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Heidi Russell Rafferty, Wells Fargo: Your Business Advisor Online
Tapping future talent is important for any business, but it takes years-not weeks-to train new leaders. Here's how you start.
Bill Kuntz, managing partner of the Indianapolis-based Princeton Search Group, needed help.
His executive search firm was flourishing, but he was swamped with tasks that were becoming more time-intensive. So two years ago, Kuntz selected four gogetters, gave each the title of "senior partner" and divided crucial tasks according to their personal strengths, says Mark Haering, one of the four.
Haering oversees marketing and training. His three counterparts handle employee recruitment, delivering current business services to clients and developing innovative ideas for future business services.
Kuntz hit on two important aspects of selecting and training future leaders, Haering says. The first was to choose people with initiative who demonstrated a sense of ownership in the company. The second was to give them leadership roles in preparation for future responsibilities.
When a small business is faced with sudden growth, managing often falls on the shoulders of too few leaders. By training future leaders today, you can avert future crises. Here are a few lessons from the Princeton Search Group and other executive search consultants on how to go about it.
Go Through a Test Run
Give would-be leaders responsibilities that are outside their current domain, says Tim Chrisman, president and CEO of Chrisman & Company Inc. in Los Angeles, a financial services search firm. "You expose them to different dimensions of the company and give them the opportunity to apply their transferable skills and be successful in an area they previously were not familiar with," he says.
Test employees on how they encourage others to succeed. Good leaders derive satisfaction from growing and building something beyond their personal interests.
"We've had people who we've allowed to practice at the next level, and they weren't ready," Haering says. "They didn't have the selflessness to help their underlings up. They have to give them the low-hanging fruit to get them up and going, and that never seemed to happen."
Assign a Coach
If you decide to mentor the employee yourself, make sure you devote the same level of attention to the person as you do to your chief clients.
"It has to be an intentional investment," says Leslie O. Marquard, chairman, CEO and managing director of the Winnetka, Ill.-based business consulting firm Marble Leadership Partners Inc. "You establish the goals, and the person who is coached agrees to the goals and says, '‘I will report back to you as I'm achieving the goals.'" After the person has transitioned into the new leadership role, continue the coaching to give them a safety net.
Marquard coaches Collin Lambert, director of marketing and promotions at WMBI, a 30-person radio station in Chicago. Lambert sought out Marquard as a coach because he eventually wants to become a station manager. Marquard encourages him to scrutinize how he manages each day's minutiae. He takes a mental inventory of how he handles each crisis or interaction.
"You begin to learn about yourself-how you handle things, how you deal with stress and conflict," Lambert says. "It's a really detailed way of walking through the daily process."
Marquard also facilitated a mentoring relationship between Lambert and his current station manager, who has been in the radio business for many years. "He's totally supportive of me and helps me learn different issues," Lambert says of his mentor. "He's told me, 'I want to train up people who can replace us and know how it all works.'"
Clarify Your Expectations
Even if you can't afford the luxuries that big companies can, such as sending employees to leadership conferences, you still can use basic tools, like job descriptions or routine performance reviews.
Marquard notes that your potential leaders may have some innate qualities, but you still have to teach them the skills to lead. "Many entrepreneurs tend to overlook the things that were in place for them in the large corporations that helped them be successful before they branched out on their own," she says. "When they do that, they leave places for error and confusion, and then frustration grows that the employees cannot meet the expectations."
EMPLOYEE INCENTIVES
When deciding which incentives to offer an employee, make sure your incentive program targets the person's interests, says Leslie O. Marquard, chairman, CEO and managing director of Marble Leadership Partners Inc. in Winnetka, Ill. "If a bigger office doesn’t matter to the person you’re grooming, it won’t be an incentive with a measurable result," she says.
Your perks should also match the values of your employee's generation. For example, a person in their 20s or 30s may see flexible schedules as an incentive. "They want to live close to their jobs and do not want to miss their kids' soccer games. They do not care as much about the pomp and circumstance that goes along with power," Marquard says.
To give your future leaders a sense of company ownership, don’t overlook financial rewards, says Mark Haering, senior partner at Indianapolis-based Princeton Search Group. At their office, Managing Partner Bill Kuntz divided his equity shares in the company with Haering and three other senior partners.
"All four of us had taken a sense of ownership in the company before he did that for us, but we were rewarded for that attitude with some equity," Haering says.
© 2005 Wells Fargo. All rights reserved.
Executive Search | Recruitment Process Outsourcing | Contract Staffing | College Recruiting | Site Map
This site is optimized for 1024x768 resolution and Internet Explorer.
Copyright © 2010 PrincetonOne
How to Groom Leadership Potential
November 1, 2005
Heidi Russell Rafferty, Wells Fargo: Your Business Advisor Online
Tapping future talent is important for any business, but it takes years-not weeks-to train new leaders. Here's how you start.
Bill Kuntz, managing partner of the Indianapolis-based Princeton Search Group, needed help.
His executive search firm was flourishing, but he was swamped with tasks that were becoming more time-intensive. So two years ago, Kuntz selected four gogetters, gave each the title of "senior partner" and divided crucial tasks according to their personal strengths, says Mark Haering, one of the four.
Haering oversees marketing and training. His three counterparts handle employee recruitment, delivering current business services to clients and developing innovative ideas for future business services.
Kuntz hit on two important aspects of selecting and training future leaders, Haering says. The first was to choose people with initiative who demonstrated a sense of ownership in the company. The second was to give them leadership roles in preparation for future responsibilities.
When a small business is faced with sudden growth, managing often falls on the shoulders of too few leaders. By training future leaders today, you can avert future crises. Here are a few lessons from the Princeton Search Group and other executive search consultants on how to go about it.
Go Through a Test Run
Give would-be leaders responsibilities that are outside their current domain, says Tim Chrisman, president and CEO of Chrisman & Company Inc. in Los Angeles, a financial services search firm. "You expose them to different dimensions of the company and give them the opportunity to apply their transferable skills and be successful in an area they previously were not familiar with," he says.
Test employees on how they encourage others to succeed. Good leaders derive satisfaction from growing and building something beyond their personal interests.
"We've had people who we've allowed to practice at the next level, and they weren't ready," Haering says. "They didn't have the selflessness to help their underlings up. They have to give them the low-hanging fruit to get them up and going, and that never seemed to happen."
Assign a Coach
If you decide to mentor the employee yourself, make sure you devote the same level of attention to the person as you do to your chief clients.
"It has to be an intentional investment," says Leslie O. Marquard, chairman, CEO and managing director of the Winnetka, Ill.-based business consulting firm Marble Leadership Partners Inc. "You establish the goals, and the person who is coached agrees to the goals and says, '‘I will report back to you as I'm achieving the goals.'" After the person has transitioned into the new leadership role, continue the coaching to give them a safety net.
Marquard coaches Collin Lambert, director of marketing and promotions at WMBI, a 30-person radio station in Chicago. Lambert sought out Marquard as a coach because he eventually wants to become a station manager. Marquard encourages him to scrutinize how he manages each day's minutiae. He takes a mental inventory of how he handles each crisis or interaction.
"You begin to learn about yourself-how you handle things, how you deal with stress and conflict," Lambert says. "It's a really detailed way of walking through the daily process."
Marquard also facilitated a mentoring relationship between Lambert and his current station manager, who has been in the radio business for many years. "He's totally supportive of me and helps me learn different issues," Lambert says of his mentor. "He's told me, 'I want to train up people who can replace us and know how it all works.'"
Clarify Your Expectations
Even if you can't afford the luxuries that big companies can, such as sending employees to leadership conferences, you still can use basic tools, like job descriptions or routine performance reviews.
Marquard notes that your potential leaders may have some innate qualities, but you still have to teach them the skills to lead. "Many entrepreneurs tend to overlook the things that were in place for them in the large corporations that helped them be successful before they branched out on their own," she says. "When they do that, they leave places for error and confusion, and then frustration grows that the employees cannot meet the expectations."
EMPLOYEE INCENTIVES
When deciding which incentives to offer an employee, make sure your incentive program targets the person's interests, says Leslie O. Marquard, chairman, CEO and managing director of Marble Leadership Partners Inc. in Winnetka, Ill. "If a bigger office doesn’t matter to the person you’re grooming, it won’t be an incentive with a measurable result," she says.
Your perks should also match the values of your employee's generation. For example, a person in their 20s or 30s may see flexible schedules as an incentive. "They want to live close to their jobs and do not want to miss their kids' soccer games. They do not care as much about the pomp and circumstance that goes along with power," Marquard says.
To give your future leaders a sense of company ownership, don’t overlook financial rewards, says Mark Haering, senior partner at Indianapolis-based Princeton Search Group. At their office, Managing Partner Bill Kuntz divided his equity shares in the company with Haering and three other senior partners.
"All four of us had taken a sense of ownership in the company before he did that for us, but we were rewarded for that attitude with some equity," Haering says.
© 2005 Wells Fargo. All rights reserved.
Executive Search | Recruitment Process Outsourcing | Contract Staffing | College Recruiting | Site Map
This site is optimized for 1024x768 resolution and Internet Explorer.
Copyright © 2010 PrincetonOne