Our partners’ opinion on leadership. Part two.

Andreea Mihnea, Chief People Officer, First Bank

1. How would you define leadership? Are there any universal characteristics of good leadership? How can you tell? If so, what are the top 3-5 characteristics of good leadership regardless of context?

Leadership can be defined by two qualities: the ability to generate a vision of a better or more adequate environment to attain a specific purpose and the capacity to make that new reality happen through people.

It is very easy to see where leadership is absent as change is also not there; in a world where change is the norm, we often see environments that remain inert, failing to grow and reinvent themselves. By contrast, leadership is present wherever there is visible successful change in communities, companies, society. One might say that a leader is the one who can make change happen.

In my view, regardless of context, the following characteristics make a good leader:

• A healthy level of emotional intelligence
• A good understanding of social networks dynamics
• Strong communication ability
• Courage
• Energy

2. What is the impact of top leadership team’s values within organization? Why are values important at leadership team level?

The impact is real even though it is often not easily correlated with the values espoused at the top. Since values are anchors that guide everyday decisions and leaders make the most decisions affecting the organization’s course of life, values of the top team are essential for the latter’s success.

I have learned to look closer at the small things in order to assess the values of the leaders I work with. The reason is that they normally pay attention to their image and naturally tend to take care of the big things they do and how they do them. But their real values are revealed in small, mundane circumstances. When they are late, when mistakes are made, when they are wrong and do not want to admit responsibility, when they procrastinate decisions, when they take people for granted, when they overuse their status and power.

3. What are the most important themes for leadership development nowadays? Do organizations trust leadership development initiatives? Do these initiatives pay off? How can we avoid failure of such development programs?

I believe the most important topics for leadership development nowadays are: personal energy management, exercising a growth mindset and creating psychological safety.

If done right, yes, organizations and leaders receive these initiatives as gifts. To avoid their failure, we need to make sure leaders are first and foremost exposed to self-awareness and reflection and that such programs are facilitated by very professional individuals who need to be leaders themselves to be credible.

4. People’s dark side can interfere with business results and the quality of their lives. So how do we manage it constructively? How have you used Hogan Leadership assessment to coach and develop leaders and to improve leadership team effectiveness?

In our case it was used for a better team alignment at the top as a starting point. The fact that our dark side is easily perceived by others and not by ourselves makes Hogan Leadership Assessment a very powerful tool to uncover who each member of the team really is, at individual level, like a mirror that others are uncomfortable to put in front of us directly. Hogan Leadership assessment does that at personal level generating a breakthrough for everyone in the team. Most of the members start a journey of introspection and reflection that brings to the team a better individual, one at a time. The effect is even stronger if a 360-degree feed-back is included and the members of the team are able to understand the dynamics they create and how they can create a better version of that team and the impact it can have.