Strategies for Becoming a More Successful Manager
Edward Land, founder of Polaroid, is known to have said, "Organization is reorganization, and that's all there is." Today's constant is change. In this environment, senior and mid-level managers know well that "everyone is self-employed." Managers and executives are constantly challenged to demonstrate, document, and communicate the contribution they make to the success and bottom line of their organization. The fading expectation that a manager gradually develops through a hierarchy of increased responsibility within a single organization or business over 10 to 20 years appears less likely for most in today's dynamic business environment. The competitiveness of a global marketplace, constant mergers and acquisitions, the reduction of supply tiers, and expanded technological capabilities all foreshadow a more diverse future. Today's manager must become his or her own pathfinder in this complexity, positioned for the next assignment with their current employer or the next.
It is critical that today's managers prepare themselves with a suite of diverse skills and capabilities necessary to serve a variety of organizations or assignments. Tomorrow's managers will be akin to internal consultants who survive and flourish in a project driven world. Success will be defined as a value-based contribution to one's current assignment.
The following strategies are demonstrated by successful executive and mid-level managers capable of building their careers and developing their management skills as pathfinders for the future.
Create an Individual Development Plan (IDP)
In the impermanence of today's marketplace, the successful manager understands that he or she is primarily responsible for building a career plan which will not necessarily be fulfilled in any one organization or completed in any uniform career ladder. The individual development plan (IDP) is an effort to truly understand and grow the unique mix of skills and abilities one brings to any work assignment. These skills and abilities can be transferred to another organization or even a different industry as needed.
An IDP also serves to provide today's manager with an anchor for individual success which is not based solely in their immediate job circumstances or with their current employer. An IDP includes three elements:
Personal Leadership Development
Professional Leadership Development
Public Leadership Development
Recent research on executive derailment strongly indicates that executive leaders and senior managers do not derail from a deficit in professional skills, but from the lack of full development of the personal and public sides of their lives. Individuals whose self-worth is totally dependent upon workplace success are the most likely candidates for failure. Stephen Covey in his popular book Seven Habits of Highly Effective Leaders gives evidence to the need for meaningful personal contributions in life which include family, friends, and community. Setting goals and establishing priorities for this dimension of life is a critical component of an IDP.
It is obvious that professional development activities within and beyond one's immediate workplace are critical components of an IDP. Building your resume outside the organization through involvement in professional associations, professional training, and virtual study programs are fundamental elements of building your IDP. It is important for today's manager not to wait for his or her boss or human resource executive to suggest ways to develop as a professional. Proactively identifying these opportunities is the responsibility of each and every manager.
The versatility of managers to serve in a variety of settings is often enhanced by public service. An IDP should include opportunities to share one's management skill and expertise in community service with other business and civic leaders on boards and committees. This public leadership provides critical contacts for the future and sharpens the ability to understand and work with diverse organizations and individuals. The purpose of an IDP is to realize the advice of Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters as compared to what lies within us."
Proactively Assess Your Skills and Gaps Before Others Do
Many managers and executives wait to hear about their skill gaps through performance assessments, customer evaluations, or the feedback of direct subordinates in 360° assessment processes. It is often too late when you wait for others to identify the gaps in your skills before taking action to improve yourself and understand one's own inherent blind sides in leading and managing. We all have them!
We currently teach a course for CEOs and aspiring CEOs sponsored by Chambers of Commerce in the Midwest. Participants find assessment tools to be a valuable means of confidential self-assessment to understand their current skills and growth areas for the future. Relying on performance reviews and outplacement exercises are painful and reactive means to realize the axiom of "know thyself."
In particular, The HR Chally Career Best Fit Analysis has been an extremely valuable tool with executives and managers to assist them in understanding their unique assets for leadership and how to use those assets to leverage new assignments within their existing organizations or determine the appropriate time to investigate another career alternative. In one instance, we worked with a Fortune 500 executive who clearly understood that his best fit was to accept challenging roles to develop or build new capacities for his organization. Every time he was given a "maintenance oriented" assignment, he considered it less rewarding for him and his company. Eventually, as he matured in his various management roles, he learned to sidestep assignments or promotions that did not give him the opportunity to exercise his outstanding skills as a "hunter and gatherer" in new business development.
Seek Diverse Rotational Assignments
Tomorrow's manager will understand how the entire organization works. It is critical for one's own career development to understand the complete picture of an organization and how one's contribution adds value to the entire organization. The best way to assure one's understanding of the entire business is to constantly seek diverse rotational assignments within your current organization. This knowledge of internal customers and functions is vital. Proactive managers seek opportunities to work in diverse line or staff roles for short periods of time. They seek specific project assignments that give them the opportunity to understand or learn a new part of the business in which they haven't been involved. For example, a production manager may seek an opportunity to be on a marketing team for a new venture as a way to understand and contribute to the whole business.
Build Your Team and Develop Potential Successors
Many managers in today's dynamic marketplace live in fear that by sharing their knowledge or communicating their intellectual capital, they will become easy targets for replacement. In fact, the opposite is almost always true. Building the capacity of your team and willingly sharing your corporate memory and intellectual capital with your subordinates is a critical component to your future success. Rather than being identified as unnecessary in your current role, it is far more likely that you will be identified as a potential candidate for new opportunities that may emerge as your organization or business grows. Building the capacity of your direct reports to enhance your goals, learn your responsibilities, and become self-directed will build the value of your current assignment and demonstrate your competencies for higher levels of leadership in the future.
Seek Out a Coach or Mentor
Many large organizations have established coaching and mentoring processes. The ability to sit confidentially with a senior person and understand their wisdom and success stories are valuable assets to minimizing mistakes and accelerating one's learning curve as a manager or executive. If formal coaching or mentoring programs are not available in your workplace, a number of consulting firms have established such a niche for themselves in working with mid-level and senior managers to help them prepare for the future. Proactively seeking a coach or mentor could be an invaluable means of validating one's current skill sets, identifying gaps for improvement in leadership competencies, and building one's political astuteness to add value to future organizational assignments.
It is evident from these strategies that tomorrow's manager will become more valuable by becoming a pathfinder for his or her own career. Emphasizing self-direction and versatility in one's career development often increases the opportunities to add value to your current assignment and expands your capacity for innovation in future assignments. At a minimum, it may shorten or eliminate the painful cycle of transition between jobs or companies in the future. Today's manager will become tomorrow's leader by becoming a versatile pathfinder for the many circumstances and assignments yet to come.
It is critical that today's managers prepare themselves with a suite of diverse skills and capabilities necessary to serve a variety of organizations or assignments. Tomorrow's managers will be akin to internal consultants who survive and flourish in a project driven world. Success will be defined as a value-based contribution to one's current assignment.
The following strategies are demonstrated by successful executive and mid-level managers capable of building their careers and developing their management skills as pathfinders for the future.
Create an Individual Development Plan (IDP)
In the impermanence of today's marketplace, the successful manager understands that he or she is primarily responsible for building a career plan which will not necessarily be fulfilled in any one organization or completed in any uniform career ladder. The individual development plan (IDP) is an effort to truly understand and grow the unique mix of skills and abilities one brings to any work assignment. These skills and abilities can be transferred to another organization or even a different industry as needed.
An IDP also serves to provide today's manager with an anchor for individual success which is not based solely in their immediate job circumstances or with their current employer. An IDP includes three elements:
Personal Leadership Development
Professional Leadership Development
Public Leadership Development
Recent research on executive derailment strongly indicates that executive leaders and senior managers do not derail from a deficit in professional skills, but from the lack of full development of the personal and public sides of their lives. Individuals whose self-worth is totally dependent upon workplace success are the most likely candidates for failure. Stephen Covey in his popular book Seven Habits of Highly Effective Leaders gives evidence to the need for meaningful personal contributions in life which include family, friends, and community. Setting goals and establishing priorities for this dimension of life is a critical component of an IDP.
It is obvious that professional development activities within and beyond one's immediate workplace are critical components of an IDP. Building your resume outside the organization through involvement in professional associations, professional training, and virtual study programs are fundamental elements of building your IDP. It is important for today's manager not to wait for his or her boss or human resource executive to suggest ways to develop as a professional. Proactively identifying these opportunities is the responsibility of each and every manager.
The versatility of managers to serve in a variety of settings is often enhanced by public service. An IDP should include opportunities to share one's management skill and expertise in community service with other business and civic leaders on boards and committees. This public leadership provides critical contacts for the future and sharpens the ability to understand and work with diverse organizations and individuals. The purpose of an IDP is to realize the advice of Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters as compared to what lies within us."
Proactively Assess Your Skills and Gaps Before Others Do
Many managers and executives wait to hear about their skill gaps through performance assessments, customer evaluations, or the feedback of direct subordinates in 360° assessment processes. It is often too late when you wait for others to identify the gaps in your skills before taking action to improve yourself and understand one's own inherent blind sides in leading and managing. We all have them!
We currently teach a course for CEOs and aspiring CEOs sponsored by Chambers of Commerce in the Midwest. Participants find assessment tools to be a valuable means of confidential self-assessment to understand their current skills and growth areas for the future. Relying on performance reviews and outplacement exercises are painful and reactive means to realize the axiom of "know thyself."
In particular, The HR Chally Career Best Fit Analysis has been an extremely valuable tool with executives and managers to assist them in understanding their unique assets for leadership and how to use those assets to leverage new assignments within their existing organizations or determine the appropriate time to investigate another career alternative. In one instance, we worked with a Fortune 500 executive who clearly understood that his best fit was to accept challenging roles to develop or build new capacities for his organization. Every time he was given a "maintenance oriented" assignment, he considered it less rewarding for him and his company. Eventually, as he matured in his various management roles, he learned to sidestep assignments or promotions that did not give him the opportunity to exercise his outstanding skills as a "hunter and gatherer" in new business development.
Seek Diverse Rotational Assignments
Tomorrow's manager will understand how the entire organization works. It is critical for one's own career development to understand the complete picture of an organization and how one's contribution adds value to the entire organization. The best way to assure one's understanding of the entire business is to constantly seek diverse rotational assignments within your current organization. This knowledge of internal customers and functions is vital. Proactive managers seek opportunities to work in diverse line or staff roles for short periods of time. They seek specific project assignments that give them the opportunity to understand or learn a new part of the business in which they haven't been involved. For example, a production manager may seek an opportunity to be on a marketing team for a new venture as a way to understand and contribute to the whole business.
Build Your Team and Develop Potential Successors
Many managers in today's dynamic marketplace live in fear that by sharing their knowledge or communicating their intellectual capital, they will become easy targets for replacement. In fact, the opposite is almost always true. Building the capacity of your team and willingly sharing your corporate memory and intellectual capital with your subordinates is a critical component to your future success. Rather than being identified as unnecessary in your current role, it is far more likely that you will be identified as a potential candidate for new opportunities that may emerge as your organization or business grows. Building the capacity of your direct reports to enhance your goals, learn your responsibilities, and become self-directed will build the value of your current assignment and demonstrate your competencies for higher levels of leadership in the future.
Seek Out a Coach or Mentor
Many large organizations have established coaching and mentoring processes. The ability to sit confidentially with a senior person and understand their wisdom and success stories are valuable assets to minimizing mistakes and accelerating one's learning curve as a manager or executive. If formal coaching or mentoring programs are not available in your workplace, a number of consulting firms have established such a niche for themselves in working with mid-level and senior managers to help them prepare for the future. Proactively seeking a coach or mentor could be an invaluable means of validating one's current skill sets, identifying gaps for improvement in leadership competencies, and building one's political astuteness to add value to future organizational assignments.
It is evident from these strategies that tomorrow's manager will become more valuable by becoming a pathfinder for his or her own career. Emphasizing self-direction and versatility in one's career development often increases the opportunities to add value to your current assignment and expands your capacity for innovation in future assignments. At a minimum, it may shorten or eliminate the painful cycle of transition between jobs or companies in the future. Today's manager will become tomorrow's leader by becoming a versatile pathfinder for the many circumstances and assignments yet to come.
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