Page 227 - The extraordinary leader

204 • The Extraordinary Leader

while an infantry commander is transferred to head up a supply unit.
Although there is clearly some sacrifice of short-term productivity, there is an
enormous long-term gain in having a cadre of leaders exposed to other areas
and who can move from one venue to another with no serious lapse in
performance.

Who is Responsible for Leadership
Development?

Everyone Assumes Responsibility for Leadership Development. As noted
earlier, the noncommissioned officers feel responsible for developing new
lieutenants. The gunnery sergeants feel responsible for developing the lead-
ership skills of the sergeants under them. This is not an afterthought. It is a
significant part of everyone’s responsibility. The Marines believe that every-
one must be taught to lead, because one never knows when the appointed
leader may be wounded or killed, and the mission must go on.
Leadership Development Is Most Successful When Conducted by the
s
Most Effective Senior Members of Management. We observe that in most
corporations, trainers are junior people, hired specifically for that role. More
often than not, they have had little or no line experience. There are occa-
sional exceptions. Some organizations enlist line managers to serve as train-
ers, and the research on that practice has consistently shown that such trainers
produce superior results to those whose role is just training.
A new supervisory training system was being implemented in a group of
health care institutions. The organization was agreeable to measuring the
results of this new program. Measures included the change in behavior dis-
played by the supervisors, as seen by the subordinates over a six-month period
after the training. This was measured through questionnaires completed by
the subordinates. Measurements were taken within three large institutions
involving hundreds of supervisors.
In one hospital, the results were a quantum leap above the other two. Yet
exactly the same program was delivered in each, with exactly the same amount
of time being dedicated to it.
Those conducting the research could find only one difference between the
organization with such strong results and the other two.
The person who conducted nearly all of the sessions in the organization
with the strongest results was the hospital administrator. It appeared that