The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company

271 Pages·2000·0.67 MB·English

by  Ram Charan

B u s i n e s s C u l i n a r y A r c h i t e c t u r e
C o m p u t e r G e n e r a l I n t e r e s t
C h i l d r e n L i f e S c i e n c e s B i o g r a p h y
A c c o u n t i n g F i n a n c e M a t h e m a t i c s
H i s t o r y S e l f - I m p r o v e m e n t H e a l t h
E n g i n e e r i n g G r a p h i c D e s i g n
A p p l i e d S c i e n c e s P s y c h o l o g y
I n t e r i o r D e s i g n B i o l o g y C h e m i s t r y
e
WILEY
B O O K
WILEY
JOSSEY-BASS
PFEIFFER
J.K.LASSER
CAPSTONE
WILEY-LISS
WILEY-VCH
WILEY-INTERSCIENCE

The Leadership Pipeline
Ram Charan
Stephen Drotter
James Noel
The Leadership
Pipeline
How to Build the
Leadership-Powered Company
Copyright © 2001 by Jossey-Bass Inc., 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco, California
94104.
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Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Charan, Ram.
The leadership pipeline: how to build the leadership-powered
company / Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, James Noel.
p. cm.
ISBN 0–7879–5172–2
1. Leadership. 2. Industrial management. I. Drotter, Stephen J.
II. Noel, James L., date. III. Title.
HD57.7 .C474 2001
658.4’092—dc21 00–011188
HB Printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 FIRSTEDITION
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xvii
About the Authors xix
Introduction 1
1. Six Leadership Passages: An Overview 15
2. From Managing Self to Managing Others 33
3. From Managing Others to Managing Managers 51
4. From Managing Managers to Functional Manager 65
5. From Functional Manager to Business Manager 81
6. From Business Manager to Group Manager 99
7. From Group Manager to Enterprise Manager 115
8. Diagnostics: Identifying Pipeline Problems and
Possibilities 131
9. Performance Improvement: Clarifying Roles and
Creating Performance Standards 143
10. Succession Planning 165
11. Identifying Potential Pipeline Failures 183
12. The Functional Career Passage 197
vii
viii Contents
13. Coaching 213
14. Benefits Up and Down the Line 225
Index 243
Preface
Though the Leadership Pipeline is a fresh concept that is specifically
geared toward the issues facing organizations today, it has its origins
in a model created many years ago by a man named Walt Mahler, a
highly acclaimed human resources consultant and teacher. Walt
contributed a great deal to human resource planning and succession
at a number of blue chip companies, including General Electric. His
approach laid the foundation for modern succession planning ap-
proaches. In fact, it can be argued that his contribution was one of
the secrets behind GE’s success in developing leaders.
We’d like to tell you this story, not only because it will help you
understand the value of the pipeline model but also because it’s a
fascinating story in and of itself. Telling it is also a good way for us
to introduce ourselves and how we became advocates of this lead-
ership development approach.
In the early 1970s, Walt did some of the most critical design
work for GE’s succession planning process, conducting in-depth as-
sessments of young GE leaders to help them develop their potential
and plan their future. Walt focused much of his work on the tran-
sition from business manager to multi-business manager and ac-
quired a deep understanding of the difference between these two
leadership levels.
ix