The number one way to help your accidental leaders

An accidental leader is one who ends up in a leadership role either because of tenure or because they are a high performer in their current role.

Rarely do these accidental leaders participate in effective leadership development before they are entrusted with a role that requires strategic thinking, charisma, the ability to coach, motivate and have difficult conversations. They have to influence even more senior stakeholders and decide quickly what not to do, even when their desire for control is urging them to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in. Sound familiar in your organisation?

That's no surprise. Recent research from the Chartered Management Institute suggests that more than 80% of people leaders are accidental.

Having worked with thousands of these accidental leaders, the best starting point for their development is to help them make a clear distinction between leading and managing. This might sound like a simple step, but my experience is that it is significant. Until an accidental leader knows the difference between leading and managing, it isn't easy to focus on how they do more of what they should be as a leader and less of what they shouldn't. This is the reason that our brilliant but simple leadership equaliser is included at the beginning of most of our leadership programmes.

It helps leaders - especially accidental ones - to quickly decide whether they are giving the right amount of time and focus to leadership work or spending too much on management, taking into account their role and context. And it's no surprise that in the majority of cases, they realise they need to spend more time leading, and this insight drives a thirst to learn how to rebalance their time and focus. Helping a leader shift from accidental to intentional, from operational to transformative, inspiring and strategic, is one of my most favourite things to do. If there's an opportunity for this transformation in your business and with your leaders, I would love you to get in touch.