Page 268 - The extraordinary leader

The Organization’s Role in Developing Leaders • 245

The point is that when good people or good organizations excel, it does
more to lift the entire population than similar efforts by the middle group.
Within a firm, everyone benefits by helping the strong to set even higher goals.
They blaze the trail. They set the bar to a new height, and many who are cur-
rently in the tier below will adjust their performance to the new expectation.
On any team, the presence of one or two people who are putting forth
Herculean effort, and working to their highest intensity, raises the perform-
ance of the entire group.
Many people can learn from leaders who are excelling. In fact, nearly
everyone can. They can observe both what is being done and how it is being
executed. These excellent leaders seemingly cause the tide to rise, and that
tide lifts all boats.

Involve Senior Executives in Leadership
Development

Senior executive involvement gives traction to any development effort. It is
possible to create a spectrum of involvement that should help place where
your organization currently is and where you feel it should be in the future.
The spectrum is the following.

● Tolerance. Suppose an executive condones the human resources
function sponsoring some programs and approves the budget.
However, the senior executives have no knowledge of the content or
the objectives of what is being done. The process is totally off the
executive’s radar screen.
● Cosmetic support. The senior executives send memos in support of the
development effort and talk about it in large company meetings. They
know they should be supporting this, but it is way down their priority list.
● Dabbling. At this stage in our continuum of support, the executives
inquire about the targets for the developmental efforts, and they may
come to an evening session and deliver a talk. This is a token effort to
give the appearance that senior executives are concerned, but their
concern is quite superficial.
● Attendance. At this point, executives will often attend the program as
participants, realizing that if they think this is good for other people,
they should set the example. So, each executive takes his or her turn