The Leadership Pipeline

Nurturing Your Own Growth at Every Level

Firstly, I want to wish all my US friends, clients and colleagues a very Happy Thanksgiving celebrations, today!

In this week’s writings I wanted to share a framework I love to consult, when designing a coaching program, for people at every level and function of leadership.

The Leadership Pipeline is a clear and effective framework uncovered by Walt Mahler. It shapes the context of every coaching conversations and holds the focus on the right level of leadership development and coaching needed for every individual. Immediately, you know where you are and where you need to add value as your grow into your role.

Your Journey through Leadership

What if leadership were akin to multi-tiered garden, with a whole team of highly skilled managers needed to make the environment thrive? At each level, different skills are nurtured, and responsibilities need to spread into the wider ecosystem. This is the essence of the Leadership Pipeline, a powerful metaphor for the progressive stages in a leader's career, each with its distinct challenges and needed competencies.

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So where did the Leadership Pipeline come from?

The Leadership Pipeline was developed by Walt Mahler from working with GE Electric, after he uncovered the framework for success in their leadership team. It’s a valuable framework to know and map as you move up the leadership ladder.

As you ascend the levels in your company, how do you ensure that your growth isn't just upward, but is also taking root across the organization? ?

?Knowing this framework can help build the right leadership pathway at every stage. Notice where you are, where your strengths and your areas for growth, as you look into 2024. So here are the elements in the Leadership Pipeline.

?1. From Managing Self to Managing Others

The first transition in the Leadership Pipeline is from Managing Oneself to Managing Others. It's akin to moving from tending a single plant (individual contributor) to (manager) an entire garden section and team. Here, you learn the fundamentals: delegation, basic coaching, and the transition from doing to leading others with their own view of the world.

To lead effectively at this level, embrace the shift in identity, where you are now tracking the engagement and productivity of your team.

Ask yourself, “How can I empower my team to perform at their best?”

?2. Navigating the Shift: Managing Managers

As you climb the ladder, you begin to manage managers. This is where your garden sections multiply, and complexity grows. The key here is to cultivate leaders, not just workers.

Your focus should be on strategy and guiding your managers in aligning their teams with the organization's vision.

A self-coaching question, “How can I instill and communicate ?a sense of shared purpose across my teams?”

3. Overseeing Business Unit Growth: The Leap to Managing Functions

Leading a function is like overseeing a greenhouse within the bigger framework. Here, you are responsible for a specific line of plants, each with unique needs and growth patterns.

It's critical to understand the broader ecosystem and how your function contributes to the overall garden's health.

Ideally, you go will go and talk to every other Function Manager and cross-pollinate your ideas, once you understand the nature of their functions. You must ask, “How does my function drive the business to flourish, and how do I communicate this downstream and across the landscape?”

?4. The Garden's Architect: Managing Business

When you reach the level of business leadership, you become the architect of the business.

You're crafting the landscape, deciding which plants to cultivate, and determining the garden's layout or business strategy.

Your decisions have a profound impact on the garden's future. The pertinent question now is, “How can I forecast the future needs of this business unit and prepare it for future quarters to come?”

5. Managing Groups: The Master Gardener’s Strategy

Reaching the stage of Group Manager within the Leadership Pipeline, you become the master gardener of an ecosystem. Your role is to integrate multiple companies into a cohesive landscape.

Your strategic planning and cultural nurturing is all about symbiosis where each company contributes to the overall health of the garden.

Here, the question to seed is, “How can I weave together diverse corporate cultures and strategies, ensuring they grow in unison towards a shared vision?”

6. ?Enterprise Leadership: The Custodian of Legacy

At the pinnacle is enterprise leadership. You're no longer just tending to the garden; you're safeguarding its legacy and ensuring its sustainability.

Your vision must encompass the garden's continued relevance and adaptation to the changing climate.

The guiding question here is, “How can I ensure that the enterprise not only survives but thrives for future generations?”

Always be Growing at Every Level

?Each level of the Leadership Pipeline presents opportunities for growth and requires a re-evaluation of the leadership style operating in any company. To propel your growth, remain a lifelong learner, embrace each stage with humility, and always be prepared to adapt your leadership to the needs of the garden you are tending.

Your journey through the Leadership Pipeline isn't just about reaching the top; it's about the depth and breadth of your growth as you climb. Engage with each level, learn its lessons, and you will not only become a leader of choice but a cultivator of leadership in others.

I hope this gave you food for thought, Connect on Calendly for a conversation on your company leadership pipeline, facilitating or coaching your leadership team for 2024.

Have a great Week!

Shiera

What else can I read from Shiera?

You may also be interested in reading When Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast. How well-intended strategies get burned by company behaviours.

New Leadership Training Programs are in creation right now

For executives and leaders who want to know more about the Language of Leadership, connect with me. If you would like to learn more about leadership training, or coaching around this topic, contact Shiera here.

About the Author:

Shiera is an Executive Coach and trainer with a passion for transformational coaching, the language of leaders, and strategic communication. With over 16 years of experience and expertise in coaching executives and leaders to enhance their impact in how they communicate and interact in the workplace.

As a Master Practitioner in NLP, with extensive training in Meta-Coaching and cutting-edge Neuro-semantic approaches to Change Management and Executive Development, she brings a wealth of knowledge to coaching, with a background that spans various aspects of business, including sales, communication, and people development training and coaching.