We are all well aware of the variety of impacts the pandemic has had on organizations both large and small in the last 18 months. One of the most worrisome developments is the impact to leadership pipelines.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census, baby boomers were expected to exit the workforce by 2030, simply based on their age. This timeline has been greatly accelerated by the pandemic because many younger boomers have decided that remaining in the workforce wasn’t worth the lifestyle or family impacts.
A recent survey by Fidelity Investments determined that a fifth of individuals within 10 years of retirement had accelerated their workforce departure date, which means that at this very minute, we are short thousands of skilled and capable business leaders. Additionally, as happens any time the economy contracts, many organizations also reduced their training budgets and staff in an effort to tighten their belts over the past year.
The result of these two impacts is that many newly minted leaders and future leaders need to develop their leadership abilities, and since a majority of in-person training courses are still sidelined for the foreseeable future, this will need to be accomplished in non-traditional ways.
There are a few ways you can organically develop leadership skills in your employees. What makes these approaches truly wonderful is that they are accomplished while on the job rather than through “training.”
Developing business acumen
Many young businesspeople simply know how to do the job that they are assigned without an understanding of the business, the business community or the industry in which they work.
One way to help them sharpen their understanding of the business is to host an organization wide “open house.” Assign one or two individuals per department or team to develop a presentation — a PowerPoint or the like — about the work done in their department. There should be a “big picture” tack as a part of this assignment that requires the developers to gather information from other individuals within their department, as well as externally (their internal customers).
During the open house, individuals can move from department to department and learn how each plays a critical role in the organization. This can easily be done using virtual technology and breakout rooms, and is something that can be done in-person in the future.
You will be amazed at how much people learn — but more importantly — how they begin to coordinate and cooperate with one another as a result of the open house. As an example: I might think the fact that it takes 48 hours for a new customer application to make it from your department to mine is ridiculous, until I learn during the open house that a background check must first be completed on all new customers.
Looking outside your organization itself, you can help up-and-coming leaders to understand more about the world of business by creating reading and discussion groups. An easy-to-implement approach is to assign reading from publications like the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review or Business Week, and then engage the employees in a group discussion around two or three key points in the article.
Some questions you might ask them to consider are:
- Did the company grow responsibly?
- What red flags were missed by the company featured in this article?
- If this happened to us, what would be a reasonable next step?
- How can we implement this best practice?
Note: Reading groups can also be utilized with industry publications.
One of our clients uses a similar approach using LinkedIn Learning assignments. A department manager chooses a course for everyone in the department to take, and the employees come together once a month to discuss their learning from that course. The department manager further develops their leadership skills by assigning two employees to facilitate the discussion each month.
Understanding performance management
All managers and leaders get their work done through others. This means that, at times, providing corrective feedback is required. Rather than leaving your newly minted leaders to learn how to give corrective feedback through trial and error, this assignment gives them to other manager’s or leader’s insight into how to handle an issue.
Have your up-and-coming leader present the same scenario to four or five different managers to get their perspective on how they would handle an issue. Create a short scenario that addresses a particular need in your organization. Once they have spoken to a number of different managers, they should summarize their notes and meet back with you to reflect on what they learned. The sample scenario below addresses communication, team behavior, and meeting management:
I have an employee on my team who sees meetings as a competitive sport. Rather than allowing others to express their ideas and working collaboratively for the best end-results, they point out the flaws in other people’s ideas and will state their own over and over, until it is the only option left on the table.
- The rest of the team doesn’t want to “compete,” so they give up contributing.
- This person does have great ideas, but I’m worried about the effect on the team as a whole.
- What would you do?
Promoting analysis and teamwork
This activity helps all individuals in the department better understand how the department works as a whole, and how to contribute to more efficient and higher quality outcomes.
The activity involves mapping how work is done in an individual department, from the way the work comes in — i.e., a contract, a customer request — through the various steps in handling it until it is resolved — i.e., moves to the next department, case is closed.
The mapping should include the steps and process, who is involved (an auditor, the manager, a machinist), and generally how long each step takes. The goal is to create a workflow chart so that anyone reading it can clearly see the steps and can identify how long each process takes for that department to accomplish its work.
Once the mapping is complete, a large group analysis of timing and efficacy can be facilitated by the manager or an appointed employee from the group. An operating rule for this activity is that everyone is allowed to ask “dumb” questions and make objective observations about how the work is getting done.
This activity impresses upon up-and-coming leaders that all processes can be improved and that all individuals have valuable input.
Understanding what leadership does
This activity is unique and fun. Create a “scavenger hunt” that allows a future leader to become aware of the types of things that a leader concerns him/herself with. This assignment gives them insight into the role and responsibilities of a leader in your organization.
Create a list of things that you would like your up-and-coming leader to research or find. Give them a period of time, such as two weeks, to research the list and then meet with them to discuss their findings.
Here are some ideas for a leadership scavenger hunt:
- Have them bring your company’s vision and mission down to their level. What do the mission and vision mean to them in the work that they do?
- Have them sit in on various management or leadership meetings to understand their purpose and what is discussed.
- Research who your company’s biggest customer is or who your top three competitors are.
- Identify the department with the biggest budget and research why.
- Identify the company’s biggest people challenge (some ideas: recruiting, retention, competitive pay, training).
- Identify the company’s biggest revenue generator — how much and what proportion of revenue it contributes.
These are just a few ideas, of course you will want to customize the scavenger hunt for your own specific knowledge outcomes.
Giving someone the assignment to research and reflect on these types of “big picture” questions develops an understanding of the business and begins to enable them to change their perspective from contributor to leader.
To conclude
Leadership development can seem like an onerous process with a lot of moving parts, but starting small with activities and assignments such as these can build the knowledge and capabilities of your future leaders in an organic way which is “customized” to your own organization.
