LEADERSHIP Nurturing Leadership Talent · thinking excludes the managers from being great leaders them-selves. 3) They are aware of the problem but don’t know how to fix it or they

O CTOBER 2006 EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE39

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Introduction: WhyLeadership MattersThink of all the people who havebeen your leaders at some point. Tryto remember their leadership styleand the way they interacted withpeople. Did you feel they were great,average or downright lousy leaders?

I recently asked a number ofpeople to do this exercise because Iwanted to know whether my percep-tion was unique or mainstream. Un-fortunately, I found that my percep-tion was shared by many. There areonly a few great leaders today; aver-age and lousy leaders truly abound.

However, when asked aboutgreat doctors, teachers or other pro-fessionals, people can usually men-tion many names. Why this discrep-ancy?

Do only incompetent or averagepeople aim for leadership posi-tions?

I don’t think so. My explanation issimple. One can avail of formal edu-cation for most professions, but thereis hardly any formal education forleaders.

Think about it. For the most im-portant job in a company, we engagepeople with no formal education forthe position. We just believe, or atleast hope, that they will have anatural flair for leadership. Thereare very few companies that actuallyprepare a person for leadership po-sitions, and the programs thesecompanies have in place are oftentoo general and not focused enoughon the specific needs of their pos-sible leaders.

If it is a known fact that the re-quired number of leaders drasticallyoutweighs the number of “born lead-ers”, why can’t the top managers of or-ganizations do anything significantabout the situation? Here are threepossible reasons:1) They think that things are OK the

way they are.2) They believe that it is sufficient for

the CEO to be a great leader; therest should just follow. This way ofthinking excludes the managersfrom being great leaders them-selves.

3) They are aware of the problem butdon’t know how to fix it or they arenot able to measure the cost ofpoor leadership, and thus are un-able to calculate the Return On In-vestment (ROI) for leadership de-velopment.Hewitt Associates, one of the lead-

ing global human resources manage-ment consulting companies, foundthat a clear indicator of good or poorleadership in an organization is thelevel of engagement of the employees.Furthermore, they found clear correla-tions between engagement and profit-ability, and growth and shareholdervalue.

The numbers in Exhibit I arebased on a series of studies by MarkHuselid at Rutgers University com-paring organizations with high levelsof engagement with S&P 500 compa-nies.

This means, via employee engage-ment, it is possible to measure theleadership quality of an organizationand calculate an ROI for leadershipdevelopment initiatives.

Today, there is little doubt that in-dividual executive coaching is one ofthe most effective interventions forleadership development. “TheManchester survey of 140 companiesshows 9 in 10 executives believe coach-ing to be worth their time and dollars.

Developing Great Leaders through Coaching

Developing leadership talent must be a prime task for anyleader as it benefits both the leader and the organization.Coaching is an important leadership tool and an idealapproach for developing great leaders.

Nurturing Leadership Talent

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The average return was more than $5for each $1 spent.”1

Leadership quality may be themost important success factor for anyorganization. Embark on this journeywith me to discover some of the se-crets of first-class leadership and howit can be developed.

Career Development andTop Talent RetentionWhat makes people want to leave theircompany? Exit interviews conductedby the Saratoga Institute in the USA,2

reveal that less than 20% of all em-ployees leave their jobs for better pay,benefits and perks. More importantreasons for employees voluntarilyleaving jobs are:• Misalignment of mutual expecta-

tions• Person-job mismatch• Insufficient coaching and feed-

back• Perception of poor career-advance-

ment prospects• Work-life imbalance• Distrust of senior leadership• Low confidence in senior leader-

ship.Based on my own worldwide cor-

porate experience and coaching workwith clients, it seems that these USfindings are very similar to the currentwork situation in Europe and Asia.Apparently, the basic needs of peopleare the same worldwide, and theseare:• The need to be respected and ac-

knowledged• The need to belong to a worth-

while group• The need to be recognized as a

worthy human being.Obviously, the competence of

leadership in an organization can havea huge effect on these needs and, con-sequently, on the performance leveland retention rate within the organiza-tion.

An employee’s perspective issimple: to perform better when he cansee that his performance is valued and

members of the team.• With such a culture, employees

from other departments perceivethe manager’s department as aplace of opportunity for their ownadvancement. Hence, this man-ager will attract the best talent towork for him.For a leader who recognizes the

benefits of supporting the career ad-vancement of his team members, whatare the key competencies required todo this successfully?

a) Fa) Fa) Fa) Fa) Feedback and Feedback and Feedback and Feedback and Feedback and Feed-Feed-Feed-Feed-Feed-ForwardorwardorwardorwardorwardOne of the most basic and importantneeds of any human being is the needfor recognition. Providing feedback,whether positive or negative, tells anemployee that he is recognized as aperson. In fact, receiving no feedbackat all is worse than receiving negativefeedback. However, if a superior fo-cuses only on the weaknesses of anindividual, morale will be adverselyaffected somewhere down the line.

A first-class leader takes any op-portunity to provide honest feedback,good or critical. Ideally, he focusesfirst on the strengths of an employeeand highlights them, thus providing apositive atmosphere. Once the posi-tive points have been raised and dis-cussed, areas for improvement can beaddressed.

If an employee is not talented at allfor certain tasks, it is usually more

how his performance affects his careerin the long run.

If this is so clear, however, why domany managers hesitate to nurture thecareer advancement of their employ-ees, especially their top talent?

Many leaders are afraid to losetheir best performers after a promo-tion to another position in another de-partment. After all, they would have tolook for a replacement, retrain the newperson and so on—which all lead toadditional work and cost, and perhapsa drop in overall performance of theleader’s team.

What is the effect of the lack of ca-reer advancement on the company?Employee performance is not as highas it could be and the best performerseventually leave the company becausethey cannot see where their careersare headed.

Let’s look at the other side of thecoin. What happens when a manageractually nurtures the career develop-ment of his staff? Yes, top talent mightleave the department a bit earlier thanin the other scenario but there are alsoconsiderable benefits for the managerwho adopts this attitude:• His team feels that it is worthwhile

to perform well, as there are realchances to progress in one’s career,leading to a positive effect on over-all performance.

• His attitude fosters a performanceand progress culture among all


1 The Denver Post, September 2, 2001.2 Branham L. The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees

Leave. NY: American Management Association;2005.

Exhibit IThe Power of Engaged Employees

Source: Leadership & Talent in Asia, Hewitt Associates

SayConsistently speak positivelyabout the organization toCo-workers, potentialemployees and customers

StayHave an intense desire to bea member of theorganization

StriveExert extra effort and engagein behaviors that contributeto business success

US$ 3,800more profits

perEmployee

US$ 18,600more market

value perEmployee

US$ 27,000more sales

perEmployee


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productive to figure out how suchtasks could be delegated or how theemployee can work around them. It isa better idea to build on the strengthsof the employee rather than to fix hugeweaknesses.

For instance, would you push a tal-ented swimmer who is not a talentedrunner to become a better runner?With extensive training, there may besome improvement, but that person isunlikely to become a world-class run-ner. However, if you put the same en-ergy and effort into making him aneven better swimmer, the personmight have a chance to become aworld-class swimmer.

FFFFFeed-forwardeed-forwardeed-forwardeed-forwardeed-forwardI use the term “feed-forward” to drawattention to the future rather thandwell on the past. The feedback pro-cess should lead to a feed-forward pro-cess, in which both the leader and histeam members discuss how to learnfrom the past and move forward toachieve goals and prepare for the nextcareer step. This discussion should in-clude agreements on how things willbe done differently, identification oftools, learning and assistance neededto achieve the goal, and last but notleast, clarification of the role of theleader in this process.

b) Coaching and Supporting Pb) Coaching and Supporting Pb) Coaching and Supporting Pb) Coaching and Supporting Pb) Coaching and Supporting PeopleeopleeopleeopleeopleCoaching in this context means to dis-play the following core coaching skills:• Establishing a deep level of trust• Active listening• Powerful questioning• Agreeing on career steps to be

achieved• Keeping the employee accountable.

Let’s not forget that we want tosupport the employee in his career ad-vancement. Empty promises will notdo the job and will have a strong ad-verse impact on the trust level be-tween a leader and his team members.

Also, to assure a high likelihood ofachieving the intended goals, a leadershould leave as much ownership as pos-sible with his employee, i.e., the em-

ployee should determine his own nextsteps and actions. Of course, the man-ager should facilitate this process andencourage the best possible outcome.An appropriate coaching mindset isvery helpful in achieving this.

c) Rc) Rc) Rc) Rc) Rewarding Pewarding Pewarding Pewarding Pewarding PerformanceerformanceerformanceerformanceerformanceWhile monetary rewards are some-times appropriate, it is often forgottenthat a manager has a variety of othertools at his dis-posal to rewardgood perfor-mance. One ofthese tools is to ex-tend the responsi-bility of a talentedand high-perform-ing employee.

For example,an outstandingemployee mightnot be immedi-ately promoted toa leadership position but could be pro-moted to become the deputy of the de-partment head, or a high-performingsalesperson could be entrusted withsome of the key accounts of the com-pany. This approach can bridge the

time gap between the present andwhen a higher position is available. Italso keeps top talent loyal and per-forming well.

What Great Leaders DoWhat actually is great leadership?How do we know that a leader is trulyeffective? I particularly like the defini-tion of leadership by DwightEisenhower:

“Leadership isthe art of gettingsomeone else to dosomething youwant done be-cause he wants todo it.”

Ob v i o u s l y,this is what get-ting people en-gaged is all about.Of course, that’seasier said thandone.

For my book The Groupness Factor3

I researched how great leaders in bothpolitics and business managed to gettheir followers wanting to do whatthey wanted them to do. I found thatall of them achieved a high level of“groupness”, a term coined by psy-chologists in the 1970s which couldbe described as a “sense of belongingto a group”.

Groupness is an age-old concept.Since the beginning of human evolu-tion it has determined the survival ofgroups in so-called hunter-gatherersocieties. Throughout human history,great leaders consciously or sub-con-sciously were able to inspire stronggroupness among their followers andthus achieved high engagement fortheir causes.

Con-groupness andDis-groupnessHowever, groupness can work bothways. It can support the cause of theleader which I call “con-groupness”(‘con’ stands for ‘constructive’) or itcan disrupt that cause, which I defineas “dis-groupness”.

Leaders who want to create andenhance groupness in organizationsor companies have a good headstart,

To assure a highlikelihood of

achieving theintended goals, a

leader should leaveas much ownershipas possible with his

employee

3 Lang C. The Groupness Factor – How to Achieve aCorporate Success Culture through First-ClassLeadership Hong Kong: Progress-U Ltd.; 2005.

Charlie Lang is aleadership expertwho foundedProgress-U Limitedin 2002 in HongKong. His mission isto develop his clientsto become First-Class Leaders for thebenefit of all stakeholders. Lang’s clients includemultinational companies such as AllianzInsurance, BAYER, LEGO and Logitech.

Lang is a passionate and professional ExecutiveCoach and Trainer, Public Speaker and Author ofnumerous articles related to leadership, changemanagement and coaching. He is the author of thebook, The Groupness Factor – How to Achieve aCorporate Success Culture through First-ClassLeadership, which was published in August 2005.

Lang is of German origin and holds degrees inMechanical Engineering and InternationalMarketing from Germany and France.

He can be reached [email protected]

Charlie LangCharlie LangCharlie LangCharlie LangCharlie Lang


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since the group members alreadyshare common ground—they are allpart of the organization. However, theformation of subgroups within an or-ganization cannot possibly beavoided. This, in turn, poses a hugechallenge to any leader because of theunseen competition between an orga-nizational group and its subgroups.Ideally, the culture of any subgroupshould be aligned with the culture ofthe organization, but this does not al-ways happen.

Let me give you an example. Oneof my clients is the Asian regional of-fice of an American technology com-pany. My client’s company operatesrelatively independently from itsmother company in the United States,and has over 400 employees in HongKong under a typical organizationalsetup (R&D, purchasing, sales, ser-vices, finance, etc.).

After initial analysis done with se-nior management and interviews withsome staff members, we discoveredthat the sales department developed aunique culture not exactly alignedwith the corporate culture. The salespeople felt they didn’t get the respectthey deserved from other depart-ments. They said that the others wereenvious because they, the salespeople, made more money and trav-eled frequently.

The sales people often heard com-ments like, “These sales guys take va-cations sponsored by the company,stay in expensive hotels and get paidmore than us, who do all the work.”This situation created an unhealthydynamic. Communication betweensales and the other departments dete-riorated, and groupness among thesales team increased—but not for theorganization’s good. In fact, the con-flict became increasingly unbearablebecause the sales people sold prod-ucts that were difficult, if not impos-sible, to deliver. The organization hadto deal with many dissatisfied custom-ers and much finger-pointing.

Leaders must realize that the stron-ger the groupness of an organizational

group, the lesser the power and influ-ence of its subgroups. It is futile for aleader to attempt to destroy counter-productive subgroups within an orga-nization; it simply won’t work. Aleader has only two choices, whichcan be pursued simultaneously:! Influence the culture of divergent

subgroups and take steps to alignand integrate them better with thebigger organizational group; and

! Increase groupness in the organi-zational group.To influence

the dis-groupnessof a subgroup, theleader must firstidentify the coun-t e rp ro du c t i v egroup then gainaccess to the keyplayers, particu-larly the informalleaders of thegroup. It is notnecessary to influ-ence every mem-ber of the group;the key players determine what thegroup stands for. I also call themopinion leaders.

The key to success was for me togain the trust of the key opinion lead-ers in that Asian regional office of anAmerican technology company. Myown strong background in saleshelped in building good rapport dur-ing the first session. Also, the trust ofthe leader was gained using the prin-ciples of Appreciative Inquiry (AI)4

rather than outright criticism. Weachieved our target within six monthsby working directly with the opinionleaders and teaching the sales man-ager how to coach them effectively. Asa positive side effect, the sales man-ager gained more respect from histeam members and had better accessto his team.

How Great LeadersEnhance GroupnessFrom my research I found thatgroupness can be enhanced by threeways:! Giving a clear group direction

which includes a clear vision for

the group, an attractive missionstatement, and eff ective strategiesand goals to turn the vision into areality

! Differentiation, which means mak-ing an unambiguous distinctionbetween who are us and who arethem (for example, the competi-tors) and how we are different

! Creating a compelling picture ofwhat the group stands for, i.e., theculture of the group, including its

values and be-liefs.

Great leadersnot only developthese factors withtheir team mem-bers but are excel-lent role modelsand communica-tors who relent-lessly walk theirtalk and effec-tively keep com-municating theseaspects.

Coaching as a LeadershipDevelopment ToolI mentioned earlier that coaching is aneffective tool for career development.This is particularly true for the devel-opment of leaders. The basic purposeof coaching is to help the coaches intheir development in order to furtherimprove their performance and makebetter decisions to maximize their suc-cess and, subsequently, the success ofthe organization.

The concept of providing owner-ship to the coachees enables them totake on more and more responsibility.This allows them to develop leader-ship competencies under the guid-ance of an external coach and/or theirmanagers who may act as coaches.

Consider this example. Karen isthe managing director of the regionalheadquarters of a multinational com-pany. She was pirated from a competi-tor where she was a successful salesdirector responsible for both the mar-keting and the sales departments.

Less than half a year into her newjob, she felt extremely stressed anddrained of energy. She had never ex-

The concept of providingownership to the coachees

enables them to take onmore and more responsi-bility. This allows them to

develop leadership compe-tencies under the guidanceof an external coach and/or

their managers who mayact as coaches

4 AI Background. AI Resource eCentre. Availableat: www.aradford.co.uk/Pagefiles/background.htm


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perienced this before—in fact, she wasknown for being a power woman, al-ways positive and energetic. Shecouldn’t quite understand what wasgoing on. As in her previous jobs, sheworked long hours and was fully com-mitted to achieve excellent results.

Unfortunately, the results didn’tdevelop as expected and the workloadseemed to increase by the day. Whathappened?

When Karenfinally contactedme to figure outwhat was goingon and how Icould help her, Iasked her to de-scribe her typicalworking day in asmuch detail aspossible. I also in-quired about theway she commu-nicated and interacted with the othersenior managers. Finally, I asked herwhat components of her job are mostimportant for her to be a successfulmanaging director.

Based on her answers and the pre-viously mentioned definitions of man-agement and leadership, Karen ap-peared to function as a manager, not asa leader, in her new company.

We also talked about how thingsworked out so well in her previous po-sition. It turned out that her boss was astrong leader who took over the lead-ership aspect of her role as a sales di-rector so she could focus on managingthe daily work and supporting the keyaccount managers in winning impor-tant orders. Together, they produced awinning combination of leadershipand management.

She suddenly realized that this im-portant function of her previous boss—which she took for granted at thattime—was missing, and that it was herresponsibility to take over this task.

Within the first three months, wefocused on creating a clear directionfor the regional headquarters, whichwe developed together with the seniormanagement team:! A vision statement (Where do we

want to go?)

! A mission statement (Why do wewant to go there? What is the pur-pose?)

! A value statement (Which prin-ciples should guide us on our way?)Based on the vision, Karen and her

directors decided on a strategy thatwould most likely make the vision areality.

While completing the direction,we worked on her communication

skills, especiallywhen talking infront of larger in-ternal or externalgroups. Karenalso noticed thateven though oneof her strengthswas her ability tocreate good rap-port almost in-stantly, she some-times had prob-

lems sustaining relationships. She re-alized that she rarely coached her re-ports, which caused frustration anddecreased engagement.

As a consequence, we practicedcoaching skills, feedback and feed-for-ward, as well as how to make employeeparticipation more effective. We alsoworked on her awareness of the impor-tance of developing her people, espe-cially potential future leaders.

Furthermore, it was important forKaren to learn that she had to let go ofbeing the “super manager”, as a formercolleague described her. This was nother main job anymore. As she alreadyhad a good knowledge of the capabili-ties of each of her reports, she was ableto delegate more management tasks toothers. Also, she followed my adviceto employ a capable personal assistantto free her from everyday tasks.

As a result, after nine months ofcoaching, Karen’s and her company’ssituation changed dramatically.For Karen:! She still worked long hours, but

found it much more enjoyable.! She became as energized as she

used to be.! She made the shift from being a

“super manager” to being a “superleader.” Reference # 03M-2006-10-07-01

© 2006 Charlie Lang

For her company:! Engagement greatly improved (we

made an employee satisfaction in-quiry at the beginning and afternine months).

! Retention, especially of the highperformers, improved consider-ably.

! The financial results showed anew positive trend after approxi-mately six months.Karen decided to continue having

coaching sessions to furtherstrengthen her leadership competen-cies. Also, she noticed that coachinghelped her when making importantdecisions because she had an unbi-ased yet understanding sparring part-ner who challenged her thoughts andexpanded her awareness.

Of course, professional executivecoaching is not the only way to de-velop leadership competencies, butit is perhaps the fastest and most ef-fective way. Cases like Karen’s clearlyprove the potential value of coach-ing.

ConclusionDeveloping leadership talent must bea prime task for any leader as it ben-efits both the leader and the organiza-tion. Corporate success is highly de-pendent on the leadership quality of acompany’s leaders.

Coaching is an important leader-ship tool and an ideal approach fordeveloping great leaders. I havefound it to be most effective whenexecutives learn at least the basiccoaching competencies to coachtheir staff. This can be achievedthrough dedicated coach-trainingprograms. At the same time it is rec-ommended that leaders be coachedby professional corporate coaches.This way, they can become betterleaders and be supported in develop-ing leadership talent.

Developing your future leaderscannot be completely delegated to HR.It’s the job of every manager in yourorganization.

Professional executivecoaching is not the only

way to developleadership

competencies, but it isperhaps the fastest and

most effective way


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LEADERSHIP Nurturing Leadership Talent · thinking excludes the managers from being great leaders them-selves. 3) They are aware of the problem but don’t know how to fix it or they