Developing the CEO Within You

[Music] hello I'm Paul michelman director of content for Harvard Business digital and our guest today is Joseph Bower Baker professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and author of the CEO within why inside Outsiders are the key to succession planning Joe thanks for joining the program all my pleasure okay our mission for today is to help aspiring leaders prepare themselves to be strong CEO candidates in the future but before we dive into the specifics can you explain to us what an inside Outsider is sure an inside Outsider is a manager that has grown up inside the company developed there but somehow or other hasn't drunk the Kool-Aid has retained objectivity has a perspective on what's happening in the world and can understand the need for change in the company okay thanks you note in your Harvard Business review article adaptation of your book how important it is for aspiring leaders to take responsibility for their own development from the very start of their careers so to help guide that process you've developed a series of questions for individuals to ask themselves to make sure they're on the road to the corner office so let's begin with those questions you suggest leaders ask during the recruitment process for instance an obvious starting question why are you being h hired right uh you want to ask you want to get a good understanding of of why this company's hiring you is they obviously they want you to do some work in the short term but do they see you is this a company that hires people to develop and grow over time is there a career path are there career paths or are you basically Canon F to do the job this year and we'll see what happens so how do you get up the answer to that question should you overtly ask the employer should you be asking other people well there are a lot more questions you can ask how are they going to help you grow uh what pattern of assignments are you going to get that's really important uh are you going to have time to learn is this a place where you're just running all the time and do do do do do never uh what kind of mentoring are they going to provide you are there people who are actually going to help you there are companies that will talk to this others this will be the first time that heard of it that's revealing uh what kind of training do they provide when you're getting out of school the last thing you want to think about is going back to school but the truth of the matter is continuing education is a great thing does the company support it really important if your goal is to you want to run how early can you run a business is this a company that's organized so that there are lots of pieces of business that are small and you can get a chance to try your wings or is this a place where you're going to be doing analice all your life you're going to be in a function all your life the first is what you're looking for it's a place with lots of businesses to run so Joe how specific an answer can you reasonably expect to that question some companies would give would would ask I mean they'd organize their pitch to you around the kind of questions I just asked so some companies have really thought about great so the next phase now that you're on the job you've veloped another series of questions to help Shepherd your development further um the first sounds like an obvious one to me do you meet your numbers well yeah I mean in the end of the day it's great to talk about growth and development but you've got to perform uh you can't get into the game without developing a reputation for meeting your commitments so that's that that's very important uh but there are other kinds of things uh if you're a person who who is early recognized as someone who helps others do you develop other people are are is working with you a step up for them well that is a huge thing in your own reputation as as a develop how do you get on with your peers are you so competitive that they don't trust you or are you someone that they really welcome that's uh that's a big deal uh how do you manage up I mean one of the most interesting things is we we think of our bosses as people who are going to help us so that usually means when your boss sees you coming they say uhoh here's a problem they're going to ask for something well think about what a difference it makes if you can actually help your boss so managing up is a big issue and and how you're going to help the organization it that also means you're learning about what it means to manage at higher levels of the organization uh finally I would say are you transparent or are you as someone who who gets a reputation for spinning what they do so basically if you're going to be a leader you probably want to get a reputation for being pretty straight now does that mean being brutally honest can't you still tell a good story to talk up what you're doing what your team is doing yes but I think what managers really respect is someone who's willing to get right to the point and if there's a problem saying look I screwed up or this didn't work out here's what we're going to do about it not some tap dance okay the next phase of the questions focus on developing yourself um one question I thought was particularly poignant is are you developing a network that expands outside of your own division yeah it's really interesting that most managers when they're developing focus on the people right around them and and they literally don't get outside their own organization very much the more you do that the better uh outside the division outside the company I mean it's interesting some people just get to know their customers get to know their vendors get I mean you can even talk to Union people my God uh and you might learn something so those kinds of things uh do you know people in the community who aren't in your business aren't even may not even be in business they're in other parts of society it's interesting how much you can learn when you work for the community chest or when you work for the Red Cross or when you work for a local school or any of those things you meet other kinds of people and guess what that's how you begin to develop a view of what's going on in the world other than the receive wisdom inside the company so these are all Hedges against company think right well yes and it's also a way of developing yourself though those organizations outside nonprofits will usually give you responsibility earlier than you'd get it in your own company so now that's interesting we're not just talking about Civic good we're not just talking about being involved in the community we're really talking about management development yeah you're developing yourself as someone who can contribute who can lead right okay Final Phase of the questions that um that you suggest leaders ask themselves focus on living a balanced life well I mean it I have to tell you that when I work with uh middle managers pretty people running pretty significant pieces of business one of the questions that they always ask is how do I do all this and take care of my family and and you got to take care of your family you have to your friends you you who are the people to who will stick with you and help you during difficult times who are who's your mirror who tells you the truth uh instead of you know what you want to hear the higher you go the more you're going to hear what you want to hear not what will really help you and uh it takes a lot of management of the calendar I mean one of my favorite friends starts the Year by putting on the religious holidays and then the birthdays of the children and so on and those can't be touched and it's surprising how much he can do even though he's meeting a whole different set of obligations right right Joseph B great advice thanks you very much for joining us today you're very welcome thank you

Channel: Harvard Business Review

Views: 418,703

Keywords: joseph, bower, ceo, leadership, development, harvard, business, school, publishing

Id: 6taNjZCzQ1I

Length: 9min 11sec (551 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 03 2008