On Building Capable Aboitiz Leaders

Aboitiz Eyes introduces this new section dedicated to discussions on leadership straight from seasoned Aboitiz leaders.

Following are EMA’s notes on the brilliant Harvard Business Review article entitled “Identifying and Developing Capable Leaders”. As these are select highlights only, we recommend reading the full case study (available here) to get the most out of this featured content.

WHAT MUST WE KNOW?
WHAT? The leader’s job?
WHY? The leader’s job?
HOW? The executor’s job?

“FUTURE…FUTURE…FUTURE…FUTURE-PROOFING.” -JAO
“A&E 24.60.60 997 — GET IT, GET IT DONE OR GET OUT OF HERE.” -EMA

1. Having good subordinates gives you the luxury to think of the future.
2. Getting good people is an inconsistent art — it need not be so.
3. If the process is well understood and controlled, we can expect what comes out to be perfect.
4. Expect better personal judgement.
5. Equip the next generation of managers in every position with the pre-requisite experience and skill, so that the capable people are ready and waiting, when they are needed.
6. Teach managers to learn, so they can distill the the right lessons from their experience.
7. Only those with the “right stuff” rise to the top — continually test their limits. Who has the right stuff to succeed?
8. Adjectives — flexible, results oriented, insightful, give accurate timely feedback.
9. Track record of achievement under difficult conditions.
10. Russian doll — Talent (potential) is the desired state (right stuff) in a primitive and disguised form.
11. Executives do learn, grow, and change over time suggesting that while executive leaders are both born and made, they are, in fact, mostly “made”.
12. Business units are the school and problems are the curriculum.
13. Even high honor students from regular schools are weak in such areas as brand-building and strategy development.
14. All must collectively attend the school of experience.
15. Egalitarian management — Managing all equally is not possible
16. Demonstrate the ability to acquire the attributes needed for future situations.
17. Demonstrate the ability to learn.
18. Competence to handle the job is the dominant criterion for promotion.
19. Courage to take risks
20. Sense of adventure
21. Experiences that change perspectives
22. Expose to new
23. Learn the right lessons from the school of experience.
24. Would you allow your children to cross a freeway to get a reward? No. Place them in a position where they will learn and succeed, rather than push them until they fail.
25. Instincts are ways of thinking.
26. Instinct connotes an intuitive, unarticulated decision rule that has been wired into the thought process of an experienced person.
27. Take different approaches appropriate to different circumstances to achieve success.
28. Rather than a good theory builder, a good learner is someone able to articulate what it was about the specific situation that made a particular approach successful.
29. ROLE OF HR STAFF: Aim to grow a particular set of gifts to effectively build and implement the strategy the company must employ in the future; create a technology road map, management skills road map; help people learn to do things they haven’t done before; equip the next generation of managers; move the experience to those who need them.
30. MAKE VS. BUY DECISION IN MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT: 3 factors affecting what an organization can and cannot do are Resources, Processes, and Priorities; Resources are tangible e.g. people and tech, Processes are mechanisms to transform inputs into outputs. General Electric’s capability to make washing machines is found in its product development and manufacturing processes, not in the end product.

Your business unit is the school and the problems are your curriculum.

Ultimately, having a solid track record and strategy of developing the leaders we need very early on is what will lead to sustainable success.

Did you enjoy this article? Do you want to suggest a topic on leadership?

CLICK HERE to send us your comments and suggestions!