My young friend, Karl, is frustrated. He’s coming up on thirty. He’s been a manger for a few years and he’d like to climb the old corporate ladder, but there’s a problem. Those durned Baby Boomers just aren’t retiring and opening up possibilities.
I thought about Karl when I read a fascinating article on the INSEAD site, “‘Build, Borrow or Buy’ Your Talent?” by Laurence Capron and Muhammad Mustafa Tousif. She is a professor at INSEAD who co-authored the book Build, Borrow, or Buy. He is a commercial banker in Bangladesh who applied what he learned from the book to analyze the long term success of Bayern Munich in the German Football League.
If my young friend, Karl, was part of the Bayern Munich organization, he might find himself loaned to another team. He would get playing time and the opportunity to develop his skills. The team he was loaned to would get the benefit of those skills. It would be a win-win.
Well, why not use that same tactic for leadership development? If you’re a super large company, you can swap managers between business units. Smaller organizations can swap with strategic partners. It seems like a win-win with a bonus.
The leaders-in-development would develop their skills. The organizations would benefit from a fresh set of eyes looking at their problems. The bonus is the relationships that would be built among strategic partners.
Why not give borrowing a try?
