Overview

There is actually a good deal known about how to select leaders. There are now well over 7,000 books, articles, and presentations on leadership, and some reasonable consensus has emerged about the key issues related to the topic. First, a definition:

Leadership - Persuading others to transcend their personal concerns and to pursue a collective goal that is meaningful for a group and that will further their collective welfare; it is persuasion, not domination; it involves creating cohesive and mission-oriented teams; and effective leadership has a direct causal relationship to team performance.

Research strongly points to the following set of predictors as the most reliable and valid indicators of leadership potential:

• Effective predictor 1:

  Actual performance of the candidate’s team or organizational unit.

  Therefore, evaluate real-time performance data.

• Effective predictor 2:

Peer, supervisor, and subordinate feedback on the candidate’s effectiveness has high predictive validity. For example, it has been demonstrated that subordinate ratings are as effective as (and much less expensive than) assessment center data in predicting managerial performance seven years later.

Therefore, use 360° instruments as a key component of the assessment process.

• Effective predictor 3:

  The presence of derailment factors in the candidate’s profile. Therefore, look for tendencies to over control, exploit, micro-manage, resist using appropriate consequences, or to be arrogant, political, egotistical, irritable, passive-aggressive, vindictive, abrasive, insensitive, or aloof. All are proven correlates of managerial careers that flounder, stall, or derail.

• Effective predictor 4:

  Certain personality characteristics and soft-skill competencies account for most of the variance in leadership effectiveness. Therefore, assess candidates for the following characteristics:

  • “Intellectance:” broad range of interests, creative, broad-minded, curious, open to experience, and raw intellectual horsepower.
  • Conscientiousness: prudent, will to achieve, responsible, solid integrity, strong work ethic, planful and organized.
  • Extraversion: assertive, high-energy, fluent speaker, desire to advance, eager decision maker, and persuasive – “leaderlike”.
  • Emotional Stability: self-confident, self-accepting, balanced, stress resistant, tolerant of uncertainty, graceful under pressure, flexible, and effective at handling conflict and negative feedback.
  • Agreeableness: diplomatic, cooperative, empathic, friendly, effective communicator, trusting, and good-natured.

1. Objectives
   • Inventory key managerial candidates in terms of their leadership styles, skills, gaps, and ultimate potential.
   • Design an advancement plan for each advancement candidate and incorporate it into their performance management process.
2. Analyze Top Jobs, Future Jobs, and Critical Success Factors
   • Review current job descriptions and identify any needed revisions.
   • Integrate key leadership competencies with the job descriptions.
   • Build a job profile (competency model): How critical is each success factor and how proficient must the job holder be in each factor?
3. Interview and Test the Candidates
• Test for the five key predictors of future success: “intellectance,” conscientiousness, extraversion, emotional stability, and agreeableness and related sub-skills/characteristics.
• Test for vocational interest and preferences, likes and dislikes, and motivational determinants.
• Collect 360° data on Leadership Skills and Leadership Styles.
• Develop reports for candidate and management that detail strengths, gaps, and potential.
4. Feedback Meeting with Candidate
   • Debrief each candidate on their report, focusing on strengths, gaps, and potential.
   • Have each candidate design a draft development and advancement plan to present to their own manager for collaborative refinement and finalization.
5. Consult with Candidate’s Manager
   • Debrief manager on overall findings.
   • Discuss key issues: strengths, gaps, development needs, potential/capacity, and options/opportunities for the future for each candidate.
   • Prepare candidate’s boss for collaborative meeting with the candidate re: development and advancement plan.
6. Facilitate Advancement Plan Meeting
   • Convene meeting with candidate, consultant, and manager to reach consensus on the individual’s plan.
   • Ensure that plan is fully linked with the business strategy.
   • Identify high-impact development opportunities for each person.
   • Set in motion a mechanism by which advancement plan is integrated into performance management process and audited on a regular basis.
   • Build in feedback loop to ensure that advancement plan is updated and fine-tuned on a real-time basis.
7. Exploit Executive Development/Succession Planning Best Practices
   • Link Executive Development/Succession Planning initiatives directly to the business strategy.
   • Focus on performance development and results.
   • Provide candidates with diagnostic feedback and then encourage self-development.
   • Define a clear role and responsibilities for the person’s manager.
   • Use competencies as the platform.
   • Risk placing talented people in jobs or tasks for which they are not fully qualified; those fully qualified for an opportunity are least likely to develop in it.

Final Thoughts:

Organizations who do not adequately plan for executive succession run the risk of putting their businesses in an extremely vulnerable position. When employees perceive a lack of leadership and a lack of attention to key issues, they start looking for new job opportunities. When clients perceive that a company is not being lead wisely, they are more likely to take their business elsewhere.

In order to plan a successful succession process, organizations must look at more than a candidate’s seniority, knowledge of the business and credentials. There are also key soft-skill competencies that are necessary for success. By taking the time early on to determine which competencies are important for your organization, and assessing candidates against that profile, you give your business the opportunity to develop the best candidates to their full potential so are ready to take on the new role by design, or in an emergency.

Read more on this topic in our case study: Promotion Successes.