirmed that good leadership positively affects:
1. Motivation
2. Financial performance
3. Engagement
4. Job satisfaction
5. Trust
6. Commitment
7. Quality
8. Effort levels
9. Employee turnover
10. Citizenship behaviours
One of the weaknesses of Australian leadership presented in the study is a lack of diversity amongst leaders in some workplaces. The report also states that many workplaces have little or no investment into leadership development. In addition, more than 40% of Australian workplaces are not meeting performance targets.
A fascinating report, I really encourage you to dig in and take a read for yourself: http://sal.workplaceleadership.com.au/
Thanks to Trent Rosen from PSK Performance for bringing this report to my attention at his recent Fishbowl event.
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Mercer. 2013. Asia Pacific Leadership Development Practices Study Report. mercer.com.au/content/dam/mercer/attachments/global/Talent/Develop-APLdrshpDevPractStudyRpt.pdf. Last Accessed 7 April 2016.
Yukl, G. 2013. Leadership in Organizations (8th ed.), Boston: Pearson.