 "Traditional approaches to leadership are ineffective: Josh Brand")
As organisations become flatter, managers are being asked to take on general management roles early in their careers, Josh Brand tells Ankita Rai
Few organisations have been able to build a robust leadership pipeline. Even as organisations invest heavily in talent development efforts, they still hire outside talent for most leadership positions. What are the challenges that organisation face in building a robust leadership pipeline?
We did a survey of HBR subscribers who are target marketers, CEOs and C-suite aspirants. We found that among the C-suite, a little less than a third thought their company had a talent pipeline in place, or the required skills to help the company succeed. There are two main reasons why building a robust leadership pipeline is a challenge. The first is, traditional approaches to leadership development are not effective. The second is globalisation.
Many companies follow a face-to-face approach to leadership development. The challenge in the face-to-face approach is that you take a group of bright people and put them in a classroom together for three to five days and teach them. The learning curve goes up very fast. The problem is adults tend to come down the forgetting curve just as quickly as they go up the learning curve. So what we find more effective is that you spread the learning out. That means help people try it and practice. By doing so, you can circumvent the forgetting curve. This is called a blended approach. It has been found that companies following a blended approach are more successful in developing leaders internally.
Every company needs its leaders to be global leaders. The primary growth in most industries is coming from the emerging markets. Hence, there is an urgent need for talent in these markets. In most emerging markets when somebody is transitioning into a leadership role, often, their background is not the same as a colleague who is transitioning to a similar position in a developed country. The experience and education may be different. The company has to figure this out while developing leaders with a global mindset. They have to focus on developing markets and develop leaders in those markets so that they don't have to bring leaders from outside. In the long term, a company must cultivate leaders in the emerging markets.
Which is better: hiring talent from outside or grooming leaders within?
A mix of building your own talent and bringing in outside perspective is good. However, there should be a bias towards cultivating your own talent. Studies show that the success rate and time to be confident in a role is higher when the leader is hired from within the company. It is also more motivating for people to know they have a career path within their own organisations. At the same time, it is important to bring in fresh perspective from outside because businesses are changing very rapidly.
Organisational structures are getting flattened and as they become leaner, they are eliminating positions and hierarchies. Economic uncertainty has also raised the level of scrutiny on the investment of precious resources on leadership development. What is the best leadership development approach in these changing times?
Organisations are becoming flatter. Managers are being asked to take on general management roles early in their careers. Before 2008, you had a logical progression to your career: you became a people manager from an individual contributor. You went from being a people manager to managing part of a function. Then you managed a bigger function. Then after 10 to 15 years in management, you had the opportunity to become a general manager for the first time. That is all gone now. Now people are asked early in their career to become general managers. This has put significant demand on managers of today. Most companies have recognised that trend but are not supporting the managers. It is very important that companies support mangers to help them transition into general management roles.
How has the role of human resource (HR) changed in all this?
Among progressive companies, HR is more connected to the business. The old school way doing business is that HR holds high-potential and transition programmes and runs them annually. Now the head of talent really has a seat at the table among the C-suite. HR is not just understanding what the strategy of the company is, but it is actually influencing the direction of the company, from a people and talent perspective. It is responsible for executing the talent part of the strategy for building leaders now.
As organisations become global, more complex and networked, the expectations from leaders are also changing. What is different about being a leader today than it was earlier?
Everybody is a general manager now. The idea is that you need to be a global leader even if you are in your home country. You have to have a global mindset. You have to understand the global component of your business. Much greater cultural awareness is required today compared to the past. You have to deal with colleagues and customers, suppliers and partners who are in the other parts of the world. Also, the ability of a mid-level manager to network has become more important now. It is not just about managing a team, he has to network with other departments as well. Most of the decisions will not get implemented if other departments are not supporting him.
A HANDS-ON MANAGER
Few organisations have been able to build a robust leadership pipeline. Even as organisations invest heavily in talent development efforts, they still hire outside talent for most leadership positions. What are the challenges that organisation face in building a robust leadership pipeline?
We did a survey of HBR subscribers who are target marketers, CEOs and C-suite aspirants. We found that among the C-suite, a little less than a third thought their company had a talent pipeline in place, or the required skills to help the company succeed. There are two main reasons why building a robust leadership pipeline is a challenge. The first is, traditional approaches to leadership development are not effective. The second is globalisation.
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The traditional approaches to leadership development can be disconnected from the business. Traditionally, leadership development in a company is often within the purview of the HR department. Over time these departments can grow apart from business and it becomes harder and harder for leadership development to continue to be aligned with the business. If that happens, the company isn't developing leaders.
Many companies follow a face-to-face approach to leadership development. The challenge in the face-to-face approach is that you take a group of bright people and put them in a classroom together for three to five days and teach them. The learning curve goes up very fast. The problem is adults tend to come down the forgetting curve just as quickly as they go up the learning curve. So what we find more effective is that you spread the learning out. That means help people try it and practice. By doing so, you can circumvent the forgetting curve. This is called a blended approach. It has been found that companies following a blended approach are more successful in developing leaders internally.
Every company needs its leaders to be global leaders. The primary growth in most industries is coming from the emerging markets. Hence, there is an urgent need for talent in these markets. In most emerging markets when somebody is transitioning into a leadership role, often, their background is not the same as a colleague who is transitioning to a similar position in a developed country. The experience and education may be different. The company has to figure this out while developing leaders with a global mindset. They have to focus on developing markets and develop leaders in those markets so that they don't have to bring leaders from outside. In the long term, a company must cultivate leaders in the emerging markets.
Which is better: hiring talent from outside or grooming leaders within?
A mix of building your own talent and bringing in outside perspective is good. However, there should be a bias towards cultivating your own talent. Studies show that the success rate and time to be confident in a role is higher when the leader is hired from within the company. It is also more motivating for people to know they have a career path within their own organisations. At the same time, it is important to bring in fresh perspective from outside because businesses are changing very rapidly.
Organisational structures are getting flattened and as they become leaner, they are eliminating positions and hierarchies. Economic uncertainty has also raised the level of scrutiny on the investment of precious resources on leadership development. What is the best leadership development approach in these changing times?
Organisations are becoming flatter. Managers are being asked to take on general management roles early in their careers. Before 2008, you had a logical progression to your career: you became a people manager from an individual contributor. You went from being a people manager to managing part of a function. Then you managed a bigger function. Then after 10 to 15 years in management, you had the opportunity to become a general manager for the first time. That is all gone now. Now people are asked early in their career to become general managers. This has put significant demand on managers of today. Most companies have recognised that trend but are not supporting the managers. It is very important that companies support mangers to help them transition into general management roles.
How has the role of human resource (HR) changed in all this?
Among progressive companies, HR is more connected to the business. The old school way doing business is that HR holds high-potential and transition programmes and runs them annually. Now the head of talent really has a seat at the table among the C-suite. HR is not just understanding what the strategy of the company is, but it is actually influencing the direction of the company, from a people and talent perspective. It is responsible for executing the talent part of the strategy for building leaders now.
As organisations become global, more complex and networked, the expectations from leaders are also changing. What is different about being a leader today than it was earlier?
Everybody is a general manager now. The idea is that you need to be a global leader even if you are in your home country. You have to have a global mindset. You have to understand the global component of your business. Much greater cultural awareness is required today compared to the past. You have to deal with colleagues and customers, suppliers and partners who are in the other parts of the world. Also, the ability of a mid-level manager to network has become more important now. It is not just about managing a team, he has to network with other departments as well. Most of the decisions will not get implemented if other departments are not supporting him.
A HANDS-ON MANAGER
- As a senior director of global delivery at Harvard Business Publishing, Josh Brand is responsible for the delivery of Harvard Business Publishing's solutions for clients around the globe
- Brand has more than 15 years of executive education and management consulting experience
- Prior to Harvard Business Publishing, Brand was a senior member of the Babson Executive Education team, focusing on designing and delivering customised executive education programmes. He spent over a decade before that as a management consultant