Understanding leadership behaviours

In this edition of the Talent Poole we’re looking at the role and impact of leadership behaviours with valuable insights from Emma Vass, CEO of Ecotone UK.

Let’s start by clarifying what we mean by the term ‘behaviours’. According to psychologist, Kurt Lewin, behaviours are a function of an individual's personality and the environment in which the individual is acting. An individual’s personality, in this context, refers to a combination of their underlying traits, their motivations and their experiences. A critical message is that individuals can adopt learnt behaviours to best deliver success in a given situation.

The role of behaviours is so important for leaders to recognise and embrace, because they tend to define the difference between an ‘ok’ performer and a ‘truly exceptional’ performer. Ask yourself what makes the difference, for example, between an ‘ok’ accountant and an exceptional accountant and it will be behaviours such as tenacity; having a deep understanding of the client’s needs; or perhaps, attention to detail, that define this difference, not whether they are merely good with numbers.

Below you will see a list of sixteen typical behaviours clustered into four main themes.

Recruitment and selection

Given how important and impactful behaviours can be in delivering excellence, it is not surprising that many businesses define and assess for specific behaviours as part of their recruitment and selection process – especially for leadership roles. Vass agreed: “As well as assessing for requirements in relation to skills and capabilities, it’s also important for us to find people who are going to be a good cultural fit for our organisation and behaviours help us to define what talent is and who we are looking for.” ​

Emma Vass joined Ecotone UK as CEO in 2018 and sits on the executive board of the Ecotone group which spans seven countries and 1,600 employees. In 2022, the total annual turnover was €690m. What makes Ecotone different is its ambition to transform the future food system and challenge the current conventional food model. 

With over 25 years’ experience in FMCG, Emma heads up the UK business in its mission of Food for Biodiversity with specific targets to reach by 2025. Ecotone is both Great Place to Work and B Corp certified. 

Emma has also previously served as UK general manager at McCormick’s, commercial director for Danone Dairy and held positions at Premier Foods and Mars. 

Due to their relatively enduring nature, it is arguably better to take on someone with the right behavioural profile and train in any knowledge and skills they are missing, than to take on someone with the right knowledge and skills and have to work on adapting their behaviours. Vass agreed: “We particularly focus on behaviours in the final interview. By this stage it’s less about functional issues and more about their behavioural fit.”​

The right behaviours for the right roles

Of course, no individual is expected, or likely, to demonstrate all sixteen of the above behaviours. However, certain behaviours can be regarded as critically important for certain roles. For Vass, some of the behaviours she considers most important for leaders, sit within the cluster of ‘Self-Management’.

Vass reflected: “I think that, as managers move into more senior roles, they need to have more self-confidence. By that, I don’t mean bigger personal egos, but leaders do need to have self-confidence that helps them to make decisions and do things which are right for the business. Linked to that, is resilience. As you move into a more senior role, it can become lonelier. You have to be able to cope and still push forward despite everything that is thrown at you – particularly relevant, at the moment, with Brexit, Covid and the current economic impacts of high inflation!”​

Evolving with your career

Our most deep-seated behaviours probably developed in early childhood – during the most formative stage in our lives. That said, unlike our traits which tend to be highly stable and enduring, behaviours can be learnt or developed over time – although some can take several months or even years to develop. Vass noted this change in her own development: “In the early stages of my career I think the focus was on the relationship behaviours such as interpersonal awareness and adaptive behaviour. ​I developed these behaviours within a business context, and this was helped by my mindset of continuous improvement. As I gained more experience, I think this built into a deeper emotional intelligence – learning from others and adapting my approach.​”

Understanding behaviour profiles

Understanding an individual’s behavioural profile (both strengths and weaknesses) is not just of benefit for the purposes of recruitment and selection. It is also hugely valuable as the basis for personal development. At its simplest, a behavioural profile can be created based on an individual’s personal assessment against a set of behavioural definitions. Of course, this is likely to be very approximate and prone to inevitable biases – it is often difficult for someone to recognise their own strengths or weaknesses. A more accurate and reliable way to determine a behavioural profile is through expert assessment using behavioural interviews and possibly even psychometric assessment tools.

Development options

Deciding what and how to develop, in terms of behaviours can be complex. The obvious reaction is to focus on strengthening an individual’s weaker behaviours. However, it can sometimes be more impactful to strengthen an individual’s already strong behaviour, rather than focus on trying to turn around a significant weakness. Likewise, it may be better to consider how to manage i.e. work with a weak behaviour rather than try to develop it. For example, it may take considerable effort to grow an individual’s low attention to detail. It may be easier to accept this and merely put in place check mechanisms – perhaps involving someone else as a proofreader.

Depending on the issue, behaviours may take several months or even years to adapt or develop. For this reason, one-to-one coaching is often a good vehicle to explore and develop behaviours. Vass agreed: “This is something I’m ​passionate about. I think that leadership coaching can be really impactful when looking to progress behaviours. Helping individuals to think through the development of a behaviour through coaching can also help bring about a diversity of thinking – something which is a necessary journey for our industry.”​

Gender differences

Diversity and gender differences are topics which we have touched upon in previous editions of The Talent Poole.​​ Interestingly, there are statistically significant differences between male and female leadership personality profiles. It’s important to warn, of course, that when talking about overall statistical differences, it doesn’t mean that all male leaders will behave in one way and all women will behave in another way. However, Vass noted a couple of differences which are backed up by empirical analysis: “I feel that women leaders tend to demonstrate more inclusive behaviours – they tend to build more trust which can lead to higher levels of engagement and inclusivity. On a more negative side, I feel an issue for some female leaders can be a lack of self-confidence. That said, if you flip this, women are not necessarily competing to be the best – which I think actually makes them best placed to lead.”​

Food sector adoption

My experiences and conversations with leaders within the food manufacturing sector suggest that the industry is generally lagging behind some other sectors in terms of their adoption – either as part of a recruitment and selection process or as a focused development tool. That said, there have been some great examples of the use of behaviours – evidenced through some of the Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards​​ entries I have previously seen as a judge – but this does not appear to be widespread. As has been discussed many times, the sector does struggle in some respects due to the fact the sector is composed of 96% SMEs. However, with support and training, even smaller businesses of 50+ employees can find ways to incorporate behavioural assessment as part their recruitment and selection and team development processes.