By: Michael DeVenney
Work hard, work smart, get notice and get promoted. Life is good – right?
Not really. Recent studies show that 45% of people promoted to new positions of leadership fail in the first eighteen months of taking their positions. Even worse, of the current managers in place now, more than 50% are not performing to their potential.
In many situations, it seems previously high performers are set up to be promoted to fail. The good news is that studies also show that 60% of managers who performed poorly in their roles could have succeeded.
What’s missing? What separates those who succeed after promotion and those who don’t?
Consider Jonathan’s story. Jonathan enjoyed a rewarding career. From his first days after university, Jonathan worked hard and smart. As an investment advisor, he put in long hours, focused on his clients and had the discipline to keep doing what needed to be done. In his first four years, Jonathan built a profitable business based on solid performance with above-average client satisfaction. He was recruited to another investment firm where he continued his disciplined personal approach to performing – working hard and not being afraid to do the work himself. Jonathan’s business continued to increase – he was recognized as a star performer.
Two years ago, a national firm approached Jonathan and offered him the position of Vice-President of Sales. Jonathan was seen as high-performing and technically expert bringing great value to the firm’s sales team. No one had seen more energy and investment from an executive – Jonathan was out in the field with the salespeople, meeting clients and traveling non-stop to be on the front-line. He put in longer and longer hours and made sure he kept his hands on all areas. Jonathan didn’t need an executive assistant – he organized himself, he kept notes from meetings and provided instructions for everyone.
After nine months, Jonathan had a review meeting with the CEO. Jonathan looked forward to assessment.
Can you guess what happened?
Jonathan was fired from his position – another statistic.
The greatest challenge Jonathan faced was the same for developing leaders everywhere – how to make the transition from individual performer (and often star performance) to performing through others. He focused on doing – not leading.
The inconvenient truth is that despite the significant opportunity for new leaders, the failure rate is high and increasing. Only 20% of new leaders develop their own natural advantage for leading others.
Making the transition from a position as an individual performer to that of leading others is one of the most difficult challenges in a career. What worked before doesn’t work after the promotion. For many people, it can take six months of post-transition experience to recognize, accept and develop reasonable proficiency in performing their new responsibilities. It may even take up to 18 months for most managers to feel emotionally confident in their new role. During the transition, many new managers feel inadequate and insecure and regress to their old habits and styles that used to bring recognition and approval – and miss the shifts that need to be made.
Most people and organizations just do not recognize the challenge and do not prepare or support the skills needed to make a success of the promotion. In many situations, the people are just left on their own and everyone hopes it works out.
The competency that separates effective managers from those who fail is the ability to lead people. Making the shift from individual work to coaching the performance of others is the greatest obstacle managers will face in their shift to being a leader.
The following table shows that motivation and technical experience is rarely the problem. It comes down to not making the shift to performing through others rather than performing individually.
Reasons Leaders Fail
The positive fact is that the missing skills can be developed. The problem is that we often see the leadership skills as “soft” skills and focus on more technical training. Leadership is about results – it is bottom-line so people and organizations need to get it.
What can you do to gain recognition, prepare yourself for the promotion, and be successful?
The solution is investing in developing your leadership skills now – not later when it is too late because you are in the position but now.
Few promotions are made from a plan, (like you didn’t already know that). Organizational surveys report that only 15% of promotions to manager positions are made from clear criteria. Most promotions are based on task performance rather than relationship performance. Aside from performance, most promotions resulted from decisions based on seniority, politics, or likeability. Organizations don’t get it either - in a recent study, only 7% of companies felt they had the right managers in place to achieve their strategic goals – and they still make promotion decisions for the previous reasons.
There is a competitive opportunity open to you. Studies show that 75% of managerial positions will be vacated within the next seven to ten years as the Baby Boom generation retires. Most people and organizations are not prepared or developing people in the right way. You can make a difference.
The Competitive Opportunity:
The critical roles for leaders in 2010 and beyond are that of being a master strategist, a change manager, a relationship builder and a talent developer. You need to build these competencies as well as your technical expertise.
Here are the steps you can take to make advance your career and be successful in your transitions to new and higher levels of responsibilities.
- Step 1 – assess the business need by looking at the strategic plan for your organization, where management is trying to go, what results are trying to be achieved and understand what roles are needed to deliver and execute (you can definitely ask the audience here by talking with management to gain their perspectives)
- Step 2 – identify the positions that will be needed to support performance against the strategic plan
- Step 3 – identify the leadership competencies needed to perform well (see the above paragraph as 85% of the required leadership skills are the same regardless of the organization)
- Step 4 – benchmark where you stand today with these skills by getting feedback and assessments on your strengths and areas of challenge
- Step 5 – make a development plan of how you will gain the needed leadership skills through job assignments, external volunteer assignments, programs and courses, gaining a mentor, and assessments and reading being clear on the results you will achieve
- Step 6 – meet with your boss and outline your assessment and plan and what you are doing to build your skills letting him or her know you want to grow, you know what it takes, and you are taking steps to develop your readiness for promotion
- Step 7 – meet regularly with your boss to outline your progress, gain feedback, and build the relationship
Being technically competent is not enough. By taking a strategic approach to developing your leadership competencies you change your life. You grow and become ready for promotion and have the skills to make a successful transition.
Begin with the end in mind and think about what is driving your business today and what will be its challenges tomorrow? Where are the gaps and make a plan to be ready to fill those gaps?
First and foremost, accept responsibility for your own future. There will be obstacles and blocks but these are just circumstances. Be strategic, invest in developing critical leadership skills, be promoted – and be successful.
Tools
If you would like to clarify the competencies needed to be a successful manager and leader and develop your leadership skills, check into our programs at www.bluteaudevenney.com/workshops and put your plan together.
I always welcome your comments and you can reach me by calling our offices at 425-0467 or emailing privately to
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. You can also visit our website at www.bluteaudevenney.com for more information.
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