A Senior LeadersGuide Leader-Led Development

Learning and Development Roundtable
A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development

Understanding Your Role in Developing the Next Generation of Leaders
PURPOSE OF THIS GUIDE
Few learning strategies rival the development senior leaders alone can offer. Your business expertise, extensive experience, and leadership credibility are unmatched resources for preparing the next generation of leaders. This guide shows you how to more effectively develop your direct reports by focusing on the right activities and establishing a solid foundation for coaching partnerships. Recognizing the demands of your role, this guide does not contain an argument for increasing the amount of time you devote to developing your direct reports. Rather, it is a simple tool designed to demonstrate how you can better develop your direct reports without increasing your time investment. In fact, by focusing exclusively on the right activities, you can increase the performance of your direct reports by up to 27%.
KEY AUDIENCE
General Managers Heads of Business Units Heads of Functional Areas
QUESTIONS ADDRESSED
Why should I develop my direct reports? Where should I focus my efforts? How do I become more effective? 2007 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

www.ldr.executiveboard.com Washington, D.C., United States Telephone: +1-202-777-5000 Fax: +1-202-777-5100 London, United Kingdom Telephone: +44-(0)20-7632-6000 Fax: +44-(0)20-7632-6001 New Delhi, India Telephone: +91-124-417-8500 Fax: +91-124-417-8501 Lead Consultant Michelle Brown Project Manager Ingrid Laman Practice Managers Mark Van Buren Dave Williams Managing Directors Todd Safferstone Russ Selinger Executive Director Conrad Schmidt General Manager Peter Freire
Creative Solutions Group

Senior Graphic Design Specialist Gretchen Fry Contributing Designer Chris Helming Senior Publications Editor Debra Berkowitz Contributing Editor Andrea Cunningham
Note to Members This project was researched and written to ful ll the research requests of several members of the Corporate Executive Board and as a result may not satisfy the information needs of all member companies. The Corporate Executive Board encourages members who have additional questions about this topic to contact the Board staff for further discussion. Descriptions or viewpoints contained herein regarding organizations pro led in this report do not necessarily reect the policies or viewpoints of those organizations. Condentiality of Findings This document has been prepared by the Corporate Executive Board for the exclusive use of its members. It contains valuable proprietary information belonging to the Corporate Executive Board, and each member should make it available only to those employees who require such access in order to learn from the material provided herein and who undertake not to disclose it to third parties. In the event that you are unwilling to assume this condentiality obligation, please return this document and all copies in your possession promptly to the Corporate Executive Board.
Legal Caveat The Learning and Development Roundtable has worked to ensure the accuracy of the information it provides to its members. This report relies upon data obtained from many sources, however, and the Learning and Development Roundtable cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information or its analysis in all cases. Furthermore, the Learning and Development Roundtable is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. Its reports should not be construed as professional advice on any particular set of facts or circumstances. Members requiring such services are advised to consult an appropriate professional. Neither the Corporate Executive Board nor its programs are responsible for any claims or losses that may arise from a) any errors or omissions in their reports, whether caused by the Learning and Development Roundtable or its sources, or b) reliance upon any recommendation made by the Learning and Development Roundtable.
2007 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

TD172RQN1
Tools for You, Tools for Your Team

This guide is one component in a suite of tools designed for you and your direct reports to improve and accelerate individual performance. These resources share a common objective: to identify strategies for integrating development into daily work.
Portfolio of Tools for You and Your Direct Reports
A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development Understanding Your Role in Developing the Next Generation of Leaders Questions Addressed 1. Why should I develop my direct reports? 2. Where should I focus my efforts? 3. How do I become more effective? Available at www.ldr.executiveboard.com
A Rising Leaders Guide to Preparing for Future Leadership Roles Helping Your Direct Manager Boost Your Performance and Realize Your Potential Questions Addressed 1. How can I prepare for future leadership roles? 2. How can my direct manager help me prepare? 3. How can I proactively manage my coaching partnership? Available Spring 2007
Tools for Line Supervisors and Managers

Driving Results Through Employee Development Understanding Your Role as a Manager Available at www.ldr.executiveboard.com www.merc.executiveboard.com
Road Map for the Guide

1 2 3
The Business Case (Pages 68)
The Five Essential Roles (Pages 1015)
Foundations for Success (Pages 1820)
Why should I develop my direct reports?
Where should I focus my efforts?
How do I become more effective?
The Business Case: Good News About Leader-Led Development
Bench Builders Are Business Builders

Summary: As a senior leader, you know rsthand how to get results in your organization. The guidance and advice you have to offer your direct reports is unparalleled. The good news is that developing your direct reports goes hand in hand with delivering business results. Senior leaders who are effective at developing their direct reports are 1.5 times more likely to exceed their nancial goals.
The Link Between Effective People Development and Business Performance* The very best developers of other leaders are also 1.5 times more likely to exceed their nancial goals.
1.5x
= 50%
Percentage of Senior Leaders Who Exceeded Their Financial Goals
Senior Leaders Very Ineffective at Developing Other Leaders
Senior Leaders Very Effective at Developing Other Leaders
* This key nding is based on the Roundtables 2006 Senior Leadership Survey, which surveyed more than 1,600 senior leaders and their direct reports in 14 organizations.
Source: Learning and Development Roundtable 2006 Senior Leadership Survey; Learning and Development Roundtable research.
The Business Case: One Reason for Developing Other LeadersPerformance Improvement
Why Leader-Led Development Matters to Your Team

Summary: Given your role as a senior leader, you recognize the powerful effect your guidance and advice have on developing the next generation of leaders. But what you may not be aware of is the quantiable, bottom-line impact of your efforts. By effectively developing your direct reports, you can boost their performance by as much as 27%, and the impact you have does not end there. Effectively developing your direct reports also increases their likelihood to stay with your organization, their engagement, and the effort they (and their teams) put into their jobs.
The Impact of Leader-Led Development on Performance* Indexed

127 100
27% Performance Improvement
Additional Benets
25% increase in direct reports intent to stay 25% increase in direct reports emotional commitment 18% increase in direct reports discretionary effort 16% increase in discretionary effort of direct reports teams
Effectively developing your direct reports can boost their performance by as much as 27%.
Senior Leaders Very Ineffective at Developing Other Leaders
Senior Leaders Very Effective at Developing Other Leaders
* For the purposes of illustration, direct report performance scores were indexed to a scale on which 100 points indicates performance of direct reports that report to senior leaders ineffective at developing other leaders. 2007 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.
Source: Learning and Development Roundtable 2006 Leader-Led Development Survey; Learning and Development Roundtable research.
The Business Case: Another Reason for Developing Other LeadersYour Leadership Legacy
Why Leader-Led Development Matters to You

Summary: Effectively developing your direct reports also provides a personal payoff. While you benet from your teams improved performance, engagement, and retention, you also contribute to your leadership legacy. Business ideas and innovations may fade, but the impact you have on your people will withstand the test the time. Past and present CEOs from leading organizations share this belief and have made developing others an integral component of their executive mandates.
The day you become a leader, your job is to take people who are already great and make them unbelievable. Jack Welch Former CEO General Electric
If you cant build the people, if you cant leave an organization stronger than you found it, with more capable people than you inherited, then I question whether youre really adding value. Steven Reinemund Former CEO PepsiCo
Leadership development is perhaps one of the most important duties that I have. Peter Brabeck-Letmathe CEO Nestl
I think we [CEOs] are mentors, we are teachers, we are coaches, and that is what makes a great leader. Ed Zander CEO Motorola
Source: Dean Robert Joss, Its Not About You, Stanford Business, August 2005; Igor Reichlin; The Six Ps of PepsiCos Chief, BusinessWeek , 10 January 2006; Transcript: Edward Zander, Chairman and CEO of Motorola, www.CNN.com, 2 October 2006; Getting the Global View, The Chief Executive, October 2004; Learning and Development Roundtable research.

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The Five Essential Roles: Focusing Your Efforts on the Right Activities
Focusing on the Five Essential Roles

Summary: To make the most of your time, you should focus on performing ve essential roles. These roles capture the underlying activities that have the greatest impact on your direct reports performance. You will quickly note that the roles you must play rely on your privileged insight and position as a senior leader. In other words, being an effective talent developer relies on your natural strengths, experiences, and abilities.
Five Essential Roles
Experience Broker Stretch and Challenge Your Direct Reports Through Work Experiences
Relationship Broker Connect Your Direct Reports to Other Key Leaders
Performance Advisor Offer Advice and Guidance
Experience Optimizer Encourage Learning from Work Experiences
Career Champion Pave the Path to Senior Leadership
What This Means for You
Direct to careeradvancing job assignments

Activities You Can Try with Your Direct Reports
Enable learning from other leaders Build relationships between your direct reports and other key leaders Guide direct reports toward the most inuential individuals
Serve as a sounding board for difcult challenges Help direct reports understand unintended consequences Provide feedback on their greatest strengths
Provide opportunities to practice new skills Enable reection on learning assignments Help balance learning and work
Ensure others see long-term potential Explain remaining steps to promotion Prepare for successful career moves
Create best sequence of work and assignments Place in situations to x failing projects and push their comfort zones
The Five Essential Roles: Stretch and Challenge Your Direct Reports Through Work Experiences
Experience Broker
Role #1: Experience Broker

Summary: As a senior leader, you recognize the truth in the saying experience is the best teacher. One of your key responsibilities as an Experience Broker is to connect your direct reports to the jobs and assignments that best accelerate their development. Whether these opportunities are plentiful or few, you should also mine their current jobs for developmental value. You will nd many opportunities to embed stretch and challenge into their daily activities.
Tips Ensure that direct reports have sufcient opportunities to develop skills within their current jobs. Ensure that the projects you assign your direct reports build on one another and become increasingly complex over time. Allow direct reports to experience the entire life cycle of a projectpulling them away too soon prevents them from understanding the impact and implications of their decisions. Brainstorm with your direct reports ways to make their day-to-day tasks and activities more challenging in order to have a greater impact on business results.
Direct to career-advancing job assignments Create best sequence of work and assignments Place in situations to x failing projects and push their comfort zones
Source: Learning and Development Roundtable 2006 Leader-Led Development Survey; Learning and Development Roundtable research. 2007 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.
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The Five Essential Roles: Connect Your Direct Reports to Other Key Leaders
Relationship Broker
Role # 2: Relationship Broker

Summary: Knowing the right people is critical to the success of any leader. As a Relationship Broker, you should connect your direct reports to other inuential leaders who can assist in their development. Your direct reports develop best when they are able to tap into and learn from a broader network. Equally important is ensuring that direct reports make the most out of their current relationshipshelping them to both learn from and share their own knowledge and expertise with others.
Tips
Stress the importance of relationship building to your direct reports development. Connect your direct reports to other leaders who can help them with a specic development outcome. Enable learning from other leaders Build relationships between your direct reports and other key leaders Guide direct reports toward the most inuential individuals Share strategies and tactics for balancing give and take in professional partnerships.
The Five Essential Roles: Offer Advice and Guidance
Performance Advisor
Role #3: Performance Advisor

Summary: The advice you have to offer your direct reports is critical to boosting their performance. Your direct reports respond best when you listen, ask questions, and encourage them to make their own decisions. Although you can quickly solve their problems for them, you can make better use of your time by teaching your direct reports how to nd solutions on their own. At the same time, focus your advice and guidance on leveraging your direct reports strengths. While it is natural to focus on areas for improvement, giving them opportunities to further demonstrate their strengths dramatically boosts their performance.
Tips
Create formal and informal opportunities for direct reports to approach you with questions (e.g., schedule a monthly checkin, invite a direct report to lunch). Dont immediately jump in to solve your direct reports problems; its better to help your direct reports understand the pros and cons of their decisions. Recognize the strengths you want to reinforce in your direct reports and give specic examples of when they demonstrated them.
Serve as a sounding board for difcult challenges Help direct reports understand unintended consequences Provide feedback on their greatest strengths
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The Five Essential Roles: Encourage Learning from Work Experiences
Experience Optimizer
Role #4: Experience Optimizer

Summary: Aside from connecting your direct reports to the right jobs and assignments, you also need to ensure they come out of those experiences more capable than when they began. As an Experience Optimizer, you can drive home the value of experiences by encouraging them to reect on what they have learned and showing them how to apply it to work.
Tips
Ensure that direct reports have clear expectations before a learning experienceask them to share why they have been assigned certain tasks and activities and what they need to learn from them. Have direct reports identify what they learned; what they found easy, hard, or surprising; and what they would do differently after each key learning experience. Encourage your direct reports to teach others what theyve learned from work experiencesthis prompts them to reect and capture key lessons learned.
Provide opportunities to practice new skills Enable reection on learning assignments Help balance learning and work
The Five Essential Roles: Pave the Path to Senior Leadership
Career Champion
Role # 5: Career Champion

Summary: The greatest impact you can have in developing your direct reports is setting them up for success in the long term. Accelerate their ascent to senior leadership by advocating their performance and potential. You should also give your direct reports a realistic view of what theyll need to accomplish in their nal steps to promotion.
Tips
Have your direct reports give you key talking points about their performance record, career highlights, and other achievements. Create transparency on promotion differentiatorsthose behaviors and accomplishments that set other leaders apart. Ensure others see long-term potential Explain remaining steps to promotion Prepare for successful career moves Hold your direct reports accountable for owning their careers and achieving their development goals.
Dont Shield Your Talent We know letting go of your best talent is hard, but direct reports who feel shielded from job opportunities are up to 25% more likely to leave the organization entirely. It is far better to promote your best talent within the company than to risk losing them to competitors.
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1 2 3
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Foundations for Success: Boosting Your Effectiveness at Development
Building a Solid Foundation

Summary: Focusing on the ve essential roles is the rst step to effectively developing your direct reports. The second step is to build a solid foundation for your development efforts by 1) establishing and maintaining healthy relationships with your direct reports and 2) demonstrating your own receptivity to development. While it may sound obvious, your direct reports are less likely to listen and follow through on your feedback and guidance if they do not view you as a credible leader who treats them with respect and fairness. They are also less likely to take their development seriously if you do not take your own development seriously.
What Matters Most
Establish Healthy Relationships
Be a Role Model for Development

My IDP
When your direct reports perceive you as a credible leader who treats them with respect and fairness, they are far more likely to follow through on advice you give.
You can lead by example by demonstrating openness to coaching and feedbackyour direct reports are more likely to take responsibility or their own development if they know it matters to you.
What Matters Less
Top Management Support Use of an Executive or Professional Coach Company Culture Financial Incentives for Developing Others
It may surprise you to know that when it comes to setting a solid foundation for developing other leaders, these factors are much less important than building healthy relationships and being a role model. With or without the inuence of these factors, you can be successful in developing other leaders.
Foundations for Success: Establish Healthy Relationships
Establish Healthy Relationships

Summary: Your effectiveness at developing your direct reports depends in large part on the nature of your relationships with them. Treat them with respect and fairness, allow some exibility in worklife balance, and give them room to make and learn from their decisions. In sum, if they view you as a credible, visionary, and fair leader, they are more likely to respond to and follow through on your coaching.
Impact on Effectiveness at Leader-Led Development*

42.9% 42.7% 43.4% 41.0% 35.8% 32.1%
Tips
Ensure that the advice you provide to your direct reports strongly links to your expertise and experience. Balance your efforts to establish credibilityyour value as a senior leader rests on your general management abilities, not subject-matter expertise. Treat each direct report differently, but hold all of them to the same standards.
* Each bar represents the maximum impact each driver contributes to effectiveness at leader-led development.
lL e an ade ib d ili t V i r s hi yo s io p fL n Cr ea ed d ib er ili t sh yo a n ip S fB d ty us S k le in ills es sM a G iv E x nag pe e m M es F ak r e r ie e n e ed nc t Th o e eir m O fo r w O n th Tr D e ea ec r s ts is i to D on Re ir e s sp c t ec Re ta p nd or t Co Fa s w m ir n i t m it t es h e s W d o r to k Fle L if x i e bil Ba it y la n in ce Cr ed
In
sp
ir a
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Foundations for Success: Be a Role Model for Development
Be a Role Model for Development

Summary: In addition to fostering healthy relationships with your direct reports, there is nothing more powerful than the example you set by showing your own receptivity to development. It is difcult to be effective at leader-led development if you do not show your commitment to development by being open to feedback, recognizing your strengths and weaknesses, and following though on development goals. Being a role model for development encourages your direct reports to adopt the same posture and commitment to their development.
Impact on Effectiveness at Leader-Led Development*

44.9% 40.2% 35.8% 43.8% 41.6% 41.8%
Tips
Recognize that seniority does not necessarily equate to (continued) success. See the good behind feedbackthe best senior leaders recognize that they can only improve and succeed by heeding the advice of others. Ask others to hold you accountable for making progress on your own development goals. Ask your direct reports to be role models in their commitment to development as well.
* Each bar represents the maximum impact each driver contributes to effectiveness at leader-led development.
pe n a n to d N Ac S u ew gg I tiv es d e ely t io a s Se ns ek O Ad an u t F m d ee it Cr db N i ti ac ee ci s k d m fo rI m pr ov Ap em pr en oa t ch ab le Cu to rt ail F e I n fo Se ed r m lfba al L im ck i ti ng Be ha v io rs F D oll e v ow e lo T pm hr e n oug tG h oa o n ls
In Closing
An Important Note for Senior Leaders
This guide is designed to help you increase your effectiveness at developing your direct reports. Given your role as a senior leader, you recognize that the success of your organization depends on the strength of your leadership talent. While your organization can engage in numerous strategies to select and develop its next generation of leaders, the coaching you alone provide has the most signicant impact on your direct reports performance. Recognizing the demands of your role, this guide does not contain an argument for increasing the amount of time you devote to developing your direct reports. Rather, it is a simple tool designed to demonstrate how you can better develop your direct reports without increasing your time investment. In fact, by focusing exclusively on the development activities that have the greatest impact, you can increase the performance of your direct reports by up to 27%. As you become more effective at development, your direct reports are more likely to stay with and be more committed to the organization. This guide is designed to focus your efforts and improve your effectiveness at developing your direct reports by answering the following questions: 1. Why should I develop my direct reports? 2. Where should I focus my efforts? 3. How do I become more effective?
An Important Note for Learning and Development Executives

The Learning and Development Roundtable, now entering its sixth membership year, strives to address the most urgent concerns of senior learning and development executives through a combination of best practice case studies, quantitative analysis, decision-support tools, and networking events. Based on the enthusiastic reception to our work on the impact of leader-led development on individual and organizational performance, members requested that the Roundtable develop a short summary of this analysis for broad distribution to senior leaders (e.g., general managers, heads of business units, and heads of functional areas). This guide represents our response to that request.
About the Learning and Development Roundtable

The Learning and Development Roundtable is one of the many membership programs under the Corporate Executive Board and was launched in 2001 to serve senior learning executives, corporate university leaders, and organizational development professionals around the world. The Roundtable supports its membership in activities as diverse as manager-led development, measurement, leadership development, experiential learning, and e-learning, with a rolling agenda of strategic research, training modules, tools, and structured forums for idea sharing and implementation support.
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ORDER FORM A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development is intended for broad dissemination among senior executives and management within your organization. Members of the Learning and Development Roundtable are welcome to unlimited copies without charge. Online ordering is available at www.ldr.executiveboard. com. Alternatively, you may call the Publications Department at +1-202-777-5921, e-mail your order to orders@executiveboard.com, or fax in the order form on this page. Additionally, members interested in reviewing any of the Roundtables past strategic research are encouraged to request a complete listing of our work or visit our Web site at www.ldr.executiveboard.com.
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Learning and Development Roundtable

A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development

Learning and Development Roundtable

Creative Solutions Group

2007 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

Tools for You, Tools for Your Team

Portfolio of Tools for You and Your Direct Reports

Tools for Line Supervisors and Managers

2007 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development

2007 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development

Road Map for the Guide

The Business Case (Pages 68)

The Five Essential Roles (Pages 1015)

Foundations for Success (Pages 1820)

Why should I develop my direct reports?

Where should I focus my efforts?

How do I become more effective?

2007 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development

2007 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development

The Business Case: Good News About Leader-Led Development

Bench Builders Are Business Builders

Percentage of Senior Leaders Who Exceeded Their Financial Goals

Senior Leaders Very Ineffective at Developing Other Leaders

Senior Leaders Very Effective at Developing Other Leaders

Why Leader-Led Development Matters to Your Team

The Impact of Leader-Led Development on Performance* Indexed

Senior Leaders Very Ineffective at Developing Other Leaders

Senior Leaders Very Effective at Developing Other Leaders

A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development

2007 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development

Why Leader-Led Development Matters to You

Road Map for the Guide

The Business Case (Pages 68)

The Five Essential Roles (Pages 1015)

Foundations for Success (Pages 1820)

Why should I develop my direct reports?

Where should I focus my efforts?

How do I become more effective?

2007 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development

2007 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development

Focusing on the Five Essential Roles

Five Essential Roles

Relationship Broker Connect Your Direct Reports to Other Key Leaders

Performance Advisor Offer Advice and Guidance

Experience Optimizer Encourage Learning from Work Experiences

Career Champion Pave the Path to Senior Leadership

What This Means for You

Direct to careeradvancing job assignments

Role #1: Experience Broker

Activities You Can Try with Your Direct Reports

A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development

2007 Corporate Executive Board. All Rights Reserved.

A Senior Leaders Guide to Leader-Led Development

Role # 2: Relationship Broker

Activities You Can Try with Your Direct Reports

The Five Essential Roles: Offer Advice and Guidance

Role #3: Performance Advisor