The Leadership Pipeline

The key skills that must be mastered during this transition include selecting people to turn Passage One, assigning managerial and leadership work to them, measuring their progress as managers, and coaching them. This is also the point where managers must begin to think beyond their function and concern themselves with strategic issues that support

The skills people should learn at this first leadership passage include planning work, filling jobs, assigning work, motivating, coaching, and measuring the work of others. First-time managers need to learn how to reallocate their time so that they not only complete their assigned work but also help others perform effectively. They cannot allocate

To use the Leadership Pipeline approach effectively, you need to challenge traditional notions of leadership. You can’t grow leaders unless you have an accurate development target, and this means acknowledging that the roles and responsibilities of leaders have shifted.

In some companies, at least 50 percent of the people in leadership positions are operating far below their assigned layer.

Organizations promote people with the expectation that they have the knowledge and skills to handle the job rather than the knowledge and skills to handle a particular level of leadership.

A common organizational mindset is to view jobs as “work to be done” and not as developmental assignments.

Internal training, mentoring, and other developmental programs aren’t keeping the pipeline full, making it necessary to look outside. The problem, of course, is that there are only so many full-performing leaders to go around.