Developing Entrepreneurial Leaders
At Komodo, we understand that there are evolutionary paths along a particular skill set, for example from data analyst to data scientist or from developer to software architect. This growth is quite linear. Companies that have long and linear growth trajectories can plug people into large systems that can transform (hyper)specialization into monetary value. Essentially, companies that encourage linear skill development and career growth help employees occupy increasingly leveraged positions in the company machine. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but there are certain properties of this design that fail to develop entrepreneurial skills and will eventually create challenges for innovation.
Why do companies with linear growth paths typically struggle with innovation? Growth paths are manifestations of the underlying culture of a company. So it’s not a problem with the growth path, but that the growth path could be symptomatic of a company culture that forms a certain type of immunity against innovations. Here are three ways that cultures that produce linear growth paths also tend to resist innovation:
First, companies with linearly upward paths tend to develop people whose roles are rigid. Staff can be easily disrupted if any component of the machine changes. This means people self-identify their employment and advancement with whatever division or function they have become increasingly entangled with. People then become a barrier to change for their livelihood depends on things staying fundamentally the same, just a little bigger than yesteryear.
Secondly, the expectations of linear career growth makes employers and employees risk avoidant and unwilling to invest in each other. Most people don't work at companies so large that a predictable, 20 year growth path exists. Employers are well aware of the fact that many workers believe jumping ship is a necessary to meet personal expectations of career growth. Departures create brain drain of valuable talent and can send an unpleasant message to everyone that remains: this company cannot support your growth. So both employer and employee are in a standoff, unable to take risks for each other and give their best.
Lastly, separation of day to day work from value creation. Even at amazing companies who can create growth trajectories for their people’s entire career, those who successfully work their way up in a valuable system never have any experience building systems that create value. So when even the most deserving and talented individuals reach leadership level, they struggle mightily when they are asked to create value for the first time. They don’t have the hardwon experience that comes from creating solutions, testing them in the market, failing, and trying again until they find success or until “time runs out”.
I believe these factors (rigid identities, unwillingness to invest in each other, and separation of work from value) is responsible for much of the alienation and discontent of modern day work. Worker loyalty wanes and people can't help but notice the disconnect between what they do and the value the company creates. In such a climate, few leaders can resist a groan of frustration when asked to innovate.
There are other cultures that can offer different career growth paths that are compatible with innovation. These are rarely designed to help a person climb a ladder within an organization and maximize their slice of the value pie. Instead, this innovation focused growth path cycles individuals through a series of roles that develops highly effective value creators. A highly effective value creator can step into any situation, perceive what is needed, resource themselves, and create solutions.
This is a cyclical path that starts with cultivating a 1:1 say-do ratio so as to become a reliable individual.
From there, a reliable person can become a key team player on a lean and agile team, growing their range of expertise.
Then, as reliable and diversely skilled individual, they may be asked to develop key organization and communication skills become a results oriented manager. Results oriented managers go above and beyond overseeing process and develop the methods to transform resources into the best outcomes.
After a period of management and optimization, innovation is required to explore what else is possible. Here, many managers are asked to step into the role of a strategic leader and hone the skill of figuring out how to get from here to the destination.
Innovation often demands individuals to lead from the front. An innovation-focused strategic leader has to embrace the possibility going back to being a reliable individual who must fight for every win and take the right risks — no success is guaranteed. Every entrepreneur and change-focused executive is familiar with facing a room full of strangers and invite people to participate and offer support to their vision. For many, going from manager to a solo agent responsible for action and influence feels like a major career step backwards, a huge blow to their expectations. Some may even believe they no longer have the skills that got them the leader job in the first place, and therefore fear having to “start over”. But value creators often and willingly find themselves alone and needing to find new ways to resource themselves and act at the same time. They know that as a diversely skilled person, their solo ability creates agility, and that it is an appropriate trade-off during exploratory work.
The world changes, an opportunity arises, and we need companies to develop individuals who can look around the room, understand the current situation and the target, and "figure it out". This process strengthens individuals and their bonds to the organization and their work. After all, figuring it out doesn’t happen in theory: it happens here, with these people, in this situation. Therefore, it doesn’t create the disconnect that are often the hallmark of linear, skill-focused career paths. And should promising leaders accept the pains and joys of being lean and personally responsible again, they will repeat the value creation cycle anew. Each time companies allow people to go through this cycle, they develop a more diversely skilled and stronger team, full of individuals who trust in their ability to innovate.
