Build leaders
If you are a manager who works on Weiner’s team, you need to be a good communicator, a team-builder and organized — all of the traditional attributes normally associated with solid leadership.
But you also need to bring something else. You need to be able to identify and develop new leaders in the organization.
One of the keys to maintaining a vision and strategy is to groom empowered leadership at all levels of the organization. It’s so important to Weiner, she has made it a job requirement. And she makes her managers self-assess on their progress in developing leaders.
“One of the assessments I ask our people to measure themselves on is who they’ve brought along,” she says. “Who have you developed? Who do you look to as the successful leadership in the organization? If they can’t name or don’t have people they’re focused on, I’m very concerned. We are an organization of people. We don’t make widgets. If we do not build and develop talent throughout the stages and ages, we won’t end up where we need to be.”
The managers you have developed further down the ladder might not have a direct part in constructing the skeletal framework of your organizational strategy, but they will provide the muscle to make the framework move.
“True leaders take it to the next level and put all the meat around the bones,” Weiner says. “You have to let them do that. You won’t get the innovation and creativity; you won’t get the output and the results if your organization doesn’t allow for that kind of development.”
Developing leaders starts with recognizing leadership potential when you see it. That comes from having your top managers spend time among the people in your organization, observing who takes charge in situations, who takes the initiative to solve problems and who develops a following among their peers.
From there, you begin to train your leadership candidates by testing them, putting successively larger responsibilities on their plate and observing how they adjust.
“First, you see the people who have a natural following, who step up and take on responsibility and accountability,” Weiner says. “You have to continue to be aware of those folks and give them those opportunities to be successful. You have to be clear that the journey to leadership is earned and can be quite challenging. You build experiences and competencies, build your credentials and credibility along that journey.
“Leaders develop. The opportunities to hone your skills, build your skills, understand the organization, that comes over time. You need to have a continuous focus on that. I keep telling our partners that I shouldn’t be your leadership model. You should try to be better than me. We should continuously look for improvement. Some leaders out there don’t like that idea, but the best organizations are the ones where the leaders are replaceable.”
How to reach: Deloitte LLP, (215) 246-2300 or www.deloitte.com