"The worst-case scenario for poor selection was always thought to be hiring the wrong person. But today that is only the third worst-case scenario. Two even more serious problems are (1) failing to recognize and hire the right person, instead letting this ideal candidate sail invisibly through the selection process, and (2) leaving the wrong person in the job too long."
- The Leadership Pipelines, page xii
"Contrary to popular belief, time isn’t allocated based on a boss’s directives but on what the individual views as valuable work. You’ll find that if you think and talk about time applications and values in relation to each other, a clear picture will emerge as to whether someone is meeting their requirements for a given leadership level."- The Leadership Pipeline, page 170
It is unrealistic to believe that you’re going to build an entire organization or pipeline with all rising stars. With increased competition for talent, organizations need to not only figure how to successfully keep their rising stars but also build a strong reliable workforce based on leadership. All employees should be and can be developed. When we wonder why individuals who were successful in one role but then struggle in their next position, or why good people move on for other growth opportunities often can be attributed pipeline failures. As a leader at any level you need to ask yourself first the appropriate questions about where you are at within the leadership pipeline and are your behaviours and actions aligned with what you truly value as most important. You can easily start with the following two Insights.
"Too often, organizations don’t realize that their leaders aren’t performing at full capacity because they aren’t holding them accountable for the right things."- The Leadership Pipeline, page 30
Get people to be accountable for the actual results you need. Focusing on output where there’s misalignment in job design about what their results should be in that role and how to determine if it is successful or not will only yield poor quality and dissatisfaction. Be clear in understanding specifically what differentiates one passage in the pipeline from the other. Remember, you need to be able to articulate this clearly for yourself first before you can define this for your team; the problem may begin with you.
"In many organizations, coaching ability isn’t rewarded (and the lack of it isn’t penalized). It’s no wonder that relatively few managers view coaching as a mission critical."- The Leadership Pipeline, page 20
Inevitably when a person makes a turn in the leadership pipeline to the next level there will be a performance gap (which is okay). How you successfully close this gap is through coaching. Ensure that you are spending enough time coaching your team towards the results that are appropriate to their level (which you’ve clearly defined now based on the above). Even if you think you spend time coaching now, you likely should spend more. This can be challenging if this skill is not valued or recognized, so start by evaluating your own position to ensure that it is. Coaching is best done through managing and actionable learning as opposed to formal sessions. If you don’t come by it naturally, start small and seek feedback. If you have a mentor or role model this is a great topic to discuss with them on how to bring this to life in your management style.
If you’re looking to re-haul your entire organization’s job design or just wanting to better understand ways that you build a stronger team, you can apply this model. In your current position do you have a clear sense of what you’re accountable for and are there measures in place to successfully determine that? Is what your time and output on aligned to what is actually most valuable? You need to answer these questions first for yourself and then start to include your team around you. You can easily start to unlock not only your own but your team’s true ability.
Jim Noel is a retired consultant and leadership coach who assisted companies in the selection, assessment, and development of key leadership teams. He is a former manager of Executive Education and Leadership Effectiveness at GE.
