“If you don’t know where you are going you might wind up somewhere else”
Yogi Berra
I just finished two 3.5 day developmental assessment centers with a large University medical center and another with a state university system for high potential leaders. At the end of the assessment center, it was surprising to note that 10 to 15 percent of those attending confessed they really preferred to remain in independent contributor roles and that they were negatively challenged to be dealing with what is expected of those supervising, managing and leading others.
A five year study conducted by ConceptReserve (Colorado based consulting and training company) revealed that 86 percent of 2,600 managers have trouble transitioning from specialist/independent contributor roles into leadership roles. While this finding may not be a surprise, what is how often organizations tend to “tease” their best performing specialists to take leadership roles that many talent find to be poor fits for their interests and skills.
There appears to be some evidence that personality and propensity to move within leadership roles may even have a genetic predisposition to it.
Avery and colleagues, based on twin studies, estimate that about 33% of the variance in holding leadership roles is due to genetic factors ((Avery, R.D., Zhang, Z. Avolio, B. & Kreuger, R.F. (2007). Developmental and gentic determinants of leadership role occupancy among women. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 693-706)). Findings from numerous studies of personality show that genetic effects account for approximately 50% of the variance in five factor domains ((Bouchard, T.J. & Loehlin, J.C. (2001). Genes, evolution and personality. Behavior Genetics, 21, 243-273)).
If leaders truly understood the pre-wiring of the interests, values and motives of talent and tried to use this information to lead them more effectively they would be able to unlock some of the mystery surrounding effective leadership.
Understanding the “Wiring” of Specialists versus Leadership Oriented Individuals
SPECIALIST/INDEPENDENT CONTRIBUTOR CAREER PATH — This career path preference is best characterized by those interested in remaining in one career field or profession for much of their working life. Along the way, these specialists are able to highly refine their technical knowledge, skills and abilities. These individuals are less interested in moving up as they are in becoming the expert and having autonomy to do things their way.
LEADERSHIP CAREER PATH — This career path preference is best characterized by those interested in continually moving vertically up the organizational ladder into traditional supervisory and managerial positions with increasing spans of control, responsibility, power, and authority.
Typical career anchors and motives of these individuals include power, influence, leadership, control, task accomplishment, status, managerial competence, and directing others. Appropriate organizational rewards for these individuals might include: upward mobility, promotion, special perks, titles, and organizational symbols of success (e.g., profit sharing incentive plans, company car, stock options, financial planning, expense account, club memberships, etc.).
How to Avoid the Mistake of Moving Specialists into Leadership Roles
1. Conduct a “stay interview” and identify the signature strengths and activities that provide engagement and passion for all your talent (yep, just flat out ask if “leading” is interesting and stimulating).
2. Provide realistic job previews (e.g., managerial Inbasket simuations) that help talent understand the skills required to perform supervisory and leadership roles and where they have strengths to build on and areas to sharpen should they decide to move into leadership roles.
3. Ask managers to become better performance coaches and take time each appraisal to provide feedback on leadership skills that they see their direct reports do well and areas they can improve–whether or not they are specialists or currently supervisiing others.
4. During talent management/succession planning differentitate those interested in line management, project management and specialist type of roles/activities.
5. Create multiple career and compensation paths so specialists aren’t motivated organically to tweak into leadership roles to obtain the most updated Blackberries, increase their salary and take advantage of the management perks within your culture.
6. Identify, using employee engagement surveys, pockets of leadership incompetence and analyze if those in place are truly a good “fit” for the leadership role they are in.
Not all transitions for those who are specialists end up badly when they are moved into leadership roles but enough do to be a strong warning to most organizations who tend to repeat this mistake far too often. Maybe I should ask our 10-month year old guide dog puppy Ajax what he wants to be when he grows up….Be well….
[tags] career paths, specialists, project managers,interests, specialists, career anchors, independent contributors, entrepreneurial behavior, coaching, leadership, talent management, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack[/tags]
Ken Nowack
Kenneth Nowack, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist (PSY13758) and President & Chief Research Officer/Co-Founder of Envisia Learning, is a member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Ken also serves as the Associate Editor of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. His recent book Clueless: Coaching People Who Just Don’t Get It is available for free for a limited time by signing up for free blog updates (Learn more at our website)
