Darrin Walsh: Leadership is a keystone to success

Darrin Walsh

We live in a competitive world - successful businesses are forced to innovate and change.

The dynamism in a business drives it forward. The energy, motivation and passion of the people in any business is key to engaging with the stakeholders, suppliers and customers who enable the business to exist.

How a business is led will affect the morale and motivation of all the people within it.

Good leadership is fundamental to developing a successful business. Ever since man first engaged in business transactions the four fundamental factors of production are land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship, which have driven economic growth.

However, leadership acts as the catalyst that makes all other elements work together. Without leadership, all other business resources lie dormant.

It is often said that the quality of a business is dependent on the quality of the people in them and the knowledge and skills they have, along with their own motivation and drive.

Leadership is not about seniority, titles or managing people and activity. Leadership is about inspiring, engaging and enabling people to work more productively in a motivated way and to feel that their contribution is valued.

Every business needs knowledgeable and skilled people. Recruitment for positions in an organisation can be either from within or externally.

It is well known that businesses that have loyal, motivated and trained staff are more likely to be successful. This is a key competitive advantage.

Developing people internally provides people with more security and a stronger sense of value, as well as strengthening the business and improving productivity and planning for future business success. A key element to this is succession planning.

Succession planning is a systematic approach to:

-Building a talent pool to ensure leadership continuity

-Developing potential successors in ways that best fit their strengths

-Concentrating resources on the talent development process yielding a greater return on investment.

-Succession planning recognises that some jobs are critical to the organisation and provides a process to ensure that the functions are protected with dedicated skilled and knowledgeable people.

Effectively done, succession planning is critical to mission success and creates an effective process for recognising, developing, and retaining top leadership talent.

Succession planning enables businesses to survive, and plan and grow in the future.

Succession planning will involve:

-Understanding the organisation's long-term goals and objectives

-Identifying the workforce's developmental needs.

For help in developing leadership capability in your business contact our regional partner Phil Becker, who has access to resources for eligible companies Ring Rotorua Chamber of Commerce for information.

- Darrin Walsh is chief executive of the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce.