DEVELOPING effective leaders

BUILDING ROBUST LEADERSHIP PIPELINES INVOLVES SOLVING THE SUCCESSION MANAGEMENT DILEMMA

89% respondents of 2003 corporate leadership council poll believed that succession planning efforts were of utmost importance within their organisation. This nearunanimous verdict reaffirmed the popular belief that in the wake of the war of talent, building a strong and robust talent pipeline was no longer a `good to have' but an `organisational necessity'.

THE VICIOUS CIRCLE OF PROMOTIONS

Most enterprises in India Inc spend significant resources on talent acquisition and on attracting cadres from premiere technical management schools yearon-year. In the IT manufacturing sector in particular, the number of new recruits, especially at an entry level, often constitute a significant number of new employees who in turn need to be inducted and provided meaningful assignments to sustain engagement levels and build positive brand connect. Moreover, external job offers are usually made at a level higher than what the employee is currently operating in, which leads to himher rapidly moving up the organisational hierarchy without developing skills which help them manage people effectively and in turn, actualise their own potential. If we look around us, we will find plenty of examples of leadership derailment, especially among young managers, who rose to leadership positions by rapidly changing assignments in their early years. Many of these managers who were billed as star performers in the early years of their career reached a glass-ceiling in their mid30s where the roles on offer demanded greater leadership versatility and their compensation levels often did not justify the expertise brought on to the table.

KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER WHILE DESIGNING LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS

At a junior management level, where the focus is on leading self, it is imperative that we design leadership development interventions which focus on building technical functional competence and enhancing personalprofessional effectiveness. Employees who are at a middle management level, the focus shifts from developing self to managing teams (developing others). Many individual contributors who were high performers in their previous roles often fail to adapt to their new role of being leaders of people. They either fall prey to a general tendency of attempting to do everything by themselves or end up delegating and losing control of individual assignments. Therefore, providing structured inputs of managing people, effective communication and coaching direct reports for performance improvement, becomes key as part of new leadership development programmes.

The transition from being leaders of functions to leaders of the business is critical and must depend on whether a higher role exists in the organisational hierarchy . Seniormiddle management transitions are not an entitlement based on tenure and organisations and employees must reconcile to this seemingly discomforting, but obvious fact.

The author is chief talent officer, Essar and founder, L&OD roundtable

ABOUT THE BEST LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES OF ASIA SEMINAR AND AWARDS (SEPTEMBER 24, 2015)

To know more about what 16 leading Indian organisations are doing in the area of building leadership capability, participate in the Best Leadership Development Practices Of Asia Seminar And Awards On September 24, 2015 at Palladium Hotel, Mumbai. A culmination of a pioneering study, the seminar will also feature outstanding keynote addresses (by Medha Patkar, Prerak Mehta and Atul Tewary, COO, Quikr), a panel discussion featuring under 40 CEOs in discussion with eminent CHROs and a live play on diversity and inclusion.To know more or to register, write to info@lndoroundtable.c om or call 09930136628

Source | Times of India | 23 September 2015