The Prepared Leader
Here’s a thought!
Can you prepare for being a leader or is getting there a matter of hard work, grit and good fortune?
As a young engineer I had enthusiasm, ambition and work ethic so I was regularly promoted, probably too fast and too soon. As a manager and then leader I was hard work for all concerned. Now as a coach I mostly work with leaders. Many seem to have advanced in a similar fashion – technically capable, energetic and good at sorting problems – like me they pressed on, got promoted, again and then again.
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How are you preparing for leadership or if you are already there what was your route?
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In “Building Leaders at Every Level”, Drotter and Charan map out a ladder of advancement with six levels or passages from managing self to CEO. For each passage they set out skills and values that need to be cultivated for further advancement, here is a flavour:
Passage 1 – Managing Self to Managing Others – contribution is mainly doing work assigned by others, if good then get promoted to first line manager. Values – accept company culture, adopt professional standards and enjoy managerial work, not just doing tasks themselves.
Passage 2 – Managing Others to Managing Managers – at this level need to divest themselves of individual tasks and allocate most time to managing. Values – derives satisfaction from managing and leading people.
Passage 3 – Managing Managers to Managing a Function – being effective entails creating and delivering a functional strategy that beats the competition; sustainable competitive advantage rather than immediate but temporary edge. Values working with other unfamiliar functions and taking a broad and long term perspective.
Passage 4 – Functional Manager to Business Unit Manager – responsible for many functions, for profit / loss and planning 3 to 5 year goals. Values success of own business unit and time for thinking, reflecting, analysis and futures planning.
Passage 5 – Business Manager to Divisional Manager – responsible for: evaluating strategy in order to allocate and deploy capital, developing business managers and core capabilities and resources to win. Values success of other peoples businesses and making bigger decisions with greater risks and uncertainty.
Passage 6 – Divisional Manager to CEO – responsible for proactively managing a long list of external stakeholders. Must let go of the pieces and focus on the whole. Assemble a team of high achieving direct reports. Values reinventing self and organisation, visionary thinking and shaping the so called ‘soft’ side of the Business.
The full text (IVEY BUSINESS JOURNAL – MAY/JUNE 2001) sets out pressures and pit falls for each level along with the benefits of developing a pipeline of leaders.
Anyone preparing for leadership or charged with preparing leaders would get value from reading Drotter and Charan’s paper – it’s a fairly short practical read and can be found online by Google search. It is also a useful diagnostic for those interested in benchmarking the level they are operating at in relation to their job title – call me on 07904 186855 if you are shocked and or want to move up.