I recently read an article in The Wall Street Journal about growth leaders, “a special breed of mid-level managers who possess vision, leadership and entrepreneurial talents.” Through my conversations with CLOs and learning leaders, it seems people are talking more about developing their younger high potentials to ascend the corporate ladder and less about harnessing the existing talent in mid-level ranks for organic growth. Why not identify your growth leaders, keep them in those key positions and provide supporting development?!@!
One thing that struck me about growth leaders is that they are anomalies to the corporation. “They [skirt] restrictive budgeting processes, purchasing policies and hiring procedures,” according to the WSJ article. In a sense they are entrepreneurs: They do their own research, scout out their own answers and implement their own solutions.
Learning organizations should harness these individuals and change the corporate dynamic so they have more opportunity to explore and experiment with opportunities on a small scale that in the end could lead to greater organic growth. How do you identify a growth leader, develop them and give them room to run? Please feel free to share your comments below.
