The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company Reviews

• A Management Process for Overcoming the Peter Principle

  
  By A1K1JW1C5CUSUZ on 2000-12-24
  What do General Electric, Citigroup, and Marriott International have in common? They have built on the original conceptual work by Walt Mahler at General Electric to establish sustainable methods to developing management breadth and depth. This valuable book outlines the key principles of that current best practice.

  At a time when more and more companies are relying on headhunters to bring in leaders and management turnover is soaring among young talent, "growing your own" leaders is about to become a necessary core competence for the future. While almost everyone who is interested in the subject has read glossy articles about what General Electric does at its Crotonville facility, this book provides the core of the broader management process behind those articles.

  The first part of the book focuses on six key transitions that help a leader develop. The second part shows you how to diagnose how individual leaders are doing, and how to help them make better progress.

  The six transitions are:

  from managing yourself to managing others

  from managing others to managing managers

  from managing managers to functional managing

  from functional managing to business managing

  from business managing to group managing

  from group managing to enterprise managing.

  At each transition, what the individual values and focuses on has to change dramatically. In organizations where this transition is not made explicit, you get almost all of the managers in the organization "stuck" doing things the wrong way, still looking from the perspective of their last job. That's the stuff that Dilbert and the Peter Principle are made of.

  Although the book takes a large organization's point of view, in various places the points are translated into a small organizational context.

  Based on my experience with leaders at all these levels, I certainly agree with the authors' points about the key challenges involved. I also think that their diagnostic methods are good. In most cases, the root cause for the problem lies further up in the organization with someone who is not focusing or working on helping managers develop.

  The key weakness of the book is that in some elements the reader with limited business experience will still not be sure what to do. For example, the step from a functional manager to a business manager requires integrating all of the functions and perspectives in order to be successful. That is an enormous leap in knowledge, expertise, and experience. Although business school cases will help those with that experience, most managers will find it impossible to make the transition unless the business is very undemanding -- something that seldom happens any more.

  My own experience suggests that basic learning has to be pursued throughout the organization that emphasizes skills like problem solving, locating and implementing the next generation of best practices, and developing a deep understanding of how to create superior business processes as the foundation for this kind of leadership development program. In advanced companies, you can add the concept of having people develop skills for innovating new business models. Then, this leadership development process can become truly powerful.

  However you decide to go about it, the examples of setbacks and progress outlined in this excellent book will improve your ability to think about improving leadership in your organization. I urge you to read, consider, and apply what you learn.

  After you have finished thinking about and using the book, I suggest that you also think about where else in your company you do not have a management process to do something important. For example, do you have a management process to keep you aligned with powerful trends beyond your control? Do you have a management process to create superior business models?

  Be all the leader you can be!
  
  

• A "clone" book of ideas and no reference to others

  
  By A393MU6CIAFG9I on 2005-08-27
  Reading this 'leadership pipeline' I became really astonished of seeing here all the ideas of Elliott Jaques and Gillian Stamp (Bioss International) just copied with no reference to them. I keep wondering how can that be done. Jaques and Gillian Stamp has written for so many years about human capability and seven levels of work complexity that are clearly repeated in this book withouth no comment to them. Even the general themes are there, for example managing other, leader of leader, managing a business unit, managing a group of business unit. If you don't beleive me, just read Requisite Organization (Jaques) and previous ones, for example, and you will learn that Jaques' ideas are being developed for more than 30 years. So, better learn with the real creative people that has really done researches around the theme.
  
  

• Not just for the top level execs.

  
  By on 2001-01-05
  I am not a CEO and my company is not even close to the size of a Marriott or GE, but that does not matter, this book will help anyone (everyone) who takes the time to understand it. The concepts laid out by Mr. Drotter (et all) definitely will assist the "Big Players" in ways that they can not even imagine but it will also make a difference for those striving to move up the corporate ladder.

  And for those working, starting, growing a Dot.com I would suggest reading this book, it may assist you in taking the next step UP in lieu of yet another side step.
  
  

• One Part of The leadership / Organizational Puzzle

  
  By A1168GRITULKSN on 2001-06-22
  Many of us have been on a quest to better understand / codify work designand leadership at different levels of complexity !!!

  one of the early thinkers / researchers in this area was Walt Mahler. He past away in the last 18 months. His early work is the basis for leadership development at GE and the principles still hold today !!!

  A new book call the Leadership Pipeline - ISBN 0-7879-5172-2 by Ram Charan, Steve Drotter and James Noel captures many of the principles about multi level leadership that Walt under covered 20 years ago - he is referenced at the beginning

  For those trying to better understand work complexity , and select / develop leaders when making significant career changes -

  leading managers who lead others, leading multiple functions and process, leading stand alone / sustainable P&L business unit etc. Global CEO

  These descriptions here about how leading others changes are helpful .

  There are some problems with the books description of work at each Level of Complexity ! Some are at the wrong level based on the research of Jaques, Van Clieaf, Billis, Stamp and others and some leadership turns ( big career changes ) don't capture the real difference in work / competencies that make the difference to shareholder value.

  The authors dont describe what are the unique outputs / contribution at each level the way Van Clieaf's research does but focus more on how the managerial leadership role changes - which is important !!

  they don't really capture how the role of resource management changes at each leadership level nor how the interface with customer / stakeholders by complexity level.

  they also confuse the differences between

  e-process - level 3 complexity e-commerce - level 4 complexity e-business - level 5 complexity e-industry - level 6 complexity

  as it related to the internet.

  with that said this is a good contribution to undertanding how work, leadership and leadership development and selection changes at different complexity levels
  
  

• Dated and poorly editted

  
  By on 2003-07-29
  I found the concepts described in this text to be dated and somewhat out of touch with the demands of today's flexible, high speed organization. While the concepts developed in the book are thought provoking, I found it very frustrating reading because each chapter is written independently and likely by different authors. The format and flow of each of the chapters describing the leadership transitions varies so much that it's hard to make comparisons from one level to the next. A compilation of the transitional indicators would have been valuable - there is one in the first chapter but not in any of the others. If you read it, plan on taking notes on each chapter so you can make sense of it in the end.
  
  
• an undergraduate perspective
  By A3ATXDWQBRBWYK on 2006-04-24
  In my reading of the "Leadership Pipeline," I found it to be a fascinating look at all levels of management, albeit a somewhat unconfirmable one. The purpose of the book seems to be to outline, then advocate what it calls "The Leadership Pipeline." Think of it like a long drainage pipe system, with six intersections symbolizing six transitions in management (each of which can run smoothly or become clogged based on managers values and behavioral traits), all the way from entry level employee to CEO. The book takes the approach that every entry level employee, if they possessed the drive and willingness to change can become the CEO of any company they choose. In fact, the book so strongly advocates this position that it maintains that this is the best way to create the ultimate CEO from the very first pages.
  
  It is this belief that I found to be somewhat irritating as I read through the book. The notion that an entry level worker based in sales with no degree could become a more qualified CEO than their more educated counterparts was a little hard for me to swallow. The Leadership Pipeline does not actually advocate replacing more educated workers with less educated ones, but it does continuously profess that the best way to groom a leader at any leadership level is to ensure that they have gained the experience necessary by following all of the steps of the leadership pipeline model which have come before it, and all of those steps should be taken within the same company. It seems almost as concerned with advocating the implementation of its own design as it does offering constructive criticism to better the current system of business management. The book also fails to take into account what happens to the worker who gets laid off due to corporate takeovers, mergers, etc.
  
  That said, it does offer a number of good points on how to become a more effective leader. The most important of which is how it dispels the notion that one can cling to the elements of their job which made them successful at previous management levels. At each level of management (the book professes) a worker must take a step back and re-evaluate what exactly their job at that level becomes. It offers means by which one can generate positive communication and feedback so that the manager can truly become an effective leader. The way it goes on to illustrate the key traits of successful managers at each "intersection" by way of useful real life examples and anecdotes was one of the books major strengths and helped the flow tremendously. The language in which the book is written is geared to any audience, and in light of the admittedly dry material, it made it run more smoothly.
  
  One of the biggest problems I had with the book was it seems to have been written for an incredibly limited audience. The advice it gives on how to eliminate management problems at most of the "intersections" could only really be applied by extremely high levels of management which few actually achieve. I must admit I am still an undergraduate college student so my perspective is limited, but I cannot imagine how a great number of the concepts in this book would be useful to anyone other than those in the realm of vice president or CEO, and even if the principals were appropriate to that audience, they would have to be a member of a global multi billion dollar corporation with similar levels of management and positions discussed in the book.
  
  In the end I give it a 3 out of 5.
  
  
• Step changes
  By A32W3LDMWOXHZU on 2002-04-20
  Effective change usually begins with raising awareness and this book does an effective job of raising the awareness level of the need for continuous development. Too often we promote (or hire in) our top performers to increasing leadership responsibility and expect the shift in skills to magically occur. The Pipeline provides a unique perspective on the why/how/when of leadership transitions.......good cornerstone development tool!
  
  
• A thoughtful and helpful look at the upward transitions
  By A4J6S2FDKREYD on 2007-05-22
  This book gives you a thoughtful and reasoned look at the upward transitions process. It does an excellent job of outlining the needs and potential problems at each career stage. The advice is usable by three groups of potential readers.
  
  You should buy this book if you are a senior manager, human resources executive, or board member in a company of any size who wants to understand the dynamics of leadership development/succession planning in a large company. The book outlines several transitions and the changes in skills and attitudes that are needed at each one, along with relevant pitfalls.
  
  You should buy this book if you are a manager on an upward career trajectory and you want to learn what's ahead and what skills and attitudes you need to develop as well as what possible problems lie in wait. The chapter that describes your next transition will outline what you will have to do and what you will have to do better.
  
  You should buy this book if you supervise other managers and you want some insight into analyzing performance issues and helping your people develop.
  
  What are the negatives?
  
  This book is written for people in big companies. With the exception of a couple of pages early in the book, managers in small to mid-sized businesses will need to figure out how this applies to them. This is not a big issue because of the range of material covered and the clarity of the presentation, but it still will be irritating to some readers.
  
  The big company whose shadow falls across this book is General Electric. That's not a bad thing in itself. GE does a marvelous job of leadership development. What you have to watch for, though, are unstated assumptions that other companies have the same culture and values as GE, or even that values matter as much everywhere else.
  
  For example, the authors state that "formal training for first line managers is fairly common." That's not true in the majority of US companies today.
  
  The authors state that "managers who aren't cut out for this role should be put on an individual contributor track." But in many companies there is no individual contributor "track." Only managing others leads you to higher status and higher pay.
  
  While there is a lot of good material handling the various transitions, you won't find much on deciding who should be promoted in the first place. But that's the only significant gap I see in this excellent book. Judging who to promote is a key decision and a key component of the success of the promotion.
  
  The bottom line is that this is an excellent book, filled with material that can be used by people in many different situations.
  
  
  
• Clearcut answer to a dilemma that goes beyond commerce
  By A3EJVZ5LCBP61X on 2004-11-15
  Charam's book was assigned reading for a leadership course I am taking from, of all places, a seminary. This team of authors has hit upon an important concept that goes beyond the business world: organization's do well for themselves and their workers when they develop leaders from within. Furthermore, as we climb our organizational ladders, each promotion brings with it a call for what used to be called paradigm shifts. Should we fail to make these changes in our thinking and practices, relying instead upon previously learned skills and approaches, we hinder our effectiveness.
  
  Much as Adam Smith explained capitalism using a simple frame work and instructive anacedotes, so Charam and his team has laid out a classic "build from within" model that is practical for large international corporations and for modest parishes.
  
  My one suggestion, should an update be in the works, is that the authors might address the issues that sometimes arise when work colleagues suddenly become supervisor and supervised.
  
  Bottom-line: An excellent explication of in-house leadership building and the necessary thought changes that leadership promotions bring.
  
  
• Leading from Within via Humility & Developmental Mentoring
  By A1LRLZSPSD1TMJ on 2005-03-30
  Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel, seasoned business consultants and authors of The Leadership Pipeline, believe that many businesses grow their company's leadership base by incorrectly, leaning upon marketplace superstars instead of internally groomed leaders. They are convinced that developmental failure in raising leaders from within a company significantly hinders organizations from realizing growth potential. The leadership growth process, known as the leadership pipeline, provides a concrete, goal oriented, obtainable model for organizations seeking to build a leadership development culture within their organization.
  
  Their vision for leadership development contains many merits. It is based on the accurate assumptions that people are trusted and competent leaders as they traverse through the pipeline and up the managerial structure of their organization. The model encourages a developmental, training posture towards people in leadership roles, offering hope that people can obtain skills in order to make next steps of influence with a company. The developmental process is largely an internal one, eschewing the frequent temptation to find the illusive celebrity CEO for internal leadership growth instead. Lastly, they helpfully recognize that different levels of leadership roles require varying degrees and types of expertise. This means that leaders need to embrace and press into the challenge of learning new and very different skills than previously required from former positions. Thus they argue that key character traits of a leader is to expand as a learner as one ascends to higher levels of organizational influence.
  
  The Leadership Pipeline rightly points out that micromanaging people, interfering with the tasks assigned to those under one's leadership, and similar distracting meddling has the dual impact of retarding a leader's growth in their present position and undermining the growth of those beneath the leader, to the detriment of the whole organization. Instead, careful directive leadership helps people develop into self-sufficient leaders (i.e. not reliant upon the next level of leadership to attain to essential tasks.)
  
  
• Great book for beginner leaders
  By A1OZ7BNYKTF06J on 2005-02-28
  In the book, The Leadership Pipeline, Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, and James Noel discuss the complex notion of adequately and appropriately equipping current and future leaders as they progress up what the authors call the Leadership Pipeline. The authors explain, in detail, the progression of leaders up six passages from the role of an individual contributor to the role of an enterprise manager. "The challenge for organizations is to make sure that people in leadership positions are assigned to the level appropriate to their skills, time applications, and values." As someone progresses up the Leadership Pipeline, the importance of being equipped for the current and next stage (or passage) of leadership is consistently stressed. Ultimately, I find this book to be difficult to get into, therefore hard to read. While it contains good, albeit familiar, information, its relevance to my situation and to the situation of the "typical church" is lacking.
  
  Again, this was a very difficult text to read, for a couple of reasons. First, the authors are speaking directly to those who are currently working in the business market. Naturally, because the book is written to those currently in businesses, it directly applies to the business market, of which I am not a part-in other words, I struggled to find relevancy of this book to my situation. Second, the concept of effectively equipping current and future leaders with the knowledge, skills, and values needed to be successful in their current position as well as, equipping them so that they can progress to higher levels of leadership is not new information. If the authors truly believe that they have come up with some powerful, new strategy, they are incorrect, because the progressive equipping of leaders is not innovative.
  
  Another difficulty of this source is its relevance to the normal church. Implementation of this concept at churches the size of Willow Creek Church in Illinois, Saddleback Church in California, or even Kensington Church in Michigan is possible, though with some necessary modification to definitions, roles, and responsibilities; however, it is important to state that churches of that size have 60+ staff members and cannot be considered the "norm" for churches in North America. That said, it becomes increasingly difficult to apply this model to most churches, which have two to six staff members. It is possible to apply the model, but it would require heavy modification of almost every aspect, essentially creating a new model. While applying this specific form of leadership development is incredibly difficult, integrating the "progressive equipping of leaders" thought could have the potential to dramatically change how many pastors do church. If most pastors would see their congregation not only as their "flock," but as a collection of current and future leaders... the potential for growth would be amazing.
  
  What the authors have very successfully done is package the progressive equipping of leaders notion in a different manner-one that is perhaps highly relevant or helpful to the business world. They have also more than adequately explained some of the important differences between the varying levels of leadership. This will be a beneficial source to offer to future congregants who work in business, because it is written for and geared towards those in the marketplace. The book also helps me to understand the growing complexity of the business market, which will aid me in understanding the struggles of many of my future congregants.
  
  
  
• Use this book to Develop Yourself
  By A24I2U4N0A6ZQT on 2007-05-28
  The downside of this book is no color inside and few visuals.
  
  Great book for managing your own development 'climbing the ladder' of transitions because the book has defined competencies by level and examples, which you can consider for yourself & situation.
  
  MUST READ for aspiring HR managers and line managers serious about talent management. Should be in any HR degree curiculum !
  
  Know as "The Book" in response and solution to "The War for Talent", which unlocks the secrets of GE talent management.
  
  
• A Good Read!
  By A1NATT3PN24QWY on 2004-03-01
  Organizations need leaders, but natural leaders are at least as rare as natural athletes. And, even natural athletes need careful training and development - given that almost everyone is capable of developing some degree of athletic potential. Similarly, the right training and development program can help almost anyone cultivate some degree of leadership potential. In fact, it can help a few people develop extraordinary leadership abilities. Ignoring leadership development is foolish, but at many companies, short-term priorities eclipse the long-term thinking needed to develop a good leadership pipeline. This book's plain, sensible approach is simple without being simplistic. It is generally lucid and clear, and - somewhat to our surprise - it does not suffer from having three authors. If you are a leader or need to develop leaders for large corporations, this is a very useful volume.
  
  
• This helps with church leadership as well
  By AB7SQWT4GR7PR on 2005-02-10
  The Leadership Pipeline is an excellent resource that can be applied to various situations. For example if this principle were applied to a local church setting. In a church setting this could be used in order to train people for various positions within the congregation, for example, Sunday school teaching. If a person who demonstrates to be very knowledgeable in scripture, and desires to become involved in a church will move from what the book calls "managing self to managing others." This person may be put in charge of a small bible study or better yet training others to teach Sunday school class within the church setting. As time goes on this person may begin to train someone else to train others while he/she watches over the training that is done. This is stage two according to the book "from managing others to managing managers." A great deal of coaching comes into play here as well, as one person becomes the overseer of all of the Sunday school training of teachers. After this a person moves to the next passage, which is "From managing managers to functional manager." This person now begins to try to innovate the Sunday school curriculum with fresh and bright ideas. While at the same time communicating with the other trainers to make sure everything is going ok, and that his/her ideas are good and can be used. Not every step from the book needs to be implemented but the concept could work for any position in the church that requires some sort of training.
  
  
• For employers or business leaders
  By AWKXT3THHPKLZ on 2005-03-01
  This book is an effort to help employers and employees deal with the transitions that one experiences as advance through passages that move them up through the corporate ladder. The authors all have had extensive experience in a corporate setting where they were able to see this strategy at work, and be able to tweak it to make it more effective. It was developed to try and alleviate problems that occur when workers within a company begin to progress through the passages (promotions) to take on new and challenging responsibilities. The focus is to highlight the differences, challenges, and hang-ups that come with each new level. In highlighting these things, the goal is to be able to train individuals to change their way of thinking so that they will be able to more quickly adapt to their new positions and be successful at it.
  
  The concepts outlined in this book make a lot of sense. There are a lot differences between each position and this book does a good job illustrating what the positions typically look like. It is good for any employer to be aware of how the employee will need to change in order to be successful in their new positions. In order to make the business the most efficient that it can be, this book is helpful to develop some sort training program to aid in the advancement through the passages discussed in this book, and to do it effectively.
  
  This book was interesting, but was a difficult read. There seemed to be a lot of time spent on illustrating points that really seemed pretty self-explanatory. This made the book seem to drag on at points. I would not recommend this book unless someone was an employer, or a leader of an organization where immediate application could be drawn (the immediate context to apply the concepts would have been helpful). It could be helpful to other people, but I think that there are probably other books that address their specific needs more succinctly. Overall, there were good principles in this book for the head of an organization, church, or business, and could be very useful to address the needs of those people.
  
  
  
• MDiv Student Reviews The Leadership Pipeline
  By A1VT1UBUFSL9KH on 2005-03-29
  Charan, Drotter and Noel present an effective model to enhance the leadership potential of the business world. Although most of their model is tailored to larger organizations, there are conseptual strengths that could be translated to smaller companies and churches. Values that are emphasized include accountability,coaching and retraining or redirecting managers that are not producing at necessary levels. Their goal is to keep good leaders within their respective organizations and avoid inefficiency, micromanagement and high turnover.
  
  
• Book that builds leadership!
  By A38H6EI4NIGNFD on 2005-08-20
  This book explains how important it is to have a leadership powered company. Another book I have come in contact with is "The Wal-Mary Way" where this book is designed as an inspiration to managers of all companies.
  
  
• Great read for both leaders and HR/development folks
  By A1KF8TFY5W2Z4 on 2005-08-20
  A real inside look at leadership development from the folks who built GE's system. For leaders, there is insight from experienced executive coaches about what value each of the different levels of leadership brings to an organization and where leaders moving into each level often get stuck. Great to read when you are making a transition or for ideas on how to help those who work for you.
  
  For HR and development folks, there are many concrete examples--how performance standards are defined, what the rating system for potential is, etc. that let you see what each piece of the GE system really looks like.
  
  
• Useful Guide to Key Skills Needed for Promotion
  By A10NVJJMVE7RJW on 2005-08-11
  Leadership Pipeline
  by Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter and James Noel
  
  The significant contribution of this book is to distinguish the changing target of responsibility as you go up the ladder. The authors define 7 levels of management, and identify what is required to successfully navigate the six transitions to the top. They also explain how the same principles can be applied to a smaller company with fewer layers.
  
  The book is well laid out, logical, and the use of bullets and subheads make it easy to follow. Each level includes warning signs of someone not performing at the right level, as well as guidelines for appropriate management activities for their level. These features provide the opportunity to diagnose what's going well or going wrong. In between advice they present useful case studies to bring the examples to life.
  
  For example, managers of managers "need to shift their accountability focus" from individual contributor to the quality of management that their managers provide to their staff. This is an extremely important distinction and one not frequently addressed by management resources. It is also extraordinarily refreshing to see them define an important responsibility of "silo buster."
  
  While the goal of the book is ostensibly to help companies build capacity among their managers, the value is so broad it should be read by any senior level manager, not just someone who regards their responsibility to be succession planning.
  
  
  
• manangement guidance
  By A1DYXCF4148PJT on 2007-07-20
  The authros present a pretty good set of guidelines with dos and donts for forming leaders in th workplace and recognizinf those thay wont cutit and how to dispose/retransition them.
  
  

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