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In their recent Harvard Business Review article ‘Are You Picking The Right Leaders’,[1] Melvin Sorcher and James Brant, who have worked to improve CEO succession since the 1980s, discussed six common characteristics on which executives tend to place too strong an emphasis when choosing a new leader. We review their work here.
Choosing a new leader for your organization is a hugely important decision to make – and an expensive mistake if you get it wrong. Sorcher and Brant have found that one difficulty which exists when assessing leadership qualities is that what may be seen as a strength in one scenario becomes equally a weakness in another. Through their work, they have discovered that the main mistake made when choosing a successor is to place too heavy a weighting on certain skills or attributes, whilst all but ignoring others. The authors describe this as the ‘halo effect’.
The authors have identified six characteristics commonly overvalued when assessing a potential candidate for a leadership position, which we summarize here.
The Team Player
Although these managers make life easier for others, Sorcher and Brant point out that they don’t always make the best leaders. Independent leaders have strong decision-making skills, irrespective of the views of others. Individuals who think for themselves provide direction for others by making strong decisions and gain respect on the way. Those who need everyone’s back-up for a decision to be made are not true leaders.
Team players unfortunately have a tendency to form teams of likeminded individuals, which lack crucial diversity in skills and characteristics to drive the team forward. Sorcher and Brant note that the best leaders actually form teams compiling members who are very different to themselves.
The Eager Coach
Although the ability to coach is recognized as an important skill, Sorcher and Brant imply that the most successful leaders tend to recruit initially strong players to whom they can reliably delegate, rather than spending time coaching their subordinate until they come up to scratch. The recruited team members subsequently learn for themselves along the way.
The Operationally Proficient Manager
According to the authors, those who are good implementers and problem solvers are generally overvalued, again because they make life easier for others. Such individuals may excel at following procedures and policies, but unfortunately often lack innovation and the ability to ‘think out of the box’. Although they don’t make the best leaders, they are still important in helping the organization to run more smoothly.
Sorcher and Brant note that the difference between a good problem solver and a good leader, is that the good leader needs to know from the outset which problem to solve as well as how to solve it. Leaders must have the ability to identify potential problems before they occur, choose which one to prioritize, and then deal with it appropriately. Good decision-making skills in situations lacking clarity are therefore essential.
The Speechmaker
Again, Sorcher and Brant feel that the skill of public speaking is overvalued by those choosing potential leaders. They make the valid point that although these are important skills, anyone can improve on and develop them with appropriate training.
More important for a CEO are the people skills required to deal with individuals on a person to person basis, as these cannot be learned.
The Highly Ambitious Manager
Although overt ambition is thought by some to be an essential quality for a potential CEO, the authors disagree in part. They recognize that the most successful leaders tend to keep ambition to themselves. It does exist in these individuals, but is carefully nursed and never shouted about.
Cloned Candidates
CEOs often feel more comfortable with a candidate who is similar to, and who has much in common with, themselves. Unintentional prejudice often occurs with regards to gender, age, ethnicity, background, education and even appearance.
These should not form a barrier, or ‘glass ceiling’, to promotion and the candidate should therefore be assessed purely on merit, capability and skills.
When choosing a new leader, care must be taken to avoid these common pitfalls. The authors encourage these ubiquitous problems, including the aforementioned ‘halo effect’, to be overcome by thoroughly assessing all candidates, as this effect occurs mainly when CEOs are poorly informed as to the true ability and characteristics of a potential candidate.
Sorcher and Brant suggest using a very specific and objective evaluation process, where the individual in question is monitored over time by a group. Instead of receiving only snap-shot inaccuracies, this process ultimately leads to a more realistic, balanced assessment of the individual. As the process nears an end, the group holds a structured evaluation discussion where they conclude the true skills and attributes of the candidate and discuss his or her suitability for the post.
ReferencesSource: Sorcher, M. & Brant, J., ‘Are You Picking the Right Leaders?’ Harvard Business Review, (February 2002) pp 78-85.
