DEVELOPING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS

The following process to develop leaders has been proven effective with more than three thousand mid-career professionals. More important is the realization that the process that I’m about to discuss has been used by companies to develop and sell every type of product ever sold. This is not a theory. In fact, this is very likely the way your marketing department has chosen to sell your products or services to your customers. I trust that you will find these three basic steps familiar.  

 

Step 1: Definition Phase – the employee analyzes their strengths and accomplishments to determine where they would like to go next.

Step 2: Research Phase – the employee (with the help and signoff from their manager) identifies what roles inside the organization best fit with the goal they identified in Step 1.

Step 3: Confirmation Phase – with manager approval, the employee conducts information interviews with employees who have done the job they think they want to confirm that truly is their goal. 

Try this: Start the Definition Phase of an internal development plan for one of your employees (or yourself). Have that person identify what is a natural skill based on their personality type, five of their most significant work-related accomplishments, and identify the skills most commonly associated with those accomplishments. These are the first steps in determining the best future path.