Career Paths to Leadership & Leadership Development

A question from a great leadership reader:

“I am a recent post-graduate in the UK (Masters in International Relations) and want eventually to work in development. My question to you regards the best use of my skills. I feel that I am a leader and I want to put that calling to work. My research has led me to Management Consultancy as a way of learning my trade, with the view of learning the skills that an effective manager/leader needs, and then crossing-over into development work later on in my career.

Do you think that management consultancy would be the best way to develop my leadership skills?”

First of all, congratulations on completing your Masters! And good for you for seeking career advice from a variety of sources.

I’m glad you’ve asked this question. I love to mentor and give career advice, and this is an article that I’ve been pondering for a while, so it’s a good excuse to finally write it.

You’ve actually asked three different questions, maybe without realizing it, so I’ll provide three different answers.

Career Paths to Leadership:
I think it’s great that you’ve recognized that “leadership” is a calling, and that you already refer to yourself as a leader. Leadership is not a position, it’s the ability to enable others, and organizations, to achieve extraordinary results (That’s just my definition, by the way, there are hundreds of others).

By now, you may have already have opportunities to lead in school, your community, sports, clubs, or in church. Every one of those opportunities is a part of a lifelong curriculum of leadership development. Leadership is learned by doing, though others (positive and negative role model), sometimes hardships, and by more formal learning (books, courses, and websites like this one and others). There are no natural born leaders! Great leaders become great because they have a passion for the calling and work hard at it. They seek out and accumulate a large amount and variety of new experiences. They can then take these experiences, reflect, learn, and incorporate new ideas and behaviors into who they are.

It’s also important to have a clear idea of what leadership looks like. There have been hundred of books written on leadership – authors like Bennis, McCall, and Kotter come to mind. You can also learn a lot about leadership through biographies.

Once you know what it looks like, you need to know where you stand against the target. You do this by self-reflection, and more importantly, by continuously seeking feedback. Then, establish a written, specific plan to close the gaps.

Leadership development is truly a lifelong journey; you’ll never “get there”, but it can be an incredibly rewarding ride.

Career Paths to Management:
The principles of lifelong learning development I described for leadership would also apply to the discipline of management. This is convenient, because the best managers are also great leaders. I’d offer two additional pieces of advice on how to become a great manager:

To be a successful general manager, I believe it’s important to take a “Z” career path instead of a “T” career path. A “T” career path is a vertical progression of promotions within the same company, geography, and function. You climb the ladder, and at some point, you end up in a general management role being responsible for the function you were great at and several new functions you know very little about. These managers often fail, because they struggle with the unfamiliar, and tend to gravitate towards the one they are more adept at. Some can master this challenge, but the learning curve is usually steep and long.

A “Z” career path consists of a series of lateral moves, then a vertical promotion, another series of lateral moves, and on and on. This career path produces the most effective general managers. In order to do this, you have to be willing to accept lateral development moves throughout your career. At one company I worked at, in order to be considered for a business unit president, you had to have worked in two different geographies, two different functions, and two different industries (2X2X2). While it may take a little longer and require patience and a willingness to take risks and learn, it will increase your chances of success.

Read More…