• 
• Training
• Consulting
• Resources
• Store
• About Us

• » Articles
• › The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent
• › Newsletters

How to Assess Potential and Promotability

By Lou Adler, August 9, 2007

In a recent email I paraphrased the following quote. My son had sent it to me in regards to training and evaluating officers in the military. He thought it would be useful in assessing managers, executives, and leaders. It's been attributed to a variety of different people, and I can't seem to find the originator, so I apologize for not giving the true author official credit.

Amateurs think tactics.
Professionals think logistics, planning and strategy.
Reformers think staff selection, retention and team development.

Read more articles by this author.

Related Topics:

Assessment, Managing, Newsletter, Recruiting

Related Articles:

The One Question Interview Challenge

The Secrets of Top Recruiters Finally Revealed

Rethinking College Recruiting

As the worldwide demand for top people increases and the supply continues to shrink, you need to be a professional reformer to win the war for talent. Unfortunately, there are a lot of amateurs in charge. With this as a backdrop it could be useful to begin assessing people along these three dimensions.

During my search career, I've had an opportunity to track hundreds of people for extended periods of time--in some cases over 25 years. From this, it's obvious that there are some common things the best people do to distinguish themselves at each major career step. Many of these fall within this amateur/professional/reformer categorization. Based on this extensive anecdotal evidence, I'd modify the quote above quite a bit because it's not really true. Here's the truth:

Managers think tactics.
Executives think logistics, planning and strategy.
Leaders think staff selection, retention and team development.

Problems occur when you put managers into executive and leadership positions, or technical experts into management positions. So when evaluating candidates for potential or promotion, look for clues to where the person has grown or focused his or her attention. These patterns are quite revealing. Here are some ideas to consider at three different career stages.

Early Stage

For these purposes, the early stage is generally defined as the first five to eight years of a person's career. During this phase, learning and applying technical knowledge is the focus of the work. Those who excel in this phase tend to learn the work more quickly, they proactively expand their knowledge, they consistently do more than required, they ask to take on bigger jobs, or they do whatever is assigned better, or do it in some unique or creative way. While doing this work, the best people are demonstrating their work ethic and consistency. They are also learning how to work effectively on cross-functional teams and are starting to appreciate the roles of other people and functions in achieving project success. The strongest people at this level learn how to plan and organize their work and to deliver what's promised on time and on budget without making excuses. Getting the job done regardless of the obstacles is one way the best separate themselves from the rest. Those destined for management also begin thinking about improving processes, organizing people, and expanding the use of technology to improve productivity.

Supervisory and Mid-Management

When the right people get promoted into management, it's because they have provided evidence of being able to effectively organize, plan, and manage people and resources (i.e., money, time, equipment, and technology). They get things done on time, through and with people. Sometimes the wrong people get promoted, either due to political reasons or the fact that the person doing the promoting doesn't understand what it takes to be a successful manager. The best managers seek out larger projects with bigger budgets, more people, more deadlines, more challenges, and more responsibility.

During this phase of growth, the most successful managers learn how to execute, delivering consistent results despite the normal problems and challenges. They learn the importance of staff selection and team development, they become strong users of complex IT systems, they focus on process improvement, they learn how to use budgeting and planning tools to meet business objectives, and they become expert at project management.

Mid-level managers and supervisors destined for more senior management spots (directors and vice-presidents) do even more. For one thing, they demonstrate a pattern of overcoming bigger problems and unusual challenges and still deliver the results without making excuses. Part of this is due to an ability to start thinking strategically and multi-functionally. They anticipate problems before they occur and they obtain the resources needed to solve the problems without regard to functional barriers. Look for this combination of breadth of thinking and the organization of resources when interviewing people for management roles and assessing their potential for bigger jobs.

Senior Management

Managing managers, developing people, creating and executing business plans and strategy, and making sure they happen are the core activities of directors and functional vice-presidents. Getting consistent results through and with people across the whole business enterprise separates the best senior managers from the rest.

Those destined to move into the executive ranks not only manage their function (e.g., accounting, engineering, operations, marketing, sales) or department extremely well, but they also have a chance to demonstrate their broad business perspective and capabilities. This includes an understanding and shaping of the business strategy, solid business judgment and complex decision-making, the ability to use and manage financial information, and a multi-functional perspective with an ability to break down functional walls to achieve significant business results. Whether it's running or growing the company, the best people have demonstrated the ability to gather and mobilize all of the required resources (e.g., IT, financial, equipment, people in a variety of business functions and levels, externals including vendors, contractors, and consultants) and manage them successfully to achieve major business objectives.

Bad hiring decisions occur when the assessment process is compromised in some way. In some cases, managers and executives hire in their own image, or they give undue weight to industry reputation or the person's "experience." Sometimes a person's intelligence, and an ability to think and articulate a plan, is overvalued in comparison to executing and delivering comparable results. Understanding what it takes to be a manager and have the potential to grow is hard work. Unfortunately, in the rush to judge, too many managers and executives go with their gut or their intuition.

The idea of benchmarking successful managers and executives is a useful way to make better hiring and promotional decisions. It also offers a practical means to develop stronger team members, build a sustainable workforce and increase retention and job satisfaction. While this is a micro look at personal growth and development, it raises a macro concern about the workforce of tomorrow. The massive increase in workforce mobility we're experiencing today is eliminating many younger people from an opportunity to move into the mid-management ranks. This is the pool of people who will eventually be called upon to become the senior executives of our corporations 10 to 20 years from now. An October, 2006 CNNMoney.com article, CEO oustings on track for record, projected that 1570 CEOs would lose their jobs in 2006. In many cases it's because of the gaps cited above and bad selection decisions. Based on current trends this could just be the tip of the iceberg.