The First 90 Days (24 page)

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Adopting 4-D Development

Finally, consider using the STARS framework as a basis for selecting and developing people in your organization. This should be part of a broader, four-dimensional approach to highpotential talent development. The four dimensions are: 1. Managerial functions

2. Geographic regions

3. Career crossroads

4. STARS business situations

Leading companies work hard to broaden the experience of their high-potential people along dimensions 1 and 2: exposure to diverse
management functions
(for example, marketing, operations, human resources, and finance) and to
international experience
(through overseas placements). Increasingly, companies are also managing leadership development along a third dimension—preparing managers for critical
crossroads
in their professional lives. As Ram Charan and his colleagues have noted, managers face critical breakpoints as they move from being first-time

[1]

managers to managers of managers and all the way up to enterprise managers. As they move from one level to another, the rules and skill requirements change in significant ways.

The fourth dimension of high-potential leadership development, breadth of exposure to different
STARS business
situations,
should be directly addressed in succession and development planning. Do you want to develop different horses for different courses—for example, specialists in turnarounds and start-ups? Or do you want to develop people who can hunt and farm in a wide range of business situations? If the former, you should select specialists with the right inclinations and give them increasing responsibilities in those specific situations. If the latter, then your future general managers should get experience with a spectrum of business situations, and you should coach them in how to succeed in each.

A related issue is how best to bring in new people from outside the organization. Suppose you are planning to hire a high-potential person away from a competitor. Which of the four STARS situations would be most likely to set up that person to fail? The answer is realignment, because the new leader is put in the position of trying to convince people with whom he once competed that they are not as good as they think they are. It would be surprising if the new leader were not resented, and insiders who thought they should have gotten the job will be sharpening their knives. Without the right attention and support, the likelihood that this person will fail is high.

ACCELERATION CHECKLIST

1. Which of the four STARS situations are you facing— start-up, turnaround, realignment, or sustaining success?

2. What are the implications for the challenges and opportunities you are likely to confront and for how you should approach accelerating your transition?

3. What are the implications for your learning agenda? Do you only need to understand the technical side of the business, or is it critical that you understand culture and politics as well?

4. Which of your skills and strengths are likely to be most valuable in your new situation and which have the potential to get you into trouble?

5. What is the prevailing frame of mind? What psychological transformations do you need to make and how will you bring them about?

6. Should your early focus be on offense or defense?

7.

When you dig deeper, what is the mix of types of situations that you are managing? Which portions of your unit are in start-up, turnaround, realignment, and sustaining-success modes?

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What are the implications for how you should manage and reward the people who work for you?

[1]See Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel,
The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the
Leadership-Powered Company
(San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001).

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Chapter 4: Secure Early Wins

Overview

When Elena Lee was promoted to head the telephone customer-service unit of a leading retailer, she was determined to change the punitive, authoritarian managerial style of her predecessor. In her former job, she had been responsible for a smaller group in the same organization, so she knew a lot about the problems her new unit had been facing with quality of service. Convinced that she could dramatically improve performance through more employee participation and innovation, she saw cultural change as her top priority.

Elena began by communicating her goals to employees. In a series of memos and small-group meetings, she laid out her vision for a more participative, more problem-solving culture. These overtures met with skepticism from frontline employees and outright dismissal by some supervisors.

Her next step was to begin twice-weekly meetings with supervisors to review unit performance and seek input on how to improve it. Elena stressed that “the punishment culture is a thing of the past” and that she expected supervisors to coach employees. Cases involving discipline, she said, should be referred (on an interim basis) directly to her.