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Succession Planning

Published November 2007

Making the Best Managers

Nancy Thomas and Scott Saslow

"The conventional definition
of management is getting
work done through people,
but real management is
developing people through work."
–    Agha Hasan Abedi

More than a dozen years ago, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras published one of the top business books of all time, Built to Last. They analyzed what differentiates visionary companies from their peers and documented some of the successful habits the great ones displayed. In 2001, Collins published Good to Great, helping to shed light on how good organizations can transform themselves and become truly great.

Although these two business classics differentiated good from great on the organizational level, it's important to also investigate on the individual level what differentiates good managers from the stars.

This is a timely discussion — many companies are rolling out programs and activities to build the skills of their management teams, and high-potential development programs are found in many organizations.

In fact, 95 percent of organizations have or are in the process of creating a high-potential development program, according to a study on high-potential leadership development by The Institute of Executive Development and RHR International.

As these organizations dedicate more and more resources to leadership development programs, it's important to define the characteristics that differentiate good managers from the best ones and how development professionals can influence, if at all, individual excellence.

The elements of top management talent will vary from industry to industry, company to company, business unit to business unit and even from one time period to another. After all, great management is typically defined in the context of what is required of a particular part of an organization at a particular point in time.

It is universally accepted, however, that good managers must have the "business chops" or technical skills to be effective. Many argue the technical or "hard" skills are necessary but not sufficient, and that "soft" skills, such as communication and team building, are what differentiate average from top management talent.

In reality, both are required as a foundation for great management. But in addition to hard skills and soft skills, what are the current business requirements great management addresses?

New Realities, New Requirements

According to the High Potential Leadership Development study, the top competency companies seek is the "ability to develop others" (59 percent of respondents chose this).
Many organizations recognize they have a shortfall in terms of their development needs and what they are able to deliver. Thus, they want managers who can develop others.

The question is, has this always been a part of a manager's responsibilities? Was it simply under the soft skills bucket? Actually, this is a relatively recent phenomenon. Organizations expect managers to have the relevant soft skills, but they also expect them to develop others.