Frankenstein's Monster is not a plan

Frankenstein’s Monster is not a plan.

But you might be surprised by how many companies have him roaming the metaphorical halls of leadership and management development!

The ways in which management and leadership candidates are identified, and then trained and supported, is often – let’s just say – a tad piecemeal. Different programs are adopted at different times for different reasons, and stapled, glued, or duct-taped onto something that’s trying hard to resemble a process.

Assembled from perfectly good bits and pieces, it starts looking a lot like Frankenstein’s Monster. Who, if you read the book, was an unhappy creation doing his best to be helpful, but aware that his appearance was grotesque and frightening.

The result? Leaders tell me of gaps in training, unmet requests for professional development, unfilled leadership pipelines, uncertain succession plans. And managers and employees report bafflement about career path options, and little to no idea what’s needed for them to advance.

It happens in the best of companies, and it’s the result of un-managed evolution arising from in-the-moment responses to a proclaimed need from a business area, or a leader’s enthusiasm for a particular approach.

What you’re doing isn’t bad. It’s just incomplete and unorganized.

What not to do about it

One of the things that I and my fellow learning-and-development professionals often find is a tendency to “throw training” at a problem, without pausing to identify the root cause of said problem.

This is far from unusual in any field. Back in my corporate software-development and business-analysis days, I frequently had to fight to get a full problem definition (a.k.a. requirements spec) before everyone started suggesting solutions. Solutions to a problem and desired outcome that hadn’t been fully defined.

In other words, more training isn’t always the answer.

And you can’t know that without stepping back to identify the problem and desired outcome – which, I will guarantee you, isn’t “we need presentation skills training” (or anything similarly specific).

Maybe you do need presentation skills training. But that’s not all you need.

So – what do you do?

If you really want to put your version of the Monster to rest, you need an end-to-end plan that covers career path options and corresponding support, all the way to C-suite succession planning.

Yeah, that’s a big task. And yes, you can break it down into smaller pieces, based on the size of your organization and what you already have in place. You can even break it down based on what’s most important right now – as long as you come back to the full planning process. Because if you don’t come back, all you’ll have done is bolted another piece onto the poor, struggling Monster.

Why bother?

There are so many priorities competing for your time, energy, and other resources. Why should this be added to the list?

Because in the end you’ll save time, energy, and money.

Because hanging on to old management and leadership practices dating back to the industrial era isn’t going to set your organization up for success in the post-pandemic knowledge era.

Because your employee engagement and retention rates will improve – which saves time, energy, and money.

Because you’ll be far better prepared for the next crisis that comes barreling down at you, us, everyone.

And because you’ll have a more humane, productive, innovative workplace.

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What's next?

1. Contact me?and we'll talk about how your company might benefit from a cohesive, consolidated leadership development program.
2. Visit my Resources page for all sorts of leadership and management support, including a guide to “Leadership Development on a Shoestring Budget.” (And a cute cat photo in the page header!)