There is one character trait that many hiring managers link to leadership competency: Confidence.
It’s human nature to be drawn toward leaders who are confident, so perhaps that’s not surprising.
Unfortunately, confidence (how good you perceive yourself to be) doesn’t always translate to competence (how skilled you actually are). Someone who seems self-assured might not actually know what they’re doing, and just because a leader is authoritative doesn’t mean that they are able to inspire and motivate others.
There is a cost to organizations who put the wrong folks into leadership roles.Promoting or hiring incompetent candidates:
- Contributes to a toxic workplace culture with anxious employees and fractious workplace relationships.
- Results in signs of overwork in the organization.
- Increases the amount of sick time taken by stressed or disgruntled employees.
- Lowers productivity as employees are less engaged with each other and their work.
- Prevents or impedes the organization from achieving goals and success.
- Pushes direct reports to resign and find work elsewhere, driving up costs for recruitment and training.
Conversely, when organizations are able to build effective leadership teams, their team members tend to have strong relationships built on trust – which then result in excellent employee engagement, productivity and satisfaction.
It’s important that the folks in charge of succession planning and hiring new leaders understand the difference between confidence and competence when they assess leadership competency.
How to Recognize when Confidence is Not Enough
There are signs that someone who seems confident isn’t competent. A leader who is struggling and out of their depth:
- Doesn’t understand the top priorities, functions or goals for a team or department. They might argue with team members or say things that show they lack understanding of issues that matter or the scope of the work. (And try to cover up by saying, “I knew that!” or “Yes, of course.”)
- Might try to micro-manage direct reports or institute new policies, rules and reports. If someone doesn’t know how to lead, they might instead resort to these strategies to demonstrate they are in charge and making changes.
- Won’t ask employees questions or listen to feedback. If they’re feeling overwhelmed and insecure, they’re fearful that asking for information or having people raise ideas shows their weaknesses.
- Acts more like a boss than a leader. The difference here is leading by exerting power and directing folks rather than rallying people to work together to achieve goals.
- Has a hard time making decisions and difficulty admitting when they fail.
Sometimes false confidence is related to a lack of experience. In extreme cases, it may be arrogance – when someone has an inflated sense of their own abilities and/or importance and has poor emotional intelligence when it comes to relationships. We’ve discussed before how some high performers don’t play nicely with others.
Other times it might be related to a behaviour style.
At Padraig, our coaches use an assessment tool called Everything DiSC to help our clients understand themselves and others better. We all have a behaviour style; they are different but no one style is better than another. For example, the Dominant “D” and Influential “I” tend to be more extroverted and the Steady “S” and Conscientious “C” tend to be more reserved.
One behaviour that is common to folks who are Dominant “D” is that they almost always appear confident – even when they are unsure or don’t know what to do. They don’t appear confident to be deceitful; they do it because they want to project authority and because they want to be given freedom to get the job done. They look confident (and maybe even feel confident without reason to be confident in this situation) because they know they have figured things out in the past and successfully solved/accomplished/delivered things.
A statement that often comes up in our Flexible Leadership workshop (based on the DiSC Management profile) is that when you do not have a D behaviour style yourself and you are leading a person with a D behaviour profile, “don’t confuse confidence with competence.”
How to Build Leadership Competency
Once we distinguish between confidence and competence, it’s possible to develop leadership competency.
- Use assessment tools to figure out patterns of behaviour. Knowing our strengths and weaknesses allows us to understand ourselves better and how to work well with others.
(Pro tip: Check biases because, for example, introverts can make incredible leaders but are often passed over for extroverts.) - Cultivate a strong executive presence. There are tools to develop an executive presence so that a leader feels more confident and others trust their ability to inspire and lead them.
- Take stock of existing skills. There are signs that someone is ready to be a leader – and signs they’re not. Any weaknesses or challenges are potential areas for professional development.
- Build capacity. There are steps to take to properly prepare staff for management roles, including working with mentors or one-to-one coaches, accessing opportunities to gain practical work experience and taking professional development courses.
- Invest in learning programs. At Padraig, we’ve witnessed how the power of peer learning and coaching accelerates leadership success. In addition to expanding their toolkits, leaders can build connections so that they have a support network.
(Pro tip: Padraig offers two peer group programs called The Partnership and The Network. We can deliver them in-house, or you can sign up individually through our public registration website at Odality.ca.)
Coach’s Questions
What can you do to better assess leadership competency? Is there anything new that could be implemented right away? What could be done better or differently?
