The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership-Powered Company by Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter and Jim Noel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
There tends to be the perspective that performing well at one level means they will likely perform well at the next. In reality each level in an organisation has a different set of challenges which required different values, time application and skills. The book presents 6 passages.
- Work value – what people believe is important and thus the focus of their effort
- Time applications – new time frames that governs work
- Skill requirements – the capabilities required to execute new responsibilities
In general a change in work values will then cascade to time applications and skill requirements.
Managing Self
- Work values
- Personal proficiency
- High-quality technica or profesional work
- Accepting the companies values
- Time applications
- Daily discipline
- Completing work assigned within given time frame at required quality – usualy short term
- Skill requirements
- Individual contribution through technical or profesional perficiency
- Team player
- Relationsjips built for personal benefit
- Using company tools, processes and precedures
Managing Self to Managing Others
- Work values
- Must shift from “doing” work to getting work done through others
- Success of direct reports
- Valuing management work
- Success of unit
- Time applications
- Annual planning
- Balancing own tasks but also helping others work effectively
- Setting priorities
- Communication
- Skill requirements
- Planning work
- Job design
- Filling jobs
- Assigning work/delegation
- Motivation
- Coaching and feedback
- Measuring others work
At GE they plotted values against results – if a promotion does not result in a change in value then the person no longer remained in a leadership position.
Managing Others to Managing Managers
- Work values
- Link strategy to workers and workers capabilities to match the strategy
- Time applications
- Divested of individual tasks, pure management focus.
- Skill requirements
- Selecting people to passage to Managing Others, assigning managerial and leadership work, measuring progress and coaching them.
- Holding first line managers accountable
- Deploying resources effectively
- Manage the boundaries between teams
- Thinking beyond the team.
- Returning Managers of Others to individual contributors
Signs of misplaced managers
- Dificulty delegating
- Poor performance management
- Failure to build a strong team
- Single-Minded focus on doing work
- Choosing clones over contributors
Managing Managers toFunction Managers
- Work values
- Learn to value “foreign” work.
- A long-term perspective and strategy.
- “Can we do it?”
- Value what you don’t know
- Time applications
- Participating in bussiness meetings and working with other functional managers.
- Valuing time focusing on the state of the art and longer term.
- Collaboration with other functions
- Skill requirements
- Acting more as a leader than manager
- Communication skills for working with people further away. Must manage areas outside of their own expertise.
- Understanding how front line people are doing without alienating inbetween managers
- Must take other functions concerns into consideration collaborating with them.
- Managing competition for resources for bussiness needs.
- Becoming proficient strategists.
- Identifying dysfunction
Function Managers to Business Manager
- Work values
- Values the success of their own bussiness
- Valuing all functions e.g. staff functions
- “Should we do it?”
- Time applications
- Time needs to be reserved for reflection and analysis.
- Skill requirements
- Clear link between their efforts and market results.
- In charge of integrating functions not just being aware of them.
- Whereas before the question was how to do something, now the question is should we do something and what value will it bring to the bussiness.
- Balancing the short term goals and future needs meeting quarterly profits, market share, product and people while also planning for 3 – 5 years ahead.
Sign of a miss placed manager
- Uninspired communication
- Inability to assemble a strong team
- Failing to grasp how the bussiness can make money
- Problems with time management
- Neglect of the soft issues
Business Manager to Group Manager
- Work values
- Values the success of other managers businesses, no longer getting credit.
- Which choices will give us the best results now and in the future
- Time applications
- Coaching bussiness managers – not managing their bussiness for them
- Skill requirements
- Evaluating strategy for capital and deployment
- Portfolio strategy – the right businesses
- Core capabilities assessment
Group Manager to Enterprise Manager
- Work values
- Visionary thinking
- Making a small number of mission critical priorities per year with focus
- Time applications
- Growing people for the right roles using the right assignments to give them the required experience
- Skill requirements
- Dealing with highly ambitious direct reports knowing they want your job
- Communication
In most cases, failure does not occur because people are lazy or incompetent; it occurs because they really don’t understand their role when they move to new leadership levels.
When moving from one leadership level to the next, if there is not a change of approach then it will lead to failure.
There are subtle but meaningful differences in the requirements for success at different leadership levels.