Business leaders are hardly immune to major crises in developing countries. Around the globe, leaders struggle with a multitude of predicaments, including struggling economies, rising acts of terrorism, rapidly changing technologies, the environment, and much more. In the United States, partisanship and rancor rather than compromise and consensus rule the day from Sacramento to Washington, D.C. The absence of effective leadership unfortunately is not limited to the halls of Congress but continues to plague both Wall Street financiers and C-suite executives. As trainers who are charged with moving organizations forward, I’m sure you have asked yourselves why we have leaders who are unwilling or unable to act with a greater sense of urgency in addressing the myriad challenges facing the organizations they lead.
In his book, “A Sense of Urgency,” noted change expert John Kotter posits that “as we transition to a world where change is continuous—not episodic—urgency must become a core, sustained capability.” A major focus of our attention should be to take immediate steps to encourage more leaders to not only act with this sense of urgency but also assure a sustainable future by becoming teachers and mentors of less-experienced talent within our organizations.
Here’s where training professionals can have a huge impact. From my experience in four distinct industries—health care, education, the military, and agriculture—I have found that the best trainers didn’t necessarily start out planning to be trainers but learned their invaluable skills by performing different jobs along the way. Just as some organizations prefer to hire liberal arts graduates because they bring a fresh perspective to the workplace, the best trainers are able to combine disparate experiences into effective roles as teachers and mentors. The best trainers typically come from diverse educational paths with varying types of academic backgrounds. In other words, there is no formula for being a great trainer, but there is a passion for helping others succeed. It’s not coincidental that this passion is also what helps define an exceptional leader. Great trainers lead, and great leaders train.
History has taught us that crises such as those we’re facing today often produce successful leaders—that leaders are made and not born. In his book, “Crucibles of Leadership,” Robert Thomas suggests that the ability to overcome adversity is one of the most reliable predictors of leadership success. Lee Iacocca points out in “Where Have All The Leaders Gone” that we need mentors, someone to teach us how to lead. As you know, part of being a successful trainer is mentoring others, including those in the C-suite.
The central challenge is finding leaders who can tackle the urgent problems of today while teaching and developing future leaders as they go. As management experts Noel Tichy and Eli Cohen have written in “The Leadership Engine,” “the job of the leader has not changed. Enhancing the value of assets and sustaining growth are still the ultimate goals. This is accomplished by developing others to be leaders at every level and getting them aligned and energized.” Trainers play a critical role in making this happen.
Trainers, more than most groups of professionals, understand the value of imparting knowledge and skill sets and how they correlate with higher productivity, improved morale, and extended performance. But, two practical, concrete action steps must be taken for this to occur:
- Organizations and institutions must commit to becoming “teaching” organizations; ones where a conscious pledge is made to teach managers how to become leaders. The need for such resolute commitment is both obvious and practical: Presidents, CEOs, and members of the executive team who take the time to teach, mentor, and guide others experience more success in driving operating performance. Retention of key personnel is heightened and costs are lessened in those organizations that effectively leverage the talent of their staffs. And, as experience has shown, executives who teach and mentor become stronger leaders. Trainers can be of immense help to organizational leaders, including the CEO, by helping them become more effective teaching leaders.
- Organizational leaders, including trainers, need to deliberately develop an organizational culture and a leadership education structure, which builds future leaders from within. For many organizations, it seems more expedient to hire young talent from top academic institutions, established companies (e.g., GE, Boeing, IBM, P&G, Ritz Carlton, etc.), or the military. Some organizations spend precious capital to retain teams from top-shelf consulting firms. While doing so often leads to short-term success, such designs seldom deliver lasting results and true innovation. The central spoke of a winning organization should be internally developed leaders who understand the company’s business strategy along with its culture, and possess the internal credibility to drive insightful change and quality performance.
Skilled trainers grasp the utmost importance of being “embedded” with their principal contact at the company where they are engaged. This technique is essential to clearly understanding the culture of the organization and its leaders’ goals. Through their own performance as highly credible and competent trainers, they are often in a position to help a senior executive hone his or her leadership—i.e., teaching and mentoring skills. In the process, trainers become a force multiplier (bringing added value more pervasively) in the organization.
As trainers, you already understand the admonition voiced by renowned business philosopher Peter Drucker: “Be a teacher.” Can you think of a more profound legacy to leave your organization?
Excerpt from “Leadership Requires Extra Innings: Lessons on Leading from a Life in the Trenches” by Ritch K. Eich, Ph.D. (January 2014).
Ritch K. Eich, Ph.D., has been an executive in several industries, where he has worked with many excellent trainers. He is now the principal in his own firm, Eich Associated. He is a retired Navy captain who commanded three reserve units. Eich is the author of two leadership books, including his newest: “Leadership Requires Extra Innings: Lessons from a Life in the Trenches.” He can be reached at http://www.eichassociated.com.
