Developing Leaders: Does experience trump expertise? 

by Sarah Jepson-Jones, Director

Developing the leaders of the future is a multi-million-pound business. Unsurprising really – given the criticality of having a strong leadership pipeline to deliver business performance, culture, and engagement. Not to mention the expense associated with senior external hires – or indeed the often-poor success rate for transitioning these people in. 

But we think organisations may be getting it wrong by not focusing on the career experience their future C-suite leaders need.  

In our recent LinkedIn poll, most organisations said they still focused on technical skill or managerial development when outlining career pathways for their people. We’ve already articulated why we think this is too narrow – so let us now make the case for why that is particularly important when thinking about developing the C-suite of the future…  

Leadership is transforming. 

The impact of AI & automation, a multi-generational workforce, the desire to include deeper inter-sectionality, and a broad post-pandemic re-evaluation of the psychological contract with work are just a few of the shifts creating the need for more nuanced leadership skills. 

Traditional leadership development focused on growing operational and technical skills still has its place. But this no longer equips leaders with the agility they need to deal with these changes. Moreover, a convincing case is now being made that mind-sets are in fact more important than skill-sets when it comes to leadership agility- To Be a Great Leader, You Need the Right Mindset (hbr.org) 

So how can leaders be best developed? 

We believe that c-suite career building requires three different types of interconnected learning and career development support: 

1. Programmatic support: An impactful future-leaders development programme that broadens skills, with a focus on the adaptive leadership skills of the future, is necessary to create a strong foundation. Our award nominated approach combines virtual sessions, real-life business immersions and coach-led peer-to-peer learning support. Part of the benefit of these programmes, in particular for matrixed and/or global organisations, is the creation of a connected community of leaders. Bringing this community together not only contributes to an enterprise-wide mindset to solving business challenges and delivering seamless customer experiences, but also creates a powerful network of supportive relationships that is the lifeblood of wide and varied careers and a strong interconnected leadership cadre. 
2. Experiential support: Future leaders need support to have more diverse career development opportunities in order to strengthen ‘lived experience’. Stretch assignments to prepare for future career moves, moving leaders into roles outside of their area of technical expertise, supporting leaders to follow personal passions and ‘experiment’ with less traditional moves and embracing a ‘leave and return’ approach to long term retention so ‘good leavers’ come back with enriched outside perspectives, are all opportunities that need to be actively created for your future leaders. More on this in a future blog!
3. Environmental support: Finally, organisations need to address the ‘friction-bubble’ that stops people from moving around fluidly – creating highly visible internal opportunities, ensuring application processes are well-designed and that breadth of experience is valued as much as depth of insight. But it’s more than this; creating a culture of sponsorship, coaching and mentoring is arguably more important when it comes to creating an environment of good career development. To deliver this requires not only a willingness and ability to align the existing talent ecosystem (platforms, policies, processes) around meaningful careers, but also invest in the skills and mindsets of existing leaders and managers across the organisation.  

Combining all three elements means that, from day 1, your current and future leaders are being actively engaged in discussions and interventions to prepare them for their future and meaningfully connect personal aspirations with organisational needs. We know this cultural shift requires focus and investment, but it has the power to pay off significantly through increased retention, attraction, improved engagement, and performance. And ultimately it will create a pipeline of leaders that will take your organisation into the future. 

Come chat to us as we understand how career and leadership interact!