In any organisation, individuals tend to be either appointed, elected or else stand out through some sort of natural process as leaders of that group. The concept of leadership has been the subject of research for as long as research has been carried out. Suffice it to say that a quick Google search of the word ‘leadership’ results in millions of hits ranging from articles and opinions to data and commercial services for the identification and development of leaders. Add this to the amount of printed material in the form of books, position papers and academic publications, and you can spend a few lifetimes reading about the subject. Logically, the question that comes to mind is why so much interest in this area?

We know that good leaders have a positive impact on the organisation they are part of, so we are safe in saying that leadership makes a difference. The value of good leadership can be seen in the results achieved by those organisations and countries that have had men and women who were able to provide vision and direction, who understood the business they were in, be it commercial or political, who were able to garner the necessary support for the implementation of their plans and who executed those same plans in a manner that helped them reach the goals they set for the greater good of their companies or countries.

Research has shown that the growing demand for good leaders in organisations will surpass their availability. It is therefore not surprising that among the myriad of challenges faced today by organisations, the one that stands out for the purposes of this article, is the concern of CEOs and HR managers about the availability of leaders in their organisations and the pipeline which is preparing individuals to take on leadership roles in the future. Such concern is real and can have financial as well as continuity consideration for any organisation. If it is unable to develop or buy the required leadership talent, then the organisation is possibly facing tougher challenges than its competitors who have taken it upon themselves to ensure a supply of such talent.

So how do you develop your leaders?

The straight answer to that question would be: in any way that fits the culture and purpose of your organisation. Among other things, such an answer tells us that (a) there is no one correct way on how you develop leaders; true there are a number of principles that one should adopt in order to be more effective but there is no one single formula that fits every organisation, and (b) leaders can be developed and are not necessarily born with some special DNA code that labels them as the leaders of tomorrow.

The challenge of developing leaders in organisations is made even greater by a business environment that is changing faster than ever before, resulting in the inability for organisations to chart their future development with a greater degree of certainty. This is required if we want to guide our people in their development. On a personal level, the challenges are no less. For example, one of the key elements for great leaders is authenticity; in simpler terms it is being who you are. We know that people tend to trust and warm to leaders who are themselves, who are authentic. But the world in which we live tends to very often favour those who present an image fitting the mainstream mode of thinking and for someone who wants to be authentic this can be somewhat of a drawback. So creating the balance between who you are and what you present to the outer world, to be accepted both by those reporting to you and by those taking decisions about you, is a beautiful act that some have managed to transform from an art into a science while others still need to master it.

The first step before learning how to lead is to learn about yourself. Who are you? What do you stand for? What are your values? How do you react to

different situations? Accepted wisdom dictates that if you are a politician your values are those of the people voting for you, and if you are a business leader your values are those of your shareholders. There may be some truth in this thinking, yet the real you will come out and if there is incongruence between you and your role the reaction, more often than not, is negative. So in developing leaders, the first step is to help people understand themselves better. Today we have a number of tools that can help us do this and this would be the start of an interesting leadership journey that helps participants walk a path of self-discovery, resulting sometimes in life-changing decisions. The concept of the journey is important. You cannot wake up one morning and say I want to be a leader. Leadership is a process of learning, experience and discovery.

Joshua Zammit is Divisional Manager for Actavis Malta and Deputy Vice-President for Actavis Group. He is responsible for Human Resources and Organisational Development within Global Operations and for development within the Actavis Group. He will be one of the main speakers at the FHRD conference being held on 16 October.