Common Sense Advice for Developing Leaders

Recently, I read Ram Charan’s new book Leaders At All Levels.  I like this book because its basic premise is something that I have long believed – companies need to approach leadership as a hands on activity.

Mr. Charan’s focus is on large companies.  However, I believe that leadership development is as important, or even more important, for small companies and entrepreneurial ventures.  He lays out six building blocks for leadership development.  Smart leaders and small business owners would do well to heed them.

1. A deep leadership pool is a competitive advantage.
2. Every leader should be required to treat leadership identification and development as a critical part of his or her job.
3. Leaders should spend 20 to 25% of their time observing future leaders and providing them with feedback.
4. A company’s leadership development system should be as rigorous as its financial system.
5. Companies should ask the question – “What is the right job for this individual?” instead of, “Who is the right individual for this job?”
6. Leadership can’t be learned in a classroom exclusively, but educational experiences can accelerate a leader’s growth.

I particularly like point 5.  It creates a new paradigm for leadership development.  By asking, “What is the right job for this individual?” instead of, “Who is the right individual for this job?” you emphasize the need to develop talent, not just fill vacant positions.  Leadership At All Levels is full of interesting, innovative thinking like this.

Mr. Charan’s thoughts on what it takes to do a good job in leadership development can be summed up in the following ten points.

1. Developing other leaders should be an important part of every leader’s job.  Leaders should be  expected to devote considerable energy and a minimum of 20% of their time to it.
2. Leaders who identify and develop other leaders should be rewarded and recognized for doing so.
3. Leaders should regularly coach aspiring leaders on the one or two most important things on which they need to improve.
4. Performance evaluations should consider not just what a leader achieved, but also how and under what circumstances.
5. Leaders should pool their insights to determine how an aspiring leader might develop and where he or she should go next.
6. The most promising aspiring leaders should get assignments that are greatly challenging and may be far outside of their demonstrated area of expertise.
7. Aspiring leaders on development paths should not be kept waiting for job openings.  They should get challenging new assignments as soon as they’re ready for them.
8. Assessments of leader and aspiring leader talents should be precise, balanced and complete – and separate from annual performance reviews.
9. The leadership development process should be consistent and rigorous as other business processes.
10. HR should ensure that leaders at all levels actively develop other leaders and plan their succession.  HR should provide useful input to help leaders and the aspiring leaders who they lead to find good fits for people and jobs.

Some of these ideas may seem quite radical (20% of a leaders time spent on leadership development), but Mr. Charan believes there is a looming leadership crisis in US business today.  I agree with him.  If you want a fresh and interesting perspective on leadership development you should read this book.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.SuccessCommonSense.com for common sense advice on becoming the career and life success you are meant to be and to get a copy of my new ebook Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.

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