Chapter 3

Skills for Developing Yourself

as a Leader

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 Figure 3.1: New Leader Onboarding Road Map

Jump to Figure 3.1: New Leader Onboarding Road Map, Appendix

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 Preparing for an Interview
Candidates should gather as much information about their
potential company as they can

• Can also use Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and other social networking
sites to set up informational interviews with people inside the
organization

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 The First Day: Making a First Impression, 1
• Key topics to address in the meeting
• Identifying the team’s key objectives, metrics, and important projects
• Understanding the boss’s view of team strengths and weaknesses
• Working through meeting schedules and communication styles
• Sharing plans for the day and the next several weeks

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 The First Day: Making a First Impression, 2
• New hires could end discussions by arranging a follow-up
meeting with their bosses to review progress and to ask
whether weekly or monthly one-on-one meetings would be
helpful

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 First Two Weeks, 1
• Key objectives for these meetings are:

• Learning as much as possible

• Developing relationships
• Determining future allies

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 First Two Weeks, 2
• What is the team member working on?
• What are the team member’s objectives?
• Who are the “stars” a level or two down in the organization?
• What are the people issues on the team?
• What can the team do better?
• What advice do team members have for the new leader, and what
can the new leader do to help team members?

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 First Two Weeks, 3
• Should discuss the following during meetings:

• Their peers’ objectives, challenges, team structure, etcetera

• Their perspectives on what the new leader’s team does well and could
do better
• Their perspectives on the new leader’s team members
• How to best communicate with the boss
• How issues get raised and decisions made on their boss’s team

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 First Two Weeks, 4
New leaders should make it clear that they want and appreciate
their peers’ help

New leaders should meet with their stars during the first two
weeks on the job
• Stars can provide ideas for improving team performance and are
likely candidates for direct report positions should the new leader
decide to change the structure of the team

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 First Two Months: Strategy, Structure, and Staffing, 1

Tasks to be performed include:

• Gathering benchmarking information from other organizations

• Meeting with key external customers and suppliers

• Meeting with the former team leader, if appropriate

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 First Two Months: Strategy, Structure, and Staffing, 2

New leaders need to be able to articulate:

• Where the team has been and where it needs to go over the next
one to three years
• What the team needs to accomplish and what changes will be
needed to make this happen
• Their expectations for team members

Once the proposed changes have been agreed to, new leaders
need to have one-on-one meetings with all team members
affected by any strategy, structure, and staffing decisions

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 Third Month: Communicate and Drive Change, 1
Things to do include:

• Articulating how the team will win

• Identifying the what, why, and how of any needed changes
• Defining a clear set of expectations for team members

Major events for the third month

• Meet with the entire team
• Meet off-site with direct reports if the team is large

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 Third Month: Communicate and Drive Change, 2
Key objectives of the off-site meeting
• Get agreement on the critical attributes and values of team
members
• Create a team scorecard
• Establish an operating rhythm
• Establish task forces to work on key change initiatives

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 Learning From Experience

• Creating opportunities to get feedback

• Taking a 10 percent stretch

• Learning from others

• Keeping a journal of daily leadership events

• Having a developmental plan

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 Technical Competence, 1
• Concerns the knowledge and repertoire of behaviors one can
utilize to complete a task successfully

• Related to improved managerial promotion rates, better

training skills, lower rates of group conflict, reduced levels of
role ambiguity, and higher motivation levels among followers
for leaders

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 Technical Competence, 2
Steps in building technical competence
• Determining how the job contributes to the overall success of the
organization
• Becoming an expert in the job through education, training,
observation, asking questions, and teaching
• Seeking opportunities to broaden one’s experiences by performing
tasks associated with the other positions in one’s work group and
visiting other parts of the organization

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 Advantages of Having a Good Working Relationship with Superiors

Superiors and followers sharing the same values, approaches,

and attitudes will:

• Experience less conflict

• Provide higher levels of mutual support
• Be more satisfied with superior and follower relationships

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 Building Effective Relationships with Superiors, 1
In order to understand the superior’s world better, followers
should:

• Understand the superior’s personal and organizational objectives

• Keep the superior informed about various activities in the work
group or new developments or opportunities in the field

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 Building Effective Relationships with Superiors, 2
Requires followers to adapt to the superior’s style by:

• Listing major responsibilities and using the list to guide discussions

with superiors about different ways to accomplish tasks and relative
priorities of the tasks
• Being honest and dependable

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 Building Effective Relationships with Peers

Ways to establish and maintain good peer relationships

• Recognizing common interests and goals

• Understanding peers’ tasks, problems, and rewards

• Practicing a theory Y attitude

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 Development Planning

Peterson and Hicks believe that there are five interrelated

phases to developmental planning:

• Identifying development needs

• Analyzing data to identify and prioritize development needs
• Using prioritized development needs to create a focused and
achievable development plan
• Periodically reviewing the plan, reflecting on learning, and
modifying or updating the plan as appropriate
• Transferring learning to new environments

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 Conducting a G A P S Analysis
The first phase in the development planning process is to
conduct a G A P S which involves the following steps:

• Identifying career goals

• Identifying strengths and development needs related to the career
goals
• Determining how one’s abilities, skills, and behaviors are perceived
by others by asking others for feedback or through performance
reviews or 360-feedback instruments
• Determining the standards one's boss or organization has for one's
career objectives

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 Bridging the Gaps: Building a Development Plan
Following are the steps for developing a high-impact
development plan:

• Working on career and development objectives

• Determining the criteria for success
• Determining action steps
• Deciding whom to involve and reassessing dates
• Stretching assignments
• Using various resources
• Reflecting the knowledge with a partner

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