Bench Strength

228 B

ENCH

S

TRENGTH

are not due to a l ack of technical compet ence or rele vant b ack-

ground experie nce, but rat her to inter perso nal and comm unica tion

issues that begin to surface as soon as t he man ager or executive is

thrust into a ne w, more dema nding set of business ch allen ges.

A great de al of resear ch has been d one on how such leadersh ip

behaviors as in sensi tivit y to others, the fa ilure to build relation-

ships with team members, peers, and senior manager s, and unbri -

dled arrogance can cause previou sly su ccessful manager s to crash

and burn at some point in their car eers.

1

These derailers te nd to be

par t of the ‘‘signature features ,’’ or defining c h aracterist ics, of a

derailing manager’s leadership style . Available research suggests

that in many cas es, th e underlyin g prob lem is that the lea der who

is facing derailment may be somew hat blind to the im pact of his

leadership sty le.

2

A related problem is that many managers who

face derailment may be either unwillin g or unable to make changes

to their leadership s tyle t o meet new and different work condi-

tions.

3,4

As with ba d hiri ng dec ision s, it’ s a lot easier to add ress derail-

ment issues whe n we catch them early in the process. With that

said, here are five wa rning signs that may signal that a pr omote d

manager is head ed for trouble:

1. Being ‘‘Lost in Scope.’’ Wa tch for signs that newly promoted

managers may not be ab le to s cope up to th e increased compl exity

and r espo nsibilitie s of their new jobs. Some managers make use of

a ‘‘close -quarter’’ management style that works w ith a s mall team,

but translates into ineffective micro-management when the leader

is p romot ed into a larger team comprise d of mo re experienced pro-

fessionals. This pro blem can also aris e when a lead er is promot ed

from a manageme nt role that invol ves the managemen t of day -to-

day transactional ac tivit ies, to assume a higher-level role t hat re-

quires the ability to think strat egica lly, to deal with a higher level of

ambiguity and comple xity i n their new jobs, a nd to manage entirely

through other manage rs.

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