Leader Machines is an article in the October 1, 2007 edition of Fortune about how some companies (most famously GE) can churn out great leaders. As someone who is in a position of responsibility in the context of training for those who work directly (or indirectly) for me, their nine practices for building leaders was most useful.

  1. Invest time and money – don’t just bolt a development program onto existing HR procedures
  2. Identify promising leaders early
  3. Choose assignments strategically
    • About 2/3 of leadership development comes from job experience, 1/3 from mentoring and coaching and a smidgen from classroom learning
    • Organizations tend to assign people based upon what they are good at, not what they need to work on
    • “You learn 10 times as much in a crisis than in normal times” – A.G. Lafley
  4. Develop leaders within their current jobs – short term work assignments; managers don’t leave their jobs but take on an additional assignment outside of their field of expertise or interest
  5. Be passionate about feedback and support – combine frequent, honest assessment with plenty of mentoring and support
  6. Develop teams, not just individuals – GE puts entire teams through their leadership training where they make real decisions about their actual business
  7. Exert leadership through inspiration
  8. Encourage leaders to become active in their community
  9. Make leadership development part of the culture

All great points to bring to the fore as companies start to think about end-of-year assessments and bonuses.