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Here’s a Thought About First-Level Leadership Development
(5 de agosto de 2020)
This is the first installment in Wilson Learning’s “Here’s a Thought About . . .” leadership development series.
These brief explorations look at challenges faced by L&D professionals and offer thoughts, trends, and tips for preparing well-equipped leaders to lead organizations forward from a new workplace.
An HR Priorities Survey conducted by Gartner, a global research and advisory firm, identified “Developing current and future leadership bench strength” among the top five initiatives HR leaders selected as most important for their organizations to address in 2020. However, a recent study by Wilson Learning Worldwide and Training magazine indicates that less than half of these organizations are confident that they have this needed bench strength.
If employees are not skilled for the future and organizations are struggling to develop critical talent segments, including our current and future leaders, we are not going to get where we need to go in today’s tumultuously changing times. This is even more acute when people are moving into first-level leadership roles and need skills just to survive.
The Challenge: When Doer Is Promoted to Leader
“Here’s a thought about” the unique needs of first-level leaders. When new leaders are promoted, they leave work one day having been responsible for only their own performance, and then return the next day suddenly responsible for others’ performance.
If new leaders are not prepared for this transition, what is their response? They fix problems through their own job knowledge; they train by “let me show you how it’s done.” This then becomes a habit—fixing problems by stepping in, being heroic, and failing to advance the skills of their employees.
In other words, they lead with their Technical Expertise, not their Leadership Credibility.
Thus, even “experienced” first-level leaders may be on shaky ground because they never received any formal leadership development; rather, they’re on their own, learning by observation and lots of trial and error.
An Insight: When Doer Needs to Become a Leader
First-level leaders without the needed preparation resort to “leading with their technical expertise.” Why? Because transitioning to leadership can mean navigating uncomfortable new territory that may not come naturally. New leaders are under stress and do whatever they can to get by. They revert back to their strengths and what’s worked in the past, relying on what they are most comfortable with—their technical expertise.
The First-Level Leader’s Dilemma
So, this is the first-level leader’s dilemma: How do I keep performance high, while at the same time supporting the learning curve of my employees by not stepping in to “fix things”? We have found there are two critical components:
- Adopt a leadership attitude that their job is not to do, but to help others do.
- Develop the leadership skills needed to guide, engage, and direct the actions of others.
The challenge for new leaders is to rely less on their functional credibility from their technical expertise and instead begin to establish their credibility as a leader. From the perspective of developing leadership character, new first-level leaders require the wisdom to make leadership their source of credibility.
Leadership Survival Skills
If we are going to help first-level leaders make that shift, we need to better equip them with the necessary skills to succeed as managers and supervisors of individual contributors—what we refer to as Leadership Survival Skills.
Leadership Survival Skills
- Motivating employees
- Communicating effectively
- Defining tasks and goals
- Delegating with confidence
- Observing behavior
- Providing feedback and coaching
- Resolving conflict
- Helping others solve problems
These basic one-to-one survival skills provide first-level leaders with the foundation to move past doing the work themselves to getting the work done through others.
Go Slow to Go Fast
Some organizations assume the best approach is expediency and train their new leaders on the “what to do” and “how to do it,” neglecting to show their leaders “why it is important.”
We do need to be quick. There is an urgency to arm first-level leaders with survival skills. But, if we hurry in an effort to accelerate “speed to proficiency,” we can threaten the quality of their learning.
There is a saying in Greece, loosely translated as, “I am going slowly, because I am in a hurry.” That same sentiment applies to leadership development. If rushed, costly mistakes are made.
Clarity and Grounding
Possessing both clarity (or the “what and how”) and grounding (or the “why”) of survival skills is our best shot for equipping first-level leaders to become consciously competent.
Let’s not hurry and lose the opportunity for a richer, fuller intervention. Increase first-level leaders’ confidence by arming them with the know-how and the know-why for foundational leadership survival skills. Quickly acquiring and slowly gaining mastery of these skills early on in their career will go a long way in establishing their credibility as a leader—something they must earn in their new role.
To learn more about how to advance leadership character throughout your organization, contact Wilson Learning.
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About the Authors
Tom Roth
Tom Roth es Vicepresidente de Operaciones (COO) de Wilson Learning Worldwide y Presidente de Wilson Learning Japón. Con más de 40 años de experiencia desarrollando e implementando soluciones de mejora del desempeño humano, el Sr. Roth es responsable de la dirección estratégica y el desempeño del negocio de las operaciones de Wilson Learning Worldwide. Adicionalmente, lidera los servicios de marketing global y el grupo de soluciones de I&D, que es responsable de la investigación y desarrollo de todas las soluciones y documentos de posicionamiento. El Sr. Roth apoya a los equipos de liderazgo ejecutivo a nivel global con temas relacionados con el compromiso emocional de los empleados, el desarrollo del liderazgo, alineación estratégica y transformación de negocio. Antes de asumir su rol actual, fue Presidente de los grupos de I&D global y de desarrollo de soluciones y también se desempeñó como Presidente de Wilson Learning Américas.
El Sr. Roth tiene una amplia experiencia desarrollando e implementando soluciones de mejora del desempeño humano. Es coautor del libro Desconectados: Cómo las Organizaciones Pierden su Energía y Cómo Recobrarla, coautor del libro Creando el Equipo de Alto Desempeño y ha publicado en diferentes revistas de negocio. El Sr. Roth es un orador frecuente en conferencias nacionales e internacionales y eventos de clientes, presentando una amplia variedad de temas incluyendo liderazgo, compromiso emocional de los clientes, cambio e implementación de la estrategia.
Michael Leimbach
Michael Leimbach, Ph.D., es Vice Presidente de Investigación y Diseño Global de Wilson Learning Worldwide. Con más de 25 años en el campo, el Dr. Leimbach lidera la investigación y el diseño de las capacidades de diagnóstico, aprendizaje y mejora del desempeño de Wilson Learning. El Dr. Leimbach ha dirigido importantes estudios de investigación en las áreas de ventas, liderazgo y efectividad organizacional y ha desarrollado los modelos de Wilson Learning de evaluación de impacto y retorno sobre la inversión. El Dr. Leimbach se ha desempeñado como consultor de investigación para una gran variedad de organizaciones de clientes a nivel mundial, es miembro del consejo editorial de la revista profesional ADHR y tiene un papel de liderazgo en el comité técnico de la norma ISO TC232: Estándares para los proveedores de servicios de aprendizaje. El Dr. Leimbach es coautor de cuatro libros, ha publicado numerosos artículos profesionales y es un orador frecuente en conferencias nacionales e internacionales.
