“True leaders don’t create followers; they create more leaders”. – Tom Peters

Here are some techniques that I’ve used over the years to develop leadership within my area, and that you can use, too!

Identifying potential

Many brilliant people will never tell you they are looking for more. The first step is to identify potential. Investing your time and energy in growing high-potential people will pay dividends.

You know someone has high potential if:

• They set ambitious objectives and hit them, repeatedly.
• They have strong feedback from team members, leadership and stakeholders.
• They have high autonomy and agency: able to get things done independently
• They support and develop the people around them
• They are influential, helping teams have more impact

How would you know that someone is showing these signs?

• Your direct observations, for example when they consistently deliver on delegated tasks
• Regularly checking-in with the person, teams, leadership and stakeholders
• You trust the person, they have become critical, they have become ‘go-to’ people or perhaps even your ‘right hand’ person.

Checking-in with people regularly helped me to understand who is looking for more challenges, versus who already has a full plate. I try to check in with every person in the org at least once per quarter (a significant but worthwhile time investment with e.g. 40 skip-levels every 3 months + regular one-on-ones with leadership counterparts in design, product and neighbouring departments).

For example, I noticed a newly-hired senior engineer had a lot of interest in improving the way the team worked in terms of agile processes, as well as a clear vision for how its most critical systems should evolve. He had already broken down needed work into a prioritised technical debt backlog that others were servicing, and had the start of a roadmap, that at first-glance was already aligning with the company’s technical direction. They were respectful but challenging in the team environment and firmly believed the team could do more. They also gave me feedback into what they thought I could be doing better to support. This clearly indicated to me that the person is capable of more, and that if I enabled as much of what they were asking for as possible, it would help this person to grow even further. However, at no time did they actually ask for a growth opportunity, and they actually preferred to remain in their current role rather than explore an obvious opportunity to become an engineering manager, with a desire to be promoted in the individual contributor track in the future.

Sowing the seeds

Now that you have identified a person that you truly believe has leadership potential, what comes next?

Perhaps they already are eager and banging down your door for next steps. Fantastic – intrinsic motivation is powerful fuel. I would dig further into their aspirations, asking ‘why’ a few times, understanding what THEY would like to achieve and why. I would validate that the desire and genuine and not something they believe they ‘have’ to do because of bad advice they were given, for example. This is because growth will require work on their part, there will be ups and downs, and resilience will come from their inner drive.

But what if they aren’t really motivated to grow right now?

If they don’t really want to grow…

Sometimes, your top people don’t realise how brilliant they are. A few words of encouragement, and probing around their beliefs may be all that’s needed to unlock their ambition.

Perhaps they received information that is simply wrong regarding compensation, or believe they would get more responsibility with no reward. Helping them to zoom out, think long term, and look at the big picture of their career may help. Where do they want to be in five years time? How can they best help their team mates? What would be something meaningful for them to achieve?

If the timing simply isn’t right for the person, due to family considerations, best to revisit in the future. Similarly if they have already tried taking on more, and found it wasn’t for them. Remember, they are in the driving seat.

For example, when I was approached to take on team leadership responsibilities, it was not an opportunity that I was really looking for, having just moved countries, joined a new company, and with my mother having recently passed away. I was somewhat fatigued from pushing continuously for promotion in my past roles, and I was enjoying the relative peace of the IC role. However, she pointed out to me the clear need the company had, how it actually aligned with what I wanted, how it feasibly could happen without a huge amount of pushing being needed on my part, and with the new responsibilities of supporting people being directly aligned with my interests and desire to help.

Tip: Avoid motivating based on money alone.

A solid plan

You have a motivated person who wants to grow. What they need most is a plan.

A solid plan will encompass:

• Real opportunities that matter
• A clear understanding of what is expected
• A plan for support
• A realistic timeline
• A tangible outcome

Let’s look at each of these each in more detail.

Real opportunities that matter

People learn by doing. I believe in the organisation as a university. Yes, there is pressure to deliver, but everything that we do is also a learning opportunity.

Bonafide need; real responsibility

People need important tasks that genuinely need doing. Failure will be a real possibility. They will succeed (or not) on their own merits. Of course, you would intervene as needed, providing the best possible chance. But ultimately, the responsibility is delegated, and they should understand that.

For example, I had several engineers targeting promotions, but they were all specialised on an obsolete tech stack, and there was a lot of learning, evangalising and coordination needed to move the area onto modern technologies. One developer in particular could not understand why updating the tech stack was important. I explained the ‘why’ to them, repeatedly and without tiredness or frustration. I enlisted the help of experts to convey the benefits, having them work with others who had seen success with the new technologies already, and organise dedicated support for them.

I provided them with more feedback both for themselves, and regarding the state of our technological systems in general. I explained the prevailing viewpoint that our senior engineers had to be advocates for change.

I set out clear requirements of how I saw them leading the project, how I suggested to measure progress, and what kind of results would justify a promotion attempt. I helped them to define and manage the project, and to identify and persuade stakeholders.

They had to overcome major challenges like learning the new technologies, applying them effectively along with balancing delivery, convincing others to adopt these technologies, aligning plans to incorporate these new technologies, influencing skeptics and nay-sayers, steering the overall team and track direction, and educating and training many external teams and developers on the topic.

He became the foremost expert in the company on the topic, taught the technology to many other developers who then also opted to join our area as a direct result, and drove the project to a level of completion that was beyond what we could have hoped for when the top-line strategy was initially announced. The outcome was that most of the area’s ownership was moved onto the new technologies.

And of course he was ultimately promoted.

Assignment-ology: matching requirements to interests

The assignment should be something that the person is passionate about, that would enable them to develop desired skills, and that is aligned with their strengths. Let’s say they should be 80% qualified to achieve the assignment today.

For example, maybe it’s a prioritised tech modernisation project that had been stalled, and this person will take it on and drive it forward. They need coaching around coordination and fanning out work. Maybe it’s a major customer-facing product development initiative. They’ll have to be supported by product and design management, and deliver on tough deadlines. Or maybe it’s to find out and address the biggest pain points for engineers in the area. They’ll have to organise and navigate awkward meetings with lots of feedback and show empathy.

Buy-in and commitment

The person must be completely committed to whatever the assignment is, to proceed. Otherwise, it may be more of business-is-usual than an exciting opportunity.

Set clear expectations

Concrete guidance looks like explaining in detail what success would look like.

Thing about how directive you need to be – you could either ask them relevant questions about how they would approach the project, explain how you might approach it, or make suggestions. Try avoid being completely instructive, since then you’ll be limiting their growth.

Often, they will have a better vision or methodology than what I could suggest. Excellent! Then I put my ego aside, because this is win-win.

Support plan

Dedicated support will underpin the person’s growth. The exact plan will depend on how they want to grow, and the needs at hand. But it can comprise:

• Formal training: coursework, books, materials
• Mentors who are experts in some aspect of the growth area
• Coaching from their manager or yourself
• Attending conferences, listening to podcasts, following influencers
• A professional coach
• Working with peers
• An outside consultant

It is also helpful to reduce from noise which may detract from their focus, and to carve out dedicated time for learning. For example, maybe a task they already excels at, like leadership of a task-force to manage a critical service, can be handed-over.

Determine and clarify your level of involvement.

Ask how they would like you to support them. Would they want to meet regularly for coaching? Would they just want you to check-in with them infrequently? They should have maximum freedom in choosing their support model.

Whatever the agreement is, make sure their manager is on the same page with it. This is so that you are always empowering the direct manager to make final decisions with regards to their people.

How you can facilitate learning

Perhaps you are going to be coaching directly; that’s great.

But you always can act as the ‘meta-coach’:

• Check in on what they learned since last time. “What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned since we last spoke?”
• What is the biggest challenge they are facing and who is supporting them with that?
• How is it going with their different coaches, mentors and learning programs? You can check in with their coaches to have an idea of what to reinforce. A great learning programme includes a guide for you as the facilitator on questions to ask.
• Pointing out learning opportunities they might not have thought of. For example, maybe there has been a new development in the field they are interested in.
• Keeping them honest and on-track.
• Generally encouraging them and celebrating their wins with them.

Clear timeline

The person’s growth itself should have a timeline attached. This may be actual calendar dates, or a description of ‘phases’ or milestones in the journey.

The timeline starts with today, and at the end, it ‘delivers’ the individual to their stated goal with a reasonable degree of certainty, assuming that everything is successful along the way.

An example timeline for someone wanting to grow towards EM could look something like the following:

• First month: Learn about the role. Find a mentor. Starting learning about the team and domain. Build relationships. Sign up for management course.
• Third month: Caretaker role opens up. Based on team feedback so far, put the person forward for temporary assignment. Person starts to earn caretaker salary. Expectations become concrete.
• End of year: Formal interview based on caretaker role experience to make permanent assignment.

Favour specificity in outcomes and major milestones rather than many details.

Tangible outcome

A concrete outcome for the individual gives structure and direction to the entire process. It is actually wise to begin with the desired outcome and work backwards to define the rest of the plan.

The outcome should reflect exactly what they wish to achieve, with you as the manager providing a dose of reality with regards to timelines and feasibility.

What does growth look like? It is not always about a promotion, title or more money, although it certainly can be these things.

It can be:

• More responsibility with more funding
• A wider scope, with more exposure to interesting problems
• A deeper ownership of current scope, with more freedom
• Recognition from peers
• Delivering a meaningful project that genuinely helps customers
• Better relationships and connections with leadership, that helped set the person up for the next stage of their career
• More influence and effectiveness in their current area

A final note about leadership

“Leadership is something you do, not something you are”. I have seen many teams where an informal leader is more influential than any manager nearby.

It’s about the actions that they take for the people around them.

Anyone can lead; anyone can become a leader.