Ethos Issue 5, Nov 2008

Accelerating the Growth of the Asian Leader
Bruce J. Avolio and Peter Ong

MOMENTS MATTER
Many of the CEOs interviewed believed that job rotations and cross-cultural exchanges were very valuable experiences in developing leadership as compared to more traditional classroom-styled leadership development programmes. These CEOs mentioned the importance of anchoring events when asked to talk about key moments in their leadership development. Both positive and negative events helped define their sense of leadership early on in their careers, through occurences such as leading a corporate downsizing, integrating two companies through a merger, or taking a stand on controversial issues. Many would have benefited greatly from having some developmental support to get through these real life leadership challenges and scenarios.

Such key anchoring events could be systematically tapped by organisations that have put in place a strategic leadership development system. Anchoring events represent teachable moments for many a CEO and leader as they hone their leadership values and capabilities, formulate their leadership preferences and styles, and then use these experiences to improve their interactions with followers in subsequent leadership roles.

Positive and negative organisational events or 'accidents' will always occur. If organisations were to strategically leverage these teachable moments and anchoring events well, for example, by writing these events up and by leveraging them as internal case studies, or by pairing the leader undergoing the event with an experienced mentor during these learning events, we expect that organisations would be more capable and strategic in accelerating positive leadership development. Readying an organisation to tackle these events and using them for development might involve instituting "rapid response teams" or "coaches" who are prepared to help emerging leaders take advantage of these learning opportunities.

BALANCING THE FORMAL AND WITH THE INFORMAL
The study revealed that 86% of CEOs said that they provided mentorship when asked by their employees; however, only 17% had formal mentoring programmes in place within their organisations.

Most of the attempts at mentoring described in the CEO interviews were reactive and passive. Mentorship from these Asian CEOs ranged from taking employees to lunch, to listening to employee problems, providing advice and "offering wisdom".

When asked about their organisation’s effectiveness in developing leaders, the CEOs in aggregate gave themselves and their organisations an average rating. Frequently in the interviews, the CEOs would talk about the many informal ways that leadership was being developed in their organisations, while indicating that formal programmes usually lack impact. The exceptions were CEOs coming from very large global enterprises that are well-known for investing a lot of time and resources into formal programmes to develop their leaders.

From our study, we can conclude that Asian leaders are generally more reactive than proactive in their development of their employees as well as their direct reports. We did, however, find that if the employees reach out to the CEOs to request advice or to seek mentorship, Asian leaders are quite willing to provide development support. However, it was also clear from the study that these leaders do not proactively seek out followers to develop, nor excite them to the prospect of assuming leadership roles. Moving forward, for Asia to grow to its projected scale, this reactive style of leadership development, at both the individual leader as well as at the organisational levels, will need to change.

ROLE MODELLING AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
The CEOs interviewed mentioned role models frequently when they talked about leadership development. They have a great recollection and respect for the people who had mentored them and who had a strong impact on them.

Role models mentioned were typically male, and usually from family (fathers), school (teachers), or work (supervisors early in career).

The impact that role models have on the Asian leaders is typically earlier in their ascendancy into leadership roles. Many feel they should be displaying the positive characteristics of their role models now that they are in a significant leadership role themselves. Perhaps drawing on their personal experience, most of the leaders indicated that being a role model themselves is part of how they conceived of their impact as leaders on their organisation.

From an intervention standpoint, organisations will need to fully leverage on these Asian leaders’ desire to be role models and mentors. Role modelling and mentorship programmes can be formerly set up where junior to middle-level managers with high potential are paired up with senior level leaders with a strong desire to role model and mentor. By pursuing this strategy, Asian companies can better ensure that these junior to middle managers will be suitably groomed and mentored in time for a smooth and effective transition to senior leadership.