By the year 2020, it is anticipated that the millennial generation (born between 1979 and 2000) will make up 50% of the workforce. This generation is bringing new expectations to the workplace, and they will dominate the US workplace in less than four years. What are companies doing now to attract, develop, and keep tomorrow’s employees today? In a recent survey conducted by WorkforceFuture.com the top two preferred methods of learning for this young generation are tied between in-‐classroom learning and learning from a coach or mentor. (Willyerd, 2010) This generation has grown up being coached and mentored and they do not expect anything less when it comes to their work lives.
Young people today are being thrust into leadership positions that require wisdom and maturity far beyond what one could expect from them, given their age and experience levels. Typically, they are fast-‐tracked for leadership positions because they show specific competencies that their organizations need now, and because rapid growth is forcing these companies to rely on the much younger and more inexperienced workforce. This situation will only escalate as they 85 million baby boomers begin to retire and are replaced by a much smaller and younger workforce. (Madeleine Homan, 2008)
These young leaders need help and many of them are getting it in the form of leadership development coaching. Developing leaders and executives, no matter what their age, can benefit from a strong coaching relationship. (Madeleine Homan, 2008) Organizations that provide proactive coaching to emerging leaders will have a competitive advantage when it comes to engaging and retaining the leaders of the future.
The Need for Speed
A Global Speed Survey found that one of the key leadership factors differentiating faster companies from slower companies is the presence of
Leaders who can execute strategic projects in a speedy and effective manner. (Jocelyn R. Davis 2010)
To maintain momentum and increase traction with a strategy, leaders must go beyond passive sponsorship to drive those initiatives—actively supporting and coaching the execution team(s), holding them accountable and assessing and mitigating risks. (Jocelyn R. Davis, 2010) While coaching is talked about a lot in leadership, the skill may not be practiced as effectively as it will need to be in the future in order to execute at the pace demanded in the global economy. Coaching will become even more critical at all levels within the organization. So we know we will need to teach leaders to be effective coaches. The question becomes…how?
The speed of change along with the pending mass exodus of the baby boomers has raised the awareness that the old-‐school approach to leadership development has become obsolete. Long gone are the days where we spent years developing leaders through in-‐depth, multi-‐year training programs. The next generation of leaders is about speed. Speed to execute upon goals, speed to market and speed into the highest ranks of leadership. Organizations must be prepared to clearly identify the few critical leadership competencies needed in the moment and to reinvent them over and over as the business demands change.
Companies that achieve speed have aligned and supportive leadership; they are open to new ideas and innovative solutions; and they take time to ensure that people are trained and prepared for their role in executing projects. (Jocelyn R. Davis, 2010)
Leaders have the ability to adjust to an ever-‐changing macro business environment. To prepare them for this will require accelerating development of the current and next generation of leaders by making targeted investments to enable these leaders to gain experience and drive business results. (Nikravan, 2012)
Having programmatic leadership development programs is not an optimal investment versus giving people the opportunity to experience and do. The investments around giving people different work experience will develop our leaders in a more cost-‐efficient and effective manner as opposed to forcing agendas and curriculums upon them. (Nikravan, 2012)
Behavior change is called out as one of the key success factors for successful execution. (Jocelyn R. Davis, 2010) Third party coaching of emerging leaders can be a catalyst for the continuous behavior change demanded for survival in today’s organization. It is fast and flexible as opposed to the programmatic leadership development programs of the past. Additionally, employing or contracting with professionally certified coaches infiltrates the organizational culture with trained role models for this increasingly important leadership competency. It raises the bar for leaders who now understand what coaching truly is and provides a common framework and process for developing emerging leaders.
The concept of leadership is born from, ad closely linked to, traditional thinking about how we structurally organize. So while we emphasize leadership, mentoring and coaching in our organizations, we typically do so in a very traditional way that is based around honoring hierarchical authority. As we see a shift in organizational behavior that is more open and empowered, we may also see shifts towards distributed leadership and mentoring models. (Ouellette, Unknown)
The need for speed has inspired more complexity with multiple matrix reporting structures where leaders may have multiple “bosses” but little direction and often even less coaching and development. The use of coaching as a way to co-‐develop leadership talent at all levels can greatly accelerate the leader’s ability to navigate his way into key positions over the course of his career all while allowing the organization to flourish by leveraging leaders highest potential at the earliespossible point keeping leaders on the edge of their growth curve while delivering high impact results.
For example, a leader might be working organizationally in the IT department while collaborating with the sales team and mentoring someone within the accounting department. Or perhaps a person reports to multiple managers based on the projects or geographical area he or she is assigned to. These dynamic structures can create confusion and lack of continuity with respect to who is responsible for developing which leaders. While the organization chart may reflect a formal reporting relationship, it may be more administrative in nature where the manager only sees his direct report occasionally or perhaps never. Introducing a coach into this scenario can provide the constant focus the emerging leader needs as he or she cycles between assignments and reporting relationships. The coach brings consistency towards the emerging leader’s development and has an established relationship and trust that is so critical to employee engagement.
Virtualization
As the world continues to move to being a truly global economy, businesses are responding with staffing models that leverage geography to their advantage. With advances in technology and globalization of business, many organizations will select talent based on need and value rather than location. Emerging leaders will need to be more proactive about defining work outcomes and expectations and communicating status and changes. Organizations that learn how to foster and nurture virtual relationships will find that capability and competitive differentiator in the decades to come. (Rasmus, 2011)
As employees disperse geographically, the virtualization of the workforce creates new challenges in how leaders build trust, communicate and execute upon strategic goals. Again, coaching can help leaders meet the challenges of our increasingly mobile, technology enabled, globally distributed organizations. (Reyes, 2009)
Conclusion
The research indicates the workplace is changing rapidly. We must identify our emerging leaders and equip them be effective leading in an environment that is shifting under their feet and not visible with their eyes. In order to stand strong through these turbulent changes, leaders will need a solid foundation to stand on as their work environment, approach and demands change with rapid speed. Coaching can provide the anchor the emerging leader wants and needs to hold strong and steady and to accelerate their learning, confidence and ability to execute the organization’s objectives. Organizations, which deploy coaching, will undoubtedly have a competitive advantage by developing and retaining emerging leaders of future.
References
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