Leaders don't grow on trees
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Carol Hymowitz' column in Monday's Wall Street Journal carries this headline: "They Ponder Layoffs, But Executives Still Face Gaps in Talent." The article is worth a complete read, but here are some things that jumped out at me, along with my comments.
From the article: "Even as they contemplate layoffs, many companies also are hunting for new hires to fill management gaps. One reason for the hunts: Companies haven't been grooming and training enough employees for promotions and now have a mismatch of talent for open positions. In the past, top managers would plan far ahead to fill a position. Today, every vacancy seems to be treated as unique -- and even as a surprise, despite the long-term trend of frequent job changes by employees."
Wally's Comment: If companies haven't been "grooming" employees for promotion it means that managers haven't been doing their job. Part of every manager's job is helping the people on his or her team grow and develop. Part of every manager's job is giving the people who work for him or her a good reason to stay.
Most people would prefer to stay, and not job-hop, but you've got to give them a reason. The best reason is a good boss.
From the article: "Some 60% of companies have no succession planning of any kind, according to a survey by the Society of Human Resources Management of several thousand of its members."
Wally's Comment: Ahem!! Succession planning is a second order issue. A first order issue is having a development program and an environment that encourages people to grow. If you have that, succession planning is easy because you've got people clamoring for the challenges that promotion brings.
From the article: "Nearly half of 20,000 employees surveyed at 100 large global companies by YSC, a London-based corporate-psychology consultant, said they don't receive enough feedback from their managers to help them improve their performance."
Wally's Comment: Duh! If you want people to know how they're doing, you've got to give them feedback. If you want their performance to improve and their behavior to change, you have to give them feedback.
Feedback is the breakfast of champions. If you want to grow champions, feedback needs to be part of the diet.
From the article: "The most important need is to identify which subordinates want to advance and keep them growing by rotating them through jobs -- trusting that if they've done one thing well, they'll be able to learn something entirely new."
Wally's Comment: Wrong. The most important need is to figure out which folks are likely to succeed at leadership work. Then, it's giving those who are interested enough information and experience about that work so that they can make an informed decision.
The idea isn't just to fill the staffing tables with people in every leadership position. It's to make your company a place where leaders grow, develop, thrive, produce results, and develop more leaders.
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.
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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.
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Categories: succession planning,leadership development,War for Talent
Wally - I think you bring up a wonderful point that succession planning is a secondary issue. I couldn't agree more that with the proper training and development that team members will be lining up in droves to take on new challenges.
I think the real challenge is creating an organizational culture that looks beyond the immediate costs of training and development and sees the long term potential value of its employees. Sadly this can be quite difficult to accomplish.
Good stuff as always Wally!
Chris Young
The Rainmaker Group
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Thanks for the kind words, Chris. I couldn't agree more with your comment about a culture that "looks beyond" the short term. But we need to do that for more than just training and development.
We've combined two "theories in practice" to create an awful result. First, despite rhetoric to the contrary, we treat people as interchangeable parts. The result is that we seem to think it's OK to cut people-related dollars because we see them as expenses, not investments.
We talk about doing that to "increase shareholder value." But what we really mean is that we increase shareholder value in the short term. True shareholder value is increased when we increase long term competitive advantage and profitability and one of the most important strategies for doing that is increasing the effectiveness and keeping them around so we can profit from the relationships and expertise they develop.
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Wally,
Nice post. I agree. Thanks for the point to the article.
To your comment: "If companies haven't been "grooming" employees for promotion it means that managers haven't been doing their job. Part of every manager's job is helping the people on his or her team grow and develop."
I agree. The question is: Have you ever seen a job description with a line item that reads: "Develop the potential of your direct reports."?
Or have you ever seen a performance appraisal with a line item: ""Developed the potential of your direct reports."?
Sadly, I haven't. I blogged about this particular issue at: http://www.missionmindedmanagement.com/managerial-leadership-what-doesnt-get-measured-doesnt-get-done
Regards,
Michelle Malay Carter
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Thanks for stopping by Michelle. Thanks for your helpful comment and the pointer.
One important component of my Apprentice Model of Leadership Development is that managers must be evaluated on the how well they develop the people who work for them. In addition, the managers in a company who are especially good mentors should receive both reward and recognition for their work.
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Many organizations are suffering from a case of incongruent values.
The incongruent values are manifested when these organizations say they want one thing and do another. Why not just be honest and say it is not a priority. Sort of like the person who says exercise/fitness is important, but find themselves never getting to the gym. Their lack of commitment to the future they say they want, will come back to haunt them.
More senior leaders should read your blog, and take action, instead of taking another call from a Wall Street analyst.
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Thanks for the comments, Eric. A wise man once told me that we show our priorities by the way we use our time, talent and treasure. I often ask coaching clients to do an exercise where they review their checkbook and calendar to determine their true priorities.
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