The Leadership Standard Framework: 5 key elements for leaders
Over the last month, the SA Board for People Practices (SABPP) with the support from Talent Talks have been on a journey to create a clear South African leadership standard framework. The five elements of the Framework sit inside a context where the Leadership Philosophy of the organisation and its individual leaders sets a Tone at the Top and is expressed through the Organisation Culture which delivers the Leadership Outcomes.
The five elements are:
- Instilling a Vision
- Delivering Value
- Living the Values
- Leading People
- Reflecting for Improvement.
These are shown diagrammatically as below:
Each of the five elements contains three sections:
- Outcome statement. This explains what should be a visible outcome of leadership in this element.
- Fundamental Requirements for Good Practice. These are a set of clear and simple indicators which will form the building blocks for achieving the Outcome Statement.
- Key Questions. These are a set of questions which any organisation or individual leader needs to reflect on and arrive at an answer which suits the specific context of the organisation or individual leader.
We have not attempted a definition of each element because that can be limiting and can give rise to different opinions which might undermine the power of the Leadership Standard. We believe that we should concentrate on the outcomes which imply action and moving forward rather than a definition which is static. The Outcome Statement is intended to be clear enough to convey what we mean by each element.
Leadership is dealt with both in the collective and the individual. The actions and behaviour of the collective leadership have the biggest influence on the organisation, while the actions and behaviour of individual leaders needs to be aligned to that of the collective in order to ensure consistency and integrity to the collective leadership. In the next five articles over the next week we will unpack each one of the five leadership standard elements in order to prepare you for the official launch of the Leadership Standard on 26 October.
Penny Abbott is Research and Policy Advisor at SABPP, and Marius Meyer is CEO of SABPP.
