What does this mean for talent in the corporate world? Consider this: the future CEO and board of directors are already working in managerial roles within your company. How confident are you at being able to identify each of them?
Identifying the kind of unique talent that if nurtured and developed will one day be at the forefront of the business, driving the organisation forward on the hunt for success, is no easy task. Yet the recession has played a crucial role in bringing this particular task to the fore – simply because it’s far more cost effective for a business to promote from within and avoid hefty recruitment costs.
Plus, a head of department who has been at the business for 15 years will understand the culture and objectives of the company. An outsider may well bring a fresh approach, but time is money and it could be six months before real value is demonstrated.
So, how effective is your leadership team and HR department at identifying then nurturing those great managers who could one day be at the helm?
In our experience, the most talented individuals are allowed to slip through the net because leaders just don’t know what to look for. There is a set of core characteristics that come together to offer the most potentially viable candidate for leadership roles.
So, what does a manager with leadership potential look like?
The whole package: To begin with, be careful not to make assumptions based on performance alone. You need to assess the whole package when making a decision of this magnitude. Examining past performance and an individual manager’s character, personal motivators, core values and self-awareness are far more powerful indicators of whether a particular manager is a future organisational leader.
Scalability: Question their scalability to produce results. Managers with strong personal links to the team they lead or overbearing personalities can produce results by leveraging a small group of people. They generally rely heavily on the pressure or influence that they can exert on individuals to achieve results, and therefore their own personal strategy has a ceiling. Unfortunately their performance is limited by their ability to create the one-on-one leverage points they need to get results.
Learning appetite: It’s also imperative to focus attention on those who show a real appetite for learning. Is there a willingness to invest personal time in develop knowledge and understanding of a given topic? This is an essential if not fundamental trait for a potential leader, to be able to step back question and derive answers from a situation is what really sets them apart.
Motivation: By understanding what a potential leader is aiming for you can get a better understanding of what drives them to succeed. Be it for their own goals or those of the company they work for. Knowing this helps you to pinpoint plan of action and directions of progression.
All too often it’s the nosiest or the most popular individuals who are targeted for sponsorship and propelled into leadership roles. On many occasions we’ve seen managers groomed for dizzy corporate heights for all the wrong reasons – this process should only ever be based on talent. It’s understood that there’s an art to developing talent within business, but first you need to identify the individuals with the character to go all the way.
In our next article, we look at what exactly these individuals need from HR and business leaders to progress into leadership roles. We ask: what do great managers need to move up to the next level?
Tim Taylor
Making Great Leaders
