Leadership Czar
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The woods are full of Czars these days. I want to be Leadership Czar with power over the way that leaders are chosen and developed in all organizations everywhere. Here's what I'd demand.
Companies would have to create alternative career paths. The latest Randstad survey tells us that half the people in our organizations don't want to go the managerial route. Many that do lack aptitude, but choose management because it's the only path to increased pay and prestige.
Let potential managers try on the role. Use developmental assignments combined with coaching. That way they and we can discover if they like it and have the aptitude to do well.
Give them some training before we promote them. Combined with those developmental assignments this will help potential managers learn important communications and self-management skills.
Help them through the transition with targeted training, support, and development. Assign a Training Leader to each new manager during the twelve to eighteen month transition. Training Leaders should be experienced managers with the ability to articulate what they do, training in coaching, and the street cred to get attention.
Leadership is an apprentice trade. Provide managers with developmental opportunities and training throughout their careers.
Leadership can be a lonely business. Make peer support systems part of every company.
Pay and promote managers based on the way they both accomplish the mission through the team and care for their people. Results and process both matter.
Boss's Bottom Line
You probably aren't a Czar either. But you can join me in working to make this kind of world possible.
When I hang up my shingle for good, I want to leave behind a world where more people earn their daily bread in human-friendly workplaces where they are productive members of productive groups. Let's make that happen together.
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.
Categories: leadership development, Management, Leadership
Tags: Leadership Development Management Leadership
There are leadership lessons all around us if we just keep our eyes open.
What every leader must face at some point is the launch of ;their business, new product, new change initiative, and so on.
How well are we equipped to lead change? When I was a child, hearing…”do it because I told you so “did not fly then, and as adults it’s even more of an interruption.
Unfortunately some leaders believe their title and position is what wins their team’s following, ...and they are wrong.
I discuss some recent lessons leaders can learn if we observe the 2009 Health Care reform launch at : 12 Lessons All Leaders Can Learn About Launching New Products and Services …From the 2009 Health Care Reform http://nosmokeandmirrors.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/12-lessons-all-leaders-can-learn-about-launching-new-products-and-services-from-the-2009-health-care-reform/
Watching and having a commitment to learning and “sharpening the saw” as Covey says is the best way to become a leadership Czar.
Mark Allen Roberts
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Thanks for those comments. You're right about change. If you're in charge and you're not helping the team and team members move to something better, you're not doing your job.
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How about requiring feedback from employees. I am tired of people with no managerial experience getting promoted to manager roles just because there is no one else to fill the role. These are the ones that need the most constructive criticism from their supervisors and their employees to a lessor degree.
I agree fully with the Give them some training before we promote them statement...this would prevent a lot of my for mentioned complaints.
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Good thought, Brad. With Czar status, I could mandate specific management practices. And mandatory feedback would be a good one.
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I agree with the goal of creating more human-friendly work places, the way a big part of our society is behaving really need it. The need of a better human environment is more than a necessity an obligation for any leader inside any kind of institution.
Unfortunately some of the processes you suggest are not easily accepted, at least in my personal experience, in several work places yet, and believe me they really need to change for good. These places are so used to the idea of one man has the direction of the all place and that’s the last word. There is no team work, no real leadership.
I’m glad there is people trying to make a change, of course not everyone is going to end up as a super leader, but we all have to work together to make this a better place to live in.
Thanks
Aaron Assad
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You're right Aaron. Many of the changes I want are not easily accepted. That's why I'm after Czar status. Seriously, we need to change the way we conduct our lives at work and we're just beginning that journey in many ways.
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I wonder if more of the people who don't want to become managers would actually be open to it if this was the world they were stepping into.
And I love your statement that "leadership is an apprentice trade." That is both good news and bad news though because I think a lot of what people are learning as an "apprentice" unfortunately doesn't follow your mandate.
Perhaps we do need a Czar...
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Thanks for thoughtful comments, Susan. You jokingly say, "Perhaps we do need a Czar." That got me thinking (seriously – you do that to people) that if we want a world where we encourage initiative and have every brain in the game, we may not be able to get it by demanding it from the top down.
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Instead of a czar, someone with power, why don't the leaders just see to it. It's pretty obvious that the czar would set a bad example by confusing authority with leadership.
You train managers before your promote them. Those managers might not be leaders. So if you expect to train them to be leaders, just stop it. Go find your leaders. They many not be your managers.
Managers are leader wannabes, neverbees, oh, please just sting me now.
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Well, David, you and I are coming from very different points on the compass. From my perspective leadership and management are kinds of work that every (leader, manager, supervisor, pick one) has to do.
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I agree with the points that you make about having potential managers “try on the role” before given it and how leadership should be more of an apprentice trade. Being a great leader is not something that can be learned overnight from a text book, so it makes sense that having managers and potential managers have opportunities for professional development would be a smart idea.
While reading this blog I began to think about the teaching profession–which obviously has a large leadership role attached to it. Teachers generally are not just thrown into a classroom and told to lead their students to learning; they instead have many opportunities to practice their techniques which guidance of a mentor teacher before being put in a classroom alone. I think that there would be a lot more great managers if they were given the opportunity to try out their skills for a period of time with a skilled mentor guiding them along the way.
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Thank you for that insightful comment. Teachers aren't the only professionals who work under supervision before they're allowed to go it alone. My model for the Training Leader is the Field Training Officer in many police departments.
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Wally -
If we were allowed to vote for czars, you'd have mine.
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Thanks, Dan. I take that as quite an honor. I'm always impressed at the people like you who are working in companies, trying to make this part of the world better. Thanks for everything you do.
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After reading this yesterday, I thought about my boss and what kind of leader he is. I went to work and saw he was following those steps with me. Last night I was "put in the role" and my boss made a comment to me that I would be doing this more often after he retires or is fired. It was a pretty nice compliment I thought. Now that I know what he is up to, I will wait patiently to get more responsibilities and duties. If I had to guess I would say I am in level 3 of an 8 leveled apprenticeship, and I am itching to make it to the next level.
As for the Randstad Survey, I work in an industry where more than 75% of the people I work with never wanted to become managers. Thanks for your time and I really enjoy your posts.
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Wow thanks for taking the time to think about the post and to share your thoughts. I wouldn't wait too patiently for more challenge, though. Get all the developmental experience you can get.
And thanks for sharing your perception of how many of the people you know have no desire to be a manager.
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