The company needs to grow, to change, to move. There is an opportunity, a risk, an idea. Leadership sees it clearly, but the teams won’t progress fast enough. When the challenge is set out, they find obstacles, not solutions. They focus on immediate issues but not the innovation. The pace is slow, results don’t come. The teams simply do not rise to the challenge. Where’s the urgency?
Midsized companies spend a lot of effort on external recruitment but often fail to recognize raw talent already within their company. Often times, they lack staff training departments and don’t devote the time and effort required to develop staff and plan challenging development programs to bring out their best.
While most talented employees inevitably find their way up the company ladder, many others get stuck in dead-end jobs and trapped in a comfort zone that does not help them get ahead. What can those with high potential do to ensure they are challenged, developed and ultimately successful in their careers?
When moving up from executing tasks to managing others, leaders find themselves one step away from “the action” and risk becoming detached. Unless they get regular, honest feedback from their followers about their abilities as managers, leaders can’t expect to become stronger leaders.
Do you know high-potential executives who just aren’t working their way up the corporate ladder? 360-degree reviews may be the solution.
Forcing up-and-coming leaders to sink or swim in the pool of real experience is a sure-fire method to drown some managers who have real potential. Investing in selected high-potential leaders is crucial. Read why this investment is so important and some steps you can take to upgrade your high-potential leaders.
Leveraging your leadership and contribution strategy to encourage charitable activities is a simple way to step up and do a bit more for the world around us.
When companies go through times of change—whether acquisition, divestiture, leadership change, sales slump or competitive shocks—employees worry, then react, often with little input from management. When change is impending, the CEO (or top-most leader) ought to pull the leadership team together to share the news, discuss what the employees’ concerns might be, then decide on the appropriate message to be conveyed.
Young leaders often have weak networks. Here’s how re-allocating some of your charitable donations can help build their networks and encourage philanthropy in the next generation of leaders.
Squeamish bosses who are uncomfortable with their authority are setting themselves up for failure. Leaders must embrace their role and set the expectation that everyone on their team is a subordinate who must deliver on their responsibilities.
Robert Sher is founding principal of CEO to CEO, a consulting firm of former chief executives that improves the leadership infrastructure of midsized companies seeking to accelerate their performance. He was chief executive of Bentley Publishing Group from 1984 to 2006 and steered the firm to become a leading player in its industry (decorative art publishing).