By Mahmud Tim Kargbo
The image is powerful: a giant pipe with millions of leaders spewing out the end. Unlimited leadership talent for decades ahead!
Leadership pipeline is a popular term in management circles today. Consultants and leadership thought leaders have jumped on the bandwagon to ensure they speak on this cutting-edge issue. In fact, Google lists 7,780,000 on the topic of leadership pipelines.
There is no question that organisational leaders are concerned, and rightfully so, about the current state of talent. The scarcity of talent is well documented. As organisations in Sierra Leone observe the decreasing talent pool, they realise this talent gap equally applies to central government leadership as it continues to fumble with its State obligations.
What is a leadership pipeline? Is it a new innovative way to develop leadership talent around next-century leadership skills? No! It is simply a more sophisticated title for a slightly more systematic approach to the same old and outdated leadership development process that has failed over the past decade in Sierra Leone. (Of course, trainers and consultants have done pretty well! Governments and public officials in Sierra Leone, not so much.)
Leadership Development is Not A Pipeline! The image conjured up by the term “New Direction ” is disturbing and proves our people’s dishonesty in governance and their writers. It implies “Old misdirection over New Direction.” It reinforces the notion that leadership development is an assembly line. It is built on the sad and faulty notion that anyone can be a leader. (Think about how that notion developed. Hoards of people are scheduled for an organisation’s leadership development programme in a frantic attempt to find a participant in these faulty programmes find out that the organisation and people that put them through the training still assess them as deficient in leadership skills. They realise they will never be entrusted with a leadership position in that organisation. All that investment of time and money has to be rationalised, and morale cannot be damaged, so the organisation tells people that “we are all government” and everyone can lead in the position they currently hold. Now, even more, people can participate in the leadership pipeline. No wonder trust is at an all-time low in Sierra Leone!)
If leadership development is not a pipeline, what is it? Two months back, I was facilitating a not-for-profit board retreat. When I went to breakfast at the hotel, there was a heated dish of half-moon cheese omelettes, probably twenty to twenty-five in dish. When I looked at them, I thought about the made-to-order omelettes created just as I specified that are available at some hotels. Then it dawned on me that this was a picture of what is wrong with leadership development in Sierra Leone.
Current leadership development efforts take a microwave approach to development. Put people through a quick week of training, expose them to high doses of the latest academic theory and buzzwords, and serve them up as instant warmed-up leaders. The problem is that leaders do not develop depth from intense exposure to leadership topics, books, posts or even videos. That kind of training does not allow the concepts to “blend into and shape a person’s character. Leadership development is not a required list of topics one can check off on the way to instant leadership. Leadership development is not receiving a certificate with the President’s bootlicker mimeographed signature at the end of a training programme.
True Leadership development is like a crockpot. First, it takes time to produce the product. Second, it takes coming in contact and in-depth exposure with a group of varied ingredients that blend together and influence each other so that a unique combination is created. (Think about one example – leaders do not communicate in isolation. They communicate to inspire, motivate, correct or solve problems. Teaching communication in a three-hour block is not even close to the reality the leader faces on the job). Third, It takes the heat of real situations to drive the learning home. This heat allows exposure to other ingredients to flavour the leader and becomes a genuine (dare I say authentic?) part of him or her. This develops the leader’s own unique style and approach. Fourth, It takes a master chef who oversees bringing all these ingredients together to create the finished product. Finally, it takes seasoning from that master chef who stops periodically, gauges how seasoned the “product” is becoming, and adjusts that seasoning as needed.
Leaders are not produced like double cheeseburgers in a MacDonald’s. They may be warmed-up leaders when the microwave timer goes off, but they are not genuine leaders. Rather leaders must be uniquely developed, which takes time at the side of a seasoned leader; it takes the opportunity to struggle, and it takes time to interact with multiple different variables and ingredients.
Unless we discard the faulty notion that future leaders can be mass-produced and that quantity of leaders coming out of a pipeline is better than the deep development of quality leaders, we will continue to succeed in developing people who are skilled at critiquing those in positions of authority over them (with the corresponding decrease in trust and respect that comes with the criticism). We will also continue to experience a scarcity of what companies and individuals are looking for; one-of-a-kind, genuine, authentic leaders.
