Leadership Development

"We're doing okay," he told me. "Everything's fine, so we don't need to fix anything. Our style of management is management by objective. We tell our people what to do, and they do it. We don't have any need to do leadership development."

"I understand, Bob," I replied. He was a third generation owner of a mid-sized general contractor, and the word on the street was that his turnover was high and morale was low. "But let me share this with you. I've learned over the years that those companies who became leaders in their field ended up that way by developing leaders in their own companies. You either grow or atrophy, and the growth of your company is directly related to the intentional development and growth of your people. Tell me how much time you spend developing your managers."

Silence on the phone. I rephrased the question.

"From zero to one hundred percent of your time, how much of it is spent developing the leadership and management skills of your managers?"

"I don't know. My direct reports handle that," he responded. I could tell by his hesitation that he didn't think the issue was important. He didn't consider leadership development to be a core competency of a business owner.

"So what exactly do they do to develop them and improve their leadership and management performance?" Silence again.

"Bob, would you ever put your crews on the job site without giving them the right tools?"

"Of course not," he responded.

"So why are you doing that with your managers? You put them in the field and in the corporate office and tell them what to do, but you've never equipped them with the tools they need to lead their teams and manage their people effectively." I went on to explain how during Jack Welch's time as CEO of General Electric he spent forty percent of his time in a deliberate and focused effort to develop his people. And now his proteges are the most sought-after executives among the Fortune 500. In a similar way, Charles Krulak plans his days in advance to deliberately spend a third of his time face to face with his employees. Krulak is in charge of 5,000 employees at MBNA Europe, and is a former commandant of the Marine Corps. While serving as a young officer in Viet Nam, he saw how face time with his troops helped develop them. He didn't even need to have a structured format. Time spent in the development of employees is well-spent and always results in a visible return on investment.

But there is a problem with this type of thinking. It is strategic, and that's beyond the immediate scope of most managers and leaders. So much of the time spent by senior level managers is dedicated to reacting to the most immediate problem at hand, when it would be better invested in a strategic and deliberate way on those activities which would have kept the problems from surfacing in the first place. If you don't spend time brushing and flossing, you'll lose your teeth. If you don’t spend time developing your employees, you'll lose your team.

Bob told me basically that he didn't have time to develop his people and that things were good enough and the conversation waned to a rough conclusion. The concept of strategic and deliberate growth and development of his staff was too far out, too far ahead of his immediate problems, and considered a waste of his time. Unfortunately, he'll end up continuing to react to crises and problems, trying to stop the leaks in his organization instead of trying to build a better dam.

In today's competitive market, good enough isn't good enough. You must continue to improve, and the best place to start is to improve the performance and leadership capabilities of your team. Good managers want to develop these skills.

Remember that if you don't do it, your best competitors will.

Scott Love shows managers and sales people how to manage their risk and win the game of business. He is a professional speaker and can be reached at 828-225-7700 or on his website at www.nolimitachievement.com