Developing a leadership strategy is tough for any organization. Leaders have to function at various levels and lead in different ways, depending on the task at hand. Many leaders become stuck by doing their previous job instead of embracing the new charter of their new responsibilities. Leaders must simultaneously be kept happy doing their present work while being ready to accept different responsibilities when needed. Leadership must no longer be viewed as an ascent but rather as a skill to be used to achieve results.
My biggest takeaway is that at every level, the biggest trap is that leaders resist growing into their new roles. Instead, they do not let go of prior responsibilities by handing them off to others. At every stage, this book talked about leaders doing their old jobs instead of their new ones too much. As I embrace a new role at work, this book has reinforced that I need to view that tendency as a temptation, not a virtue.
This book’s subtitle talks about developing leaders in the digital age. I’m not sure there’s a whole lot in this book specific to the “digital age,” but it does borrow logic from IT organizations, where leaders can ascend or descend freely and where young twenty-somethings can sometime serve as CEOs. Maybe I’m just used to that organizational prism since I work in IT, but their point is well-taken that almost every company needs to be adept in such practices these days.
This book reinforces how to organize a company’s leadership so that senior leaders don’t focus too much on details and productivity and shift their focus to competitive strategy. Although I found it helpful as someone well below C-suite responsibilities, this book’s intended audience lays in more senior leaders who can adjust their company’s leadership strategy. It’s for leaders who are interested in developing people rather than merely counting dollars. It’s for leaders who don’t mind handing off and letting go of previous successful roles to embrace tomorrow’s challenges.
The Leadership Pipeline: Developing Leaders in the Digital Age
By Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter, Jim Noel & Kent Jonasen
Narrated by Lee Goettl
3rd Edition
Text copyright (c) 2024
Wiley
Audio copyright (c) 2024
Ascent Audio
ASIN B0CYHWF7QW
Length: 7:40
Genre: Organizational Leadership
www.amazon.com