Can leader be benchmarked?

What- There is no question that leader himself must be able to keep learning new knowledge, reflecting on what and why had been done wrong and how to improve it better. Every leaders approach it in a different way. I am now questioning the method that can a good leader benchmark?

Why- This is important because it probably creates a new learning opportunity for self improvement for a leader. I have looked at the researches about the "benchmarking leadership" yet, and I also believe that there will be some problem in benchmarking a good leader. For example, what are the critical criteria can be benchmark and what cannot? More critically, if I want to benchmark a good leader in no matter what industry or organisations, I need to stay very close with him so I can observe, learn and reflect. This seems, in practise, impossible.

How- From my own experiences, there are four steps in benchmarking a good leader (or someone who is better than me). First it is VERY important that you need to do something before you start to benchmark. Because once you do something, you can realise your strengths AND weakness. Then observe, analyse and ask why he (or she) is doing better than me? This requires a lot of time and effort, indeed. Thirdly, think about how you can benchmark him (or her), and how can I improve myself to achieve where he is now. Finally, if you keep benchmarking very well, you will do much better than him. And you have two choices to be decided: to improve himself even better by guiding and coaching or just leave him alone.

Yingle Ye : 06 Mar 2013 12:02 |  Tags: Excellence Leadership |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem