Most of the best managers and leaders do not find it necessary to
reinvent the wheel to be effective managers and leaders. Rather, they
study and learn, and train themselves to fully understand and appreciate
all the basics and necessities of leadership and being an effective and
competent manager.
The best athlete generally is the one who has best learned the basics, and repeats those fundamentals, over and over again. When you hear a commentator say that a golf has such great form, or a great swing, it is generally not accidental, but rather stems from continuous repetition and training, and using the basics to the optimum degree and benefit.
Just as very few people are born professional top athletes,even fewer individuals are born leaders. Competent, able and effective management, and responsible, action oriented leadership, stems from someone learning the basics, and practicing them repeatedly until they become second nature. Often, the difference between the most successful, effective manager, and the also-ran is merely that one trained and learned and incorporated those basics into is everyday performance and behavior, while the other did not.
Different business organizations have approached management development in different ways. While some strongly believe in advancement from within, others seem to favor going outside their organization for their top leaders. In my three decades of training leaders and consulting to businesses, I have come to believe that when a business consistently seeks top leadership from outside its organization, that is, at least to me, an admission of failure in its own management and leadership development and training program. If a quality management and leadership training program were intact and fully operational, wouldn't it make sense to move people up the organization, firstly as a motivational tool, but even more importantly, because someone from within an organization should have a better understanding of the organization, and the transition would seem to be far more seamless. Organizations that seek outside top managers often explain that away by saying that they are seeking the most qualified individual, and someone from outside the organization might bring a fresh perspective. However, what does that say about the organization, if the need for a fresh perspective outweighs developing one's own leaders.
The actual reason, I believe that many organizations seek outside leaders is often political, and not necessarily in the best interests of the organization. Some of the most successful of today's businesses, such as Google, often give large bonuses to their employees to insure maintaining their top people. That is the same reason that many brokerage houses have traditionally given such large year-end bonuses to their top people. Quality, professional real estate agents, develop skills, techniques, etc, which they may tweak, but otherwise use consistently!
The best athlete generally is the one who has best learned the basics, and repeats those fundamentals, over and over again. When you hear a commentator say that a golf has such great form, or a great swing, it is generally not accidental, but rather stems from continuous repetition and training, and using the basics to the optimum degree and benefit.
Just as very few people are born professional top athletes,even fewer individuals are born leaders. Competent, able and effective management, and responsible, action oriented leadership, stems from someone learning the basics, and practicing them repeatedly until they become second nature. Often, the difference between the most successful, effective manager, and the also-ran is merely that one trained and learned and incorporated those basics into is everyday performance and behavior, while the other did not.
Different business organizations have approached management development in different ways. While some strongly believe in advancement from within, others seem to favor going outside their organization for their top leaders. In my three decades of training leaders and consulting to businesses, I have come to believe that when a business consistently seeks top leadership from outside its organization, that is, at least to me, an admission of failure in its own management and leadership development and training program. If a quality management and leadership training program were intact and fully operational, wouldn't it make sense to move people up the organization, firstly as a motivational tool, but even more importantly, because someone from within an organization should have a better understanding of the organization, and the transition would seem to be far more seamless. Organizations that seek outside top managers often explain that away by saying that they are seeking the most qualified individual, and someone from outside the organization might bring a fresh perspective. However, what does that say about the organization, if the need for a fresh perspective outweighs developing one's own leaders.
The actual reason, I believe that many organizations seek outside leaders is often political, and not necessarily in the best interests of the organization. Some of the most successful of today's businesses, such as Google, often give large bonuses to their employees to insure maintaining their top people. That is the same reason that many brokerage houses have traditionally given such large year-end bonuses to their top people. Quality, professional real estate agents, develop skills, techniques, etc, which they may tweak, but otherwise use consistently!
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