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Developing High Potential Managers
I was recently asked by business journalist Annea Field to share my opinion on best practices in developing high potential managers. My comments are summarized here.
Give me an example of a high potential manager who benefited from what you consider to be the best practices for developing high potentials.
Perhaps my favorite example is our client Urmila Banga (name changed to protect privacy). Urmila was a 40-year-old high potential senior IT manager at a large networking company. Her career was stalled. Everyone was frustrated to see her stuck on second base. She didn’t collaborate with her peers and she micromanaged her managers.
Despite these poor management practices, she produced incredible results, leaping over an ever-higher bar. Her talents had catapulted her…right to the middle. She was going to have to make major changes in order to step up to the director level and beyond.
Two short years later, she was a Senior Director with a blazing hot track record as a leader in strategic consulting, having secured long-sought-after C-level contracts with H-P and an automotive giant.
What did this company do right to develop her astounding potential? They defined what they most needed and wanted in their successors, they dedicated time and resources to developing these successors, they moved them into stretch assignments that would leverage their strengths and round out their flat sides, and they encouraged a great deal of flexibility and control at the individual level.
What are the best practices in today's environment?
The most strategic companies now dedicate effort at the senior level to identify what they most need and want in their successors. While HR may coordinate or facilitate the process, the executives see it as their job, not as an HR project. This leadership competency model sets the standard and is the backbone of all development efforts.
- You need to dedicate a minimum of 20 percent of your time and energy to developing the next generation, and be sure that this commitment to development is part of the leadership competency model so that it continues after your current team has retired.
- Bring the high potentials together so they begin to form a bond. This can be through cross-functional assignments, strategic off-sites, training, or other business-relevant activity. The composition of this group will vary each year, so be sure to make it an ongoing process.
- If you haven’t done any of this, start now. It takes longer than you think, and each day that you’re not grooming the next generation is a day your competitors are. Or it’s a day that your high potentials are developing themselves, with an eye toward other employers. Well over 90% of coaches are hired by individuals, not companies.
- Beware the so-called executive coach. Screen diligently. While this used to be a field reserved for a few highly qualified consultants, it has exploded in recent years, fueled by schemes promising potential coaches they can get rich quick coaching 20 hours a week on the telephone. Make sure anyone hired to work with your high potentials has the business experience you need and a track record you can verify.
How do you strike the balance between training people quickly but not too quickly?
- Know that the vast majority of high potential managers experience a constant push-pull between confidence and insecurity. They think they should have the corner office now, and at the same time, fear that they are “imposters” in their current roles and that soon someone will find them out, forcing their brilliant careers into a tailspin from which they will never recover. This is why it’s important to both build their self-awareness and keep your fingers on the pulse of your high potentials’ readiness so you can form your own opinion.
- Don’t obsess about controlling this from headquarters. The responsibility for gauging “quick” vs. “too quick” is best shared by each high potential manager and his or her leader.
- Training itself is just one piece of the development pie. For most up-and-coming leaders, it should comprise a minority of their development experiences, no more than 10 – 15%, tops. Stretch assignments will help them grow faster, particularly if other developmental activities, such as coaching and training, allow time to reflect on the stretch experience and gain valuable insights.
Do many companies see this issue as being of particular urgency, or not?
- No, but those who take the time now will reap the benefits as the qualified pool of high potentials shrinks.
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