Free Article By Paul Glen of C2
Consulting
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It's Time to Invest in Leadership
(This article originally appeared in
Computerworld USA, CIO Magazine Australia, and Computerworld Australia.)
It's definitely coming. I'm starting to hear
the whispers, the talk. It reminds me of the days when we were discussing Y2k
but not yet doing anything about it.
Do you remember? It started with a buzz around
the water cooler. "You know that this thing won't work when we get to the year
2000. In the '60s, the programmers decided to save a few bytes by assuming the
19 at the start of the year field -- no one thought that this stuff would be
used for so long. We're not even sure that we have the source code. Someone's
going to have to do something about that someday before it's too late."
Well, I'm starting to hear the same sort of
buzz, although this time, it's not about the software, it's about the people.
"Have you noticed that most of our managers and
executives are about the same age? They're all baby boomers, and they're going
to start to retire in the next few years. We're not sure that we have the
managerial bench strength to fill these roles. Somebody's going to have to do
something about that someday before it's too late."
Soon, we are going to have to start preparing
the next generation of technical leaders to accept responsibility, to carry
forward. But so far, not too much is happening. I sense that this is the year
when many organizations are going to start getting serious about planning for
this inevitability.
But this time, as opposed to the Y2k event,
legions of consultants, contractors and outsourcers won't solve the problem. If
you want new and effective leaders, you will need to grow your own. It will
become a tight market for buying talent, and the talent you're able to buy won't
come with loyalty.
This leads us to several important questions.
Can you do anything to grow new leaders? Can leadership be taught? Can it be
learned? If so, how?
Of course, there are legions of classes being
offered on "leadership skills." But a five-day class, a personality inventory
and a 360-degree evaluation will not inculcate the depth required to guide a
smart, dedicated and, frankly, difficult technical staff.
In her new book, Leadership Can Be Taught
(Harvard Business School Press, 2005), Sharon Daloz Parks captures the dynamic
and difficult nature of guiding people to learn to lead. As part of her
treatise, she documents the teaching of Ronald Heifetz of Harvard's Kennedy
School of Government, who has been evolving an effective approach for nearly two
decades. The course he teaches is built around his book Leadership Without Easy
Answers (Belknap Press, 1994).
The observations of both Daloz Parks and
Heifetz resonate with my own thoughts about what it takes to learn to lead. Here
are a few key ideas that you should consider if you plan to grow your own
leaders.
Leadership lessons are best learned by
reflecting on personal experiences and integrating that insight with theory.
Just reading a book won't make anyone a great leader. But just looking in the
mirror is an equally hollow basis for learning.
Reflection requires a small learning community.
This kind of learning requires deep thinking and personal honesty. This sort of
developmental work is usually wrenchingly emotional and difficult. No pain, no
gain. And it is best done in small groups of peers who have built a sense of
mutual trust that makes it possible for them to be open with one another.
Leadership is best learned by midcareer
professionals. While we may like the image of the young, energetic, natural
leader, in the real world, learning from experience requires having enough
experience to learn from. Without what Daloz Parks and Heifetz call "grist for
the mill," a potential leader's understanding and insight are likely to be
shallow at best.
Learning to lead requires extended engagement,
not a quick fix. No one learns to lead at a boot camp. Leadership is about much
more than skills. Learning leadership transforms the mind of the leader.
Changing minds requires time and attention. It's not an overnight
transformation.
It's time that we in the technical industry
begin to pick ourselves up from the pain of the past few years and start looking
ahead. It's time to stop whispering about the coming leadership gap and start
investing in our future.
© Copyright 2005 by Computerworld Inc., One
Speen Street, Framingham, MA, 01701. Reprinted by permission of
Computerworld. All Rights Reserved.
