Increasing Variety of Experience for Managers

Challenging jobs teach about the subtleties of leadership—starting up or fixing troubled operations, expanding large operations, or working on time-limited projects, from crises to systems installations. Such jobs teach how to cope with pressure and ambiguity, learn quickly or deal with balky subordinates. In absolute terms, challenging assignments are the best teacher. They are most likely to be remembered as developmental, and can teach both the greatest variety and number of lessons.

Recommendation 4. Figure out what your challenging jobs are and why they’re challenging. A simple practice used in some organizations is to interview small groups of managers in each major unit to get examples of their most challenging jobs. These are then written down as organizational examples of starting something from scratch or a turnaround and distributed with a clear message to seek variety in leadership challenge as well as learn the business, the function, and pick up needed technical skills. Other organizations use procedures such as designating key jobs, then analyzing their challenges. But whatever method is chosen, it’s critical to know what your challenging jobs are so it is known what present and future leaders must face.

Recommendation 5. Save the best developmental jobs for high-potential managers. Obviously turnarounds and start-ups are not everyday occurrences and should be reserved for those who have the best chance of succeeding and learning from them.

Particularly for high-potential managers, invent ways to provide small challenges early. Organizations need to expose managers early to varied leadership challenges before the stakes get too high. By this we mean turning around a small unit in trouble, having to rely on persuasion to get things done, putting someone in a job where they can’t possibly control every activity, starting something (a small unit, a procedure or process) from scratch, or learning to think strategically through a staff or project assignment.

Such small challenges are the breeding grounds of leaders because they can teach critical lessons. For example, many executives confront their first turnaround when the stakes are staggering, and failure is frequent. If a manager has never had to be simultaneously tough and compassionate, manage by remote control, confront problem subordinates, and build morale while tearing down inefficient systems and procedures (all required in a fix-it job), the chance of failure is heightened. Exposure to mini-versions of these challenges in early career allows time for learning via a strategy of small wins, small losses.

Again, Michelle could have been helped earlier with assignments where she wasn’t the expert, such as task forces or volunteer work to improve her persuasiveness. She could have enhanced her feedback skills through coursework, training as an assessor in an assessment center, or having to teach someone something they didn’t know how to do (e.g., teaching a child to read).

But some managers look good early and burn out; others bloom late. Without a constant focus on development in one’s present job, many talented people will languish because they never had the chance. (Recall that in the AT&T studies, many “dogs” become “stars” once they had a challenge.)

Recommendation 6. No system is perfect, so use development in place for all managers. Development on one’s presentjob can be enhanced by adding spice in the way of new challenges. On page 37 are 25 examples of development on one’s present job (Lombardo & Eichinger, 1989). Many of these can be added to almost any management job. Hiring a small secretarial pool, being assigned an unfamiliar task or one where the last person to try failed, serving with the United Way, or settling an internal squabble are miniature versions of the larger challenges managers will eventually face.

Too often, organizations rely on rotational practices to develop new managers, but in retrospect current executives rarely see such assignments as having been pivotal. This seems to be because functional rotations provide vital business and technical knowledge but develop leadership skills only incidentally. In contrast, experiencing variety in leadership challenges and learning from those challenges is strongly related to effectiveness and promotion to the executive ranks. The unfortunate flip side also holds: Narrowness of experience derailed many otherwise talented managers.

Early exposure to leadership challenges also helps young managers like Michelle find out what they really like to do. Some will discover that they prefer technical challenges and some will realize the complexity involved in leadership. Others will realize that they like one kind of leadership challenge but not others. Others will realize they’re not interested in management, and still others will discover leadership talent no one suspected they had.

25 DEVELOPMENT IN PLACE OPTIONS

A.  Mini-Project and Start-ups (emphasize persuasion and working with new people, leadership depends on if the person is in charge).

  1.  Plan an off-site meeting, conference, convention.

  2.  Handle a negotiation with a customer.

  3.  Work with a plant shut-down crew.

  4.  Go off-site to troubleshoot problems (e.g., deal with dissatisfied customer).

  5.  Launch new product/program.

B.  Mini-Scope Jumps and Fix-its (person has full responsibility, often emphasize pressure, leadership, dealing with the boss).

  6.  Team build—green staff.

  7.  Team build—balky staff.

  8.  Team build—subordinates are experts, person is not.

  9.  Deal with a business crisis.

10.  Assign “undoable” project (last person who tried it failed).

11.  Supervise cost-cutting.

C.  Mini-Strategy Assignments (emphasize intellectual pressure, influence, lacking credibility and strategy; they may or may not be closely watched by top management).

12.  Write a proposal for a new system, product, etc.

13.  Spend a week with customers/write report.

14.  Do a competitive analysis.

15.  Study innovation of customers/competitors.

16.  Evaluate impact of training.

D.  Coursework/Coaching (tend to emphasize missing something, intellectual pressure which can lead to heightened self-awareness).

17.  Design training course.

18.  Attend self-awareness course.

19.  Train as an assessor in assessment center.

20.  Study history/draw business parallels.

21.  Assign to work with higher manager who is particularly good or bad at something.

E.  Off-Job (tend to emphasize individual leadership, new people, and have a heavy influence/persuasion component).

22.  Become active in a professional organization.

23.  Serve with a community agency.

24.  Act as a consultant on a problem/issue outside job.

25.  Coach children’s sports.

(From Lombardo & Eichinger, 1989)