What is the difference between leadership and a leader?

If I had a quarter for every time I heard the buzzwords leadership and leader thrown around in meetings, talks, podcasts, you name it, I could retire any day now. Let’s be honest. How frequently do most business leaders through around those words interchangeably without truly recognizing the nuance? Let’s get back to basics for a second. In the purest form, here are two definitions:

• Leadership: Leadership is a big picture concept. In Leadership: Theory and Practice (2016) Northouse offers a modern perspective leadership to be “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.”
• Leader: Relying on Northouse’s definition of leadership, a leader is a person who offers influence to a context. A leader is one aspect of the concept of leadership.

Understanding the nuance in the two terms is vital for construction executives who want to leverage programming within their business.

Why is leader development important?

Construction executives understand the impact (positive and negative) an individual can bring a jobsite or office. Each individual holds a degree of influence, presence and personal power. And, individuals carry this with them as they interact internally and externally on behalf of the organization. Now, imagine, what if an organization invested time, resources and energy in developing individuals.

Consider the positive impact an individual who is developed into a leader offers the organization. Think of the growth, flourishing and potential that is possible. In It’s the Manager (2019), the authors share Gallup research that estimates the impact of engagement. Over the years, Gallup has been a leading provider of research for executives globally. Gallup studies suggest that “the cost of poor management and lost productivity from not-engaged or actively disengaged employees in the U.S. is between $960 billion and $1.2 trillion per year. Globally, that cost approaches $7 trillion—of 9% to 10% of GDP.” Leader development is one of the ways to overcome the negative impacts of disengaged employees.

What is a leader development program?

In Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorers (2001), the authors share of the great story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his leadership during the great Antarctic expedition in the early 1900s. “His greatest failure was his 1914-1916 Endurance expedition. He lost his ship before even touching Antarctica. But he reached a new pinnacle in leadership when he successfully led all the members of his crew to safety after a harrowing two-year fight for their lives.” One of the critical lessons from Shackleton’s example emphasizes the critical nature of learning.

“Broaden your cultural and social horizons beyond your usual experiences. Learning to see things from different perspectives will give you greater flexibility in problem solving at work.”

A leader development program (LDP) emphasizes just this—learning. LDP is a format of learning targeted for professionals. An LDP can be contextual to an industry, competency need or capacity development. Depending on the type of construction business and the organization’s vision, a customized LDP can take place on-site, online or in a remote setting. When working with a leadership practitioner, a LDP can be completely scalable for the business’ exact need.

Why is a leader development program important?

In The Time Paradox (2008), the authors convey four time orientations. These time orientations include past, present, future and transcendental future. The authors describe the time orientations in the following ways:

• Past: An individual uses this time orientation honors memories, history and previous influence.
• Present: An individual uses this time orientation values experience, flow and state of mind.
• Future: An individual uses this time orientation leverages foresight, strategy and a future-focus.
• Transcendental Future: An individual uses this time orientation respects future generations, on-going civility and the continuance of human life.

Time orientation is essential for construction executives to reflect on. Consider for a moment engagement and development. Engagement refers to a present or current concept, while development refers to a current concept that encourages an intentional positive future. With this in mind, construction executives benefit from using a future time orientation when considering a leader development program for their business.

By spending time identifying competencies and capacities critical to the construction businesses’ success in the next five to 10 years, a leader development program allows the company to first, marry those future needs with the current employees; and secondly, develop those employees into the organization’s future leaders.

A LDP serves as a critical vessel for preparing the next round of organizational leaders to ensure the business’ long-term success.

How can a leadership development program financially impact my organization?

A LDP can financially impact any construction company. More Gallup research from It’s the Manager (2019) quantifies the impact of employee engagement using insights gathered from “1.8 million employees—across 49 industries and in 73 different countries.” These findings are critical for every construction executive. “When Gallup analyzed the differences in performance between engaged and actively disengaged business/work units, work units scoring in the top quartile on employee engagement significantly outperformed those in the bottom quartile on these crucial performance outcomes:

• 41% lower absenteeism
• 24% less turnover (in high-turnover organizations)
• 59% less turnover (in low-turnover organizations)
• 28% less shrinkage
• 70% fewer safety incidents
• 58% fewer patient safety incidents
• 40% fewer defects (quality)
• 10% higher customer ratings
• 17% higher productivity
• 20% higher sales
• 21% higher profitability”

Now, construction executives need to consider their organizations. Take a moment to gather 2019 financial, productivity, and safety numbers. How might fewer safety incidents, defects, or quality problems impact the bottom line? How might an increase in sales and profitability enable the business to further thrive? The engagement and development that follow a leader development program have the potential to bring a dramatic impact to a construction business in 2020.