Identifying Candidates For Leadership

A essential task within the succession planning process of any organization is identifying candidates. Historically, candidates have been identified primarily based on past performance. While this seems logical, it’s problematic in practice.
Past performance continuously measures success during a lower-level position. What’s required in succession designing may be a system to spot potential for fulfillment in an exceedingly future higher-level position. The simplest predictive model I have found is the Leadership Pipeline Model by Charan, Drotter, and Noel.
The Leadership Pipeline provides a model that describes the talents, time applications, and values needed to succeed at totally different levels within the organization. While most leadership models and theories describe characteristics of leaders normally, the Leadership Pipeline describes specific criteria for achievement in transitioning from one level to the next.
The Leadership Pipeline Model helps us to see the importance of identifying candidates for positions throughout the complete organization. The pipeline must be continuously stuffed with leaders who have been identified for development for the following higher level. A pipeline clog at one level will clearly damage leadership development and succession throughout the complete organization. What is needed is a fastidiously monitored system for developing in-house talent from front-line supervisors to CEOs.
At GE and Citicorp, two corporations using the Leadership Pipeline Model, leadership passages from one level to a higher are seen as “turns” in the leadership pipeline. These turns (or passages) provide vital developmental experiences. If these turns are skipped the individual could not be prepared for higher-level leadership positions. The focus for development ought to be the shortage of essential skills and values for the subsequent higher level, not past performance.
I am often asked “Is it higher to recruit from outside the organization or to develop leaders from among?” The safe, but rather uninsightful answer is, “It depends.”
Recruiting from outside the organization makes sense when a major modification in corporate culture or direction is needed. However, I would caution concerning the over-dependence on outside recruiting of leaders. Desperate attempts to recruit leaders from outside the organization counsel an inadequate leadership pipeline.
Recruiting leaders from the outside of the organization can be very expensive. As we all understand, there is a talent shortage within the marketplace. This can lead to paying high premiums (or perhaps outright price wars) for promising talent.
The Leadership Pipeline Model offers a standard language (terminology) and specific criteria for what to appear for in leaders at the following higher level. The Model provides a description of the abilities, time applications, and values required of leaders at every successive level. This criteria is critical not solely for identifying candidates but also for his or her subsequent development.
The key to identifying candidates for higher levels of responsibility is to predict their potential to succeed in attaining and using the abilities, time applications, and values of the following higher level. Past performance is often a poor predictor of future success. Remember that the skills, time applications, and values of every successive level of leadership are dramatically different.
The challenge in succession designing and identifying candidates is creating certain folks are assigned to a level that’s appropriate for them. The challenge is complicated by the very fact that people amendment (hopefully for the higher) over time. An appropriate position for somebody these days might not be acceptable three years from now.
Identifying candidates for the organization’s future leadership positions is a crucial task. Do you have a system for identifying candidates that considers not solely their current skills, however additionally their willingness to adopt new work values and time applications?