Ready to develop your future leaders? Don’t fall victim to these flawed approaches.
Developing strong leaders in-house isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a necessity for organizational success. Unfortunately I see too many companies wait too long and do too little, which hurts their ability to cultivate a healthy, sustainable organization.
Here are a few of the missteps I see repeated over and over – and what you should do instead.
🔘 We’ll wait and see if he/she is management material.
99% of companies that I observe promote somebody to a leadership role first and then retrofit the skills they need to lead others. In fact, according to leadership development firm Zenger Folkman, the average person is in a management role for 10 years before they receive any formal development in how to lead others. Developing leadership skills takes a lot longer than you think and waiting 10 years post-promotion does everyone a disservice not just the “new manager.” It’s like teaching a baby manners. You don’t wait until they’re ten years old and then say “Oh hey, you’re supposed to say thank you after somebody hands you something or fulfills a request you’ve made, OK?”
🔘 Not understanding the ROI of developing leaders from within.
Once I point this out to you you’re going to be shocked that you didn’t see it yourself. Do a back-of-the-napkin calculation of how much it costs your company to replace a leader with someone from outside the company. Not only are there the hard costs of recruiting or paying a headhunter, the time it takes to review resumes and conduct interviews, the negotiations with your chosen individual and the finance department to come to an agreement, and the loss in productivity while you have a vacant leadership position...
Next, add in the less obvious costs like the anxiety that might develop from being leaderless in the affected department and how folks might react - including looking for another job because they are nervous about what will happen next or who will replace the leader who is absent.
And the biggest cost of all is if you’re chosen individual ultimately doesn’t work out and you need to start the whole process over again. The loss of momentum and productivity in a leaderless department is incalculable.
You can avoid these costs by grooming future leaders from within because you will always have somebody at the ready to step up. They might not be 100% ready, but they definitely won’t leave the department with zero leaders. Think of how many supervisors or mid-level managers you have in your company and what it would cost to replace 10% of them a year because that is the average turnover at that level of authority in today’s companies (according to LinkedIn studies of various industries).
🔘 Not recognizing that our younger generations don’t want just a job – Career paths are the secret sauce.
Millennials and GenZ are changing the workforce. Not only because they make up the majority of individuals in the workforce (and that will continue to climb as more and more GenZers come of working age, but they also have a different viewpoint of how work supports their lives.
Earlier generations accepted that work came first and their personal life came next. (I remember interviewing for a job once in which I was told that every salaried individual worked 48 hours; it was a non-negotiable). Older generations also appreciated the fact that their work supported their personal lives and goals. Not so with Millennials and GenZ. These younger generations aren’t satisfied with a “job.” They’re looking for roles that fulfill their personal values and goals and they are looking to work for companies that will support them in achieving personal fulfillment.
This is not too hard for you to achieve; it’s really just a change in perspective. For example, one of the easiest things you can do is create career paths that show the general progression of one’s career with your company from their entry-level position to, potentially, the CEO role. Younger generations appreciate financial security and job security which your company was providing anyway, you just didn’t specifically call it out or emphasize the benefits of joining your company.
🔘 Going all in on a few individuals.
Another common approach I see occurring in companies that do devote time and attention to developing their leaders from within is that they pick and choose individuals rather than spreading the wealth and leveling up the skills of everyone in the organization. When I see this happening, I like to point out that Tom Brady was a ninth-round draft pick in 2000 and Johnny Manziel was a Heisman Trophy winner in 2013 and a first-round draft pick in 2014.
Then I ask folks to choose who they feel was the better investment. 🤔
It is impossible to determine who is going to make a great future leader. It is especially impossible to predict this based on their technical expertise. A better approach is to give everyone leadership skills and see how things shake out in a few years. Those who like leading others and excel at it will naturally rise to the top and you will have upleveled the competencies of all your employees in the meantime. (Who doesn’t want all of their employees to be better communicators or problem solvers? Why reserve those skills for a few individuals?) To add a financial angle to the argument – think of it like an insurance company insuring risk – many people are pooled together with the expectation that only a few will make a claim.
Invest in everyone and you’ll have a few who turn into stellar leaders.