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The Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check Wally's Three Star Leadership Letter

Find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.

Find out more about Wally's coaching services.

For years we've had two basic leadership development paths in US companies.

The "high potential" managers (who used to be called "fast-trackers") were on one path, working their way to the top, following a path up the mountain of success to a C-Suite job and perhaps the coveted CEO position at the summit.

It was a rough climb. There were usually multiple transfers, lots of business trips, and long hours at the office. I remember, on the last transfer of my corporate life, realizing that my four year old son was living in his fifth state. That route is hard on the executive and hard on the family.

Lots of people simply stopped climbing. Some didn't appear to have the talent necessary for higher level positions.

Others opted out of the climb, even though they knew that once you stopped climbing, the corporate world would not give you another opportunity to go for the summit. They were scorned by those who continued to climb because they "didn't want it bad enough."

That's how it was and, mostly, how it still is in corporate America. But every now and then someone comes along who breaks the old pattern and shows us how things can be different. For me, one of those people is Brenda Barnes. The Chicago Tribune ran a profile of her last Sunday.

In 1997, Barnes was CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America when she chose to stop climbing for a while to spend time with her three children while they were young. Seven years later she returned to the mountain where she's now Chairman and CEO of Sara Lee Corporation.

She's doing well. During her time by the side of the trail, she kept her head in the game by serving on seven corporate boards. So her return wasn't from housewife to corporate president, as much as from an executive on sabbatical to president.

When she left Pepsi-Cola in 1997, Barnes took a lot of heat for "betraying" other career women. Instead she's blazed a trail that others may choose to follow. It's an example, but not just for career women.

I don't imagine that many of the women on the upward C-Suite climb will opt to do what Brenda Barnes did. But I do think that companies need to look at the possibilities that her experience raises and find ways to allow people to step off the trail for a while and resume the climb later.

Today, high potential leaders, the ones I call "Strivers" are on the path to the top of the mountain. Their path should include training and, more importantly, permanent and temporary development experiences.

People who opt off or fall off the path either leave corporate life or move into a group I call "Sustainers." They are the middle managers who maintain much of the energy and the relationships that make any company work. They should get training, but they get very few developmental assignments.

Brenda Barnes' experience shows us that there's a need for a third group. Let's call them "Sabbaticals." Sabbaticals are taking a rest from the trail but they're not ready to become Sustainers just yet.

Brenda Barnes was already a CEO, so she could arrange for seats on corporate boards to become her way of staying in touch and, ultimately, of learning more about the CEO job. People like her, who've quit climbing for a while, can use the time as a sabbatical to grow and develop. They can be available as mentors and teachers and sounding boards for those who are still on the trail and for other working managers as well.

We will never be at a point in my lifetime where we can afford to let any brains, especially those with years of experience, simply fade away into the mist. We need to allow people who have been climbing the mountain to take some time away without assuming that they will never want to return to the quest.

And we need to find ways for those who choose to do so to contribute, to learn and grow while they sit by the side of the trail. Brenda Barnes' experience is proof that it's a model worth developing.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.

Request your free copy of "Meeting the Challenges of the Boomer Brain Drain: An integrated approach."

Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.

Click here to find out more about Wally's coaching services.

For weekly tips and resources pointers, check our Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Letter.

Click here to find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.