Senior managers are different. They are, of course, still human (even if they try to hide it at times) and are therefore likely to respond to many learning and development issues just like any other people in the organisation. However there are significant factors about this group of managers that make them genuinely different from other groups. Developers need to take account of this. Hence this article.
Before moving on, let me define who I mean by senior managers. Partly they are defined by having a status which provides benefits not available to ordinary mortals (e.g. advantageous share option schemes or special bonuses). However I am specifically thinking here of managers at Board level or just below, and especially where the individual has major strategic responsibilities.
Here are some likely differences between them and the rest of the management population.
This latter point is crucially important in thinking about development issues. I sometimes meet people in middle management roles who imagine that, as they report into a senior manager, they understand what the role is like. An arrogant young male MBA holder that I met recently certainly had this view and his possession of an MBA deluded him into believing that it would be relatively easy to step into his manager's shoes. Since he had the interpersonal skills of a rutting rhinoceros I rather doubted it.
All of the above points justify organisations planning specifically for senior management development. One major benefit of getting senior managers tuned into learning and development processes is that it makes it so much easier to get support for development programmes at lower levels. There is absolutely no doubt that the major stumbling block to creating a learning culture in an organisation is when senior managers are not themselves committed to their own development.
One problem is that often in-house HRD professionals are not seen as credible to assist in the development of senior managers. Here I would distinguish between
and
HRD professionals may have a key role in relation to brokerage. By this I mean
and
However it may be that internal HRD staff are not able to play a role in delivery, whether through course provision or coaching or other direct development methods. HRD staff are, though, often required to arrange others to do this - and I put this in the brokerage category.
Brokerage
Even though brokerage seems important there can be barriers for internal HRD staff in playing a major role for senior managers.
Often senior managers doubt that trainers and developers, being usually at a more junior level to them, really know what is needed at senior levels. Hence mechanistic training needs analysis e.g. through questionnaires, may be less than useful as senior managers may not let junior staff know their real learning needs. So they may dress up 'needs' in acceptable language or not admit to real needs.
As an example I saw one training needs analysis that identified senior manager needs as strategic thinking and leadership. When we got to know the managers concerned they admitted that simple stuff like time management was also a priority as well as political skills. The trainers had responded to the training needs analysis and wondered why they did not get enough takers for the courses that they put on.
Where we have seen successful brokerage is where HRD staff conduct development reviews with senior managers. Note the language here. Senior managers may not welcome the notions of 'needs' or of 'training' (and therefore reject a 'training needs analysis' approach). Also it is likely that in a performance management system, learning and development issues will not be effectively identified. In theory development needs should be adequately identified in a performance review. The reality is that usually HRD staff need to involve themselves in the process of identifying such needs.
A development review is about helping senior managers to open up about the business issues that they face and then helping them to see the links to learning and development. There are two simple methods to help to open up recalcitrant senior managers.
This often points to some other ways into this problem. One possibility is to let the managers themselves define their own needs and to create a programme which is free of content so that they can do this; (more on this later). Another route is to use outside resources though outsiders (e.g. consultants) may be no more successful if they also use mechanistic methods such as questionnaire-based surveys.
Delivery
Even if the analysis and brokerage is carried out well, there is still the problem of the delivery side.
Reasons for internal HRD staff not being involved in delivery
There are at least two legitimate reasons for this and one less acceptable one.
To take the latter first, snobbery and elitism can be the reason for senior managers rejecting support from internal HRD people. It's a shame but it's real.
Legitimate Reasons not to use Internal HRD Support.
One legitimate reason for senior managers to look for development from outside sources is that they feel the need to get inspiration from outside their own organisation. This may be through external consultants/developers being invited inside the organisation to support development activity.
However often senior managers have been promoted internally and they would benefit from getting other perspectives on their organisation. They also feel, with the internal politics that they face, that they will find it easier to talk to people at the same level but from different organisations. Hence many senior managers prefer to go outside the organisation altogether.
From evaluations of successful programmes, senior managers do typically comment on the value of going outside their own organisation. And they often say how relieved they are to find managers in other organisations bedevilled with the same problems as they have. This can be a considerable boost to self confidence. They also say that they glean new ideas and new perspectives from the interaction with those outside their own organisation.
Senior managers may see themselves as being in unique situations and they may reasonably reject any standardised approach offered by the HRD function. This problem can be compounded if the organisation tries to use a standardised competency list that is supposed to cover the requirements of all managers. Some lists allow for the fact that senior managers may need a higher level in the competences than junior managers - but the categories are still the same.
Many senior managers find these formalised lists, written in what they see as HR jargon, quite unhelpful. They also see that specific skills and abilities that they want to develop can get left off such a list. For instance, I recently worked with a finance director who wanted to learn more about marketing as he worked in a market-led company and he wanted to contribute more effectively to Board discussions. However marketing did not appear on his company's competency list - and this list drove the development provision. Furthermore he didn't need a standard basic marketing course. He already knew quite a bit about marketing. What he needed was to plug some gaps and also think through how he would operate in his Board. None of this could be met through a standardised offering whether as a course or through distance learning or through e-learning.
I have already indicated some approaches that may be useful, for example going outside the organisation. I'll indicate here some quite specific learning methods that senior managers may not have thought to use, but I find that they can work well with this group.
Mentoring/coaching
Mentoring is about a one-to-one relationship to assist the manager with career and developmental needs. Mentors for senior managers are usually from outside the manager's organisation and need to be highly credible and experienced. On the other hand coaching is more about addressing specific skill or knowledge needs, and can be conducted by anyone who has the expertise. (When I was a Chief Executive my secretary coached me on word processing.)
Learning groups
Getting groups of senior managers to meet together to work on their learning needs is almost like group mentoring. Such groups need to consist of five or six managers that create their own learning agenda. The group usually requires a skilled learning group adviser to make it work.
One variant of this model is the action learning set, where individuals might take on projects, either singly or as a team. The downside of this latter approach is that the projects may be too artificial and also the managers can get hooked into the 'action' and not the 'learning'.
360 degree feedback
Open minded senior managers usually welcome the chance to get such feedback. However just dumping the analysis on them can be counterproductive. They need
Shadowing
A simple model is to pair up two senior managers. One spends the day following round the other and then at the end of the day there is a de-brief where the shadower can feedback to their colleague what they have observed. So both parties can learn from the process. Then the roles are reversed for a subsequent day. This is a highly cost effective learning mode but it does need careful organising.
Normal work
One director that I worked with said that he wanted to be more influential in Board meetings. I set him some homework - to observe what effective influencers did in meetings and to report back to me after a couple of weeks on what he had observed. He reported on a number of things that he had learned from this, for example the timing of interventions and the use of questioning techniques. It was then relatively easy to build in the further learning he needed (and he realised that his first thought - of going on an influencing skills course - was not the best option).
E learning
Senior managers may not want to admit to weaknesses in front of others but the anonymity of the Internet or a company Intranet can allow the person to explore issues on their own without the direct involvement of others. However many senior managers do not know how to use these resources effectively so they can need guidance to avoid wasting time on irrelevant websites.
Other approaches
For open minded and non-defensive senior managers, the whole array of methods that could be used with more junior staff can be appropriate. And it may be important not to lose sight of the fact that obvious approaches, such as reading or going to conferences, can apply to this group.
While it may seem daunting to tackle some of the issues at this level there is no doubt that, if senior managers become more enthusiastic about their own learning, there are huge benefits for the organisation as a whole. Indeed any idea of creating a learning organisation or getting senior management support for learning at lower levels can be irrelevant without senior managers themselves seriously and systematically addressing their own learning needs.
IAN CUNNINGHAM
April 2001