Setting the Foundation
Leadership Development/Succession Planning
In 2001 Mark Whitmore began working with a company to develop an enduring focus on leadership where there were none or few successful attempts at leadership development or succession planning. By 2007, the company was recognized by Fortune Magazine and Hewitt Associates as #2 in North America for the development of leaders. The keys to this success in six short years started with preparing the foundation for the development of leaders.
Laying the Foundation
To achieve a sustained focus on the development of leaders requires a systematic approach which starts with laying the foundation for the growth of leadership bench strength. The five building blocks include the following:
- Accurate measurement of individual performance tied to the goals of the organization,
- Comprehensive and universally used competency language,
- Early identification of talent through a Succession Planning program,
- Relevant and timely leadership programs to address development needs, and
- Commitment and involvement of management in the development processes.
These foundational building blocks do not occur accidentally or through trial and error but rather from carefully designed and executed programs.
The Myths of Leadership: Separating the Truth from the Fiction
Leadership as a topic of research and study has been around for a long time. We know based on the exiting historical record that as early as 400 B.C.E., Plato was writing about leadership. Most likely he was not the first ancient scholar to study leadership. For example, there is evidence that the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians also wrote about their leaders. My point being that since leadership has been studied and talked about for many millennia, there are bound to be a number of myths about leadership that have arisen over time. Myths endure because there is some kernel of truth in them but over time, they become distorted, embellished, and twisted around to the point that the truth in them may no longer be recognizable.
Let us assume that for this article when we refer to leadership and leaders, we are implying that these leaders are effective. I make that distinction because there are ineffective people who are in leadership positions and have power and authority because this comes along with the position. However, without the formal authority granted to them by their position, they would not be capable of leading anyone.
Leadership Mythbusters.
There is a fun show on the Discovery Channel called the Mythbusters, where a group of people take on popular myths and use scientific methods to test whether they are true or not. So, I will attempt to do something similar and expose a number of these myths about leadership with the goal of separating the truth from the fiction. Like the show we will use what we know based on scientific research and not based on someone’s opinion. So, let’s start with some of the most prevalent myths.
Leaders are born.
Well, this is actually true. I don’t know of a single leader who was not born! Although, I think what is meant by this is that leadership characteristics are passed down generation to generation genetically or would be determine by very early life experiences, including prenatal experiences. There is very little evidence of genetic connections to leadership. If there were, we would have dynasties characterized by effective leaders, yet when you look at history, in those cases where positions are passed down by birth there are numerous instances of ineffective leaders particularly it seems when they follow a father or mother who was an outstanding leader. However, this has not stopped people from trying to breed leaders. The ultimate way to prove a genetic connection would be to have sets of identical twins separated at birth, and raised a part, and see how many times both twins became leaders. Unfortunately, these cases are rare and there aren’t enough cases to test this hypothesis. Another possibility would be if scientists could identify a set of genes, the genetic code, that is responsible for leadership, but as of now, we have no evidence of this. What we can say is that there are some characteristics that are at least in part genetic in nature they relate to leadership. The question becomes what are they and how predictive are they of leadership?
Imagine that we have a thermometer and when the mercury rises to the top it is at 100 percent. As we review each of the possible.
Leadership Retreats
Leadership retreats serve a number of purposes that promote the development of leaders, gain commitment to strategic initiatives in the organization, expose potential leaders to senior leadership, provide executives the opportunity to share their visions with future leaders, and create shared learning experiences.
The focus of these retreats is to bring to bear the collective intellects and energy of your leadership team to tackle unresolved strategies, formulate new strategies or increase the understanding and support of existing strategies.
The designs of these retreats are entirely customized to the strategic needs of the organization. The format is from one day to a week- long with prework and post retreat follow-up. The size of the retreat can also vary from five to fifty depending on the format.
The pre and post work will vary depending on the nature of the strategies. These retreats also allow senior executives to view potential leaders in novel situations to observe several critical competencies not the least being their capacity to think strategically.
Let M&E Whitmore Consulting design challenging, strategic retreats for your company. Put your leadership talent to the test and watch them develop strategic skills and increase the strategic thinking capacity for your company.
Assignment Based Development
Content to come.
Succession Planning
Succession planning is critical to any serious effort to develop leaders in a company. A well-designed succession planning system should identify the leadership talent in the company and identify the nature of the development needed by leaders in order to carry out the mission and goals of the organization. Succession planning systems should ensure continuity of leadership development efforts, organize and focus the leader development efforts and collect the information to evaluate the effectiveness of the development interventions. Succession planning systems should be sensitive enough to:
- Differentiate the development needs of different business units and subsidiaries of the organization,
- Coordinate the collection of data and development efforts across the enterprise, and
- Integrate the information so that successors to key positions can be identified and developed at the top of the organization.
The following model best explains M&E Whitmore Consulting’s approach to succession planning.
This model identifies the need for a common system that will help business units design a talent management approach at the individual contributor/supervisor levels. Differentiation is necessary because the business units have different development needs and related actions for their employees.
Best practice succession planning processes utilize consistent standards for reviewing employees and determining high potential or emerging leader status. Starting at the leadership pipeline, in the center of the diagram, it becomes increasingly important to use a common model, assessment processes, and criteria across the business units. This will allow the organizations leaders to have talent discussions across the business units and make better decisions about participation in leader development programs and placement decisions. Finally at the top of the organization, high potential executives and incumbents and successors to the key positions in the company should be considered company assets.
Other Leadership Experiences
The Gettysburg Leadership Experience
The Gettysburg Battleground provides an excellent forum to study leadership behavior, character, and value.
The battleground serves as a metaphor to the study leadership behavior and character. More than just a historical outing, Civil War sites such as Gettysburg, and Antietam provide unique opportunities to study both good and bad leadership behavior.
Relive the lives and decisions of famous American Civil War leaders and the soldiers in the front lines. Explore the factors behind the outstanding courage of civil war heroes such as Joshua Chamberlain, and what prompted his men to follow him and take such risks. These retreats are built around specific organizational issues and popular leadership and management books such as Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, Good to Great, by Jim Collins or the Leadership Challenge, by James Kouzes and Barry Posner.
Follow up after the retreat through the use of a novel and innovative adaptation of the US Army’s “After Action Reports”, allow for the reinforcement of learning, implementation of action plans, and development plans.
With years of experience leading retreats in the United States and Europe, let Mark Whitmore create the most impactful leader Retreat your company has ever experienced.
Leadership Quotes of Great Leaders
"Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better."— "Leadership is the ability to get men to do what they don't want to do and like it" - Harry Truman
"Before a battle, planning is everything. Once the fighting has begun, it's worthless" - Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Change is the law of life - and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future" - "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other" - John F Kennedy
"Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand." — General Colin Powell
"Never give an order that can't be obeyed." — General Douglas MacArthur
"Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader" - General George S. Patton Jr.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy" - Martin Luther King, Jr.
"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do" - Eleanor Roosevelt
"If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall in the ditch." — Jesus Christ
"The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been" - Henry Kissinger
"It’s not what you are that counts, but what people think you are" - Joseph Kennedy
"People cannot be managed. Inventories can be managed, but people must be led." - H. Ross Perot
"Where there is no vision the people perish" - Proverbs 29:18
"I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." - Ralph Nader
"It doesn't take great men to do things, but it is doing things that makes men great" - Arnold Glasgow
"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being" – Goethe
"What you cannot enforce, do not command." – Sophocles
"Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm" – Democritus
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world" - "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" - Albert Einstein
"Don't wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it" – Unknown
"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you." - Anne Lamott
Call Us Today
M & E Whitmore Consulting in Kent, OH can be reached at 330-842-6711.
Address:
Kent, OH 44240
Business Hours:
Monday - Friday 9am-7pm
Saturday 1pm-3pm