Building the readiness of any leadership pipeline can find powerful challenges in a no-normal world. Let’s face it, it’s an era of totally disconnected events, it is often a matter of opinion as to whether human skills development even pays bottom-line dividends, and many training delivery methods are no longer affordable or effective. Sometimes it’s as if we’re attempting to implant not just their competency – but their commitment as well. The 21st century demands the highest quality of leadership; yet filling our pipelines with ready candidates is more difficult than ever.
Let’s take a look then at a few simple truths that might help guarantee, or at least diagnose the viability of your leadership pipeline:
1. Find a higher calling – or forget about it. If moving into management is all about money, power or perks; your pipeline will leak at the junctures of downturn, acquisition, and even growth. You cannot buy commitment; it only elevates your zero-base.
2. Follow the Law of 29 – it takes a multi-touch approach to allow for habit formation and affirmation. Becoming a leader, a first-class noticer of others, is not a once and done proposition.
3. Use the Rule of 3 – look for patterns of behavior or achievement, and three is the minimum number of data points it takes to establish or discard a pattern. Don’t jump at the first flash of a candidate’s promise. But, when it’s obvious to everyone but you that a candidate lacks potential, examine your own motives.
4. If you measure it you will change it – publishing of metrics against which candidates will be measured defines the arena. We used to believe that if you can measure it you can change it – we’ve since learned that simply measuring will impact outcomes. Don’t leave your people wondering what the critical success factors of selection criteria will be.
5. Inspire, or at the very least, unsettle – you can’t create motivation, but sometimes you can be a catalyst to help another get started, a catalyst for movement. Short-term, extrinsic motivation can help overcome inertia. Longer term, intrinsic motives must take over or momentum dies.
6. Equip, not just educate – as you develop your leadership pipeline don’t settle for simple knowledge transfer. Action learning and real-time coaching is what moves from vision to results.
These few simple truths can strengthen your leadership pipeline ten-fold. Have the courage to free your leaders from within!
If you would like to learn more, including my own client specific case studies on each concept, join me November 20th for a free TrainingIndustry.Com webinar, sponsored by Xerox:
