Page 265 - The extraordinary leader

242 • The Extraordinary Leader

incentive to invest in their development. This notion that intelligence and
other personal traits are locked in at birth has been taught in Psychology 101
courses for the past 100 years. It has become a widely held belief.
Recent research, however, contradicts that notion. Instead, it has been
found that challenging mental activity creates new neural networks in the
brain and that people actually become smarter over time. This fact is well
established by virtue of the increasing IQ scores people obtain as the number
of years of schooling they receive increases.
Jon Katzenbach, author of Peak Performance, believes that the develop-
ment of people at all levels, and the equal opportunity given to people regard-
less of where they are perceived to be on the “bell-shaped curve,” will define
the most successful organizations of the future. 4

The Importance of Developing Senior Leaders
Our research revealed an interesting though not surprising fact. The leader-
ship skills possessed by the most senior people in an organization become the
leadership ceiling. That is, it is extremely rare to find anyone whose leader-
ship skills exceed those of the people at the top.
We realize that it could be argued that the best leaders are promoted to the
most senior positions, and we concur. However, in those cases where senior
people had mediocre scores, there seems to be room for some highly skillful
young leader to blossom, and that was not the case: the senior people were
the cap.
This argues strongly for continued development of the senior people, so
that the leadership tent is lifted, making room for others to grow. Maybe it is
their example that is so important, or it could be their coaching and mentor-
ing that is needed. Whatever the reasons, great leaders at the top are neces-
sary for great leaders to develop at any level in an organization.

Management Development and Leadership Development

Some organizations make a distinction between leadership development
and management development. They define topics such as teamwork, vision,
values, clarity of mission, managing change, communication, and culture
as part of the leadership development process. You could argue that the
emphasis here is on people, both one at a time and in groups. Management
development, on the other hand, is all about the “hard” skills. It includes