Читать книгу G2: Building the Next Generation - Palaveev Philip - Страница 11

For G2 professionals to become the future of a firm, they will need experience, training, and opportunities to apply their training. While firms have become quite adept at imparting professional knowledge and training on client service processes, that alone is not enough to turn G2 professionals into true future drivers of a firm. For that to happen, firms need to train on additional types of skills and provide experiences that G2 professionals don't currently receive.

G2s Need a Chance to Drive the Car

I grew up in Eastern Europe, where young people very rarely had a car or ready access to one. We grew up riding buses and trains. That said, we all went to driving school and got licenses. So when I bought my first car at the age of 25, I had had a license for seven years but had no idea how to drive. Just as you can't learn how to drive a car by watching your dad, G2 professionals are not going to learn how to be leaders by watching the founders. They need opportunities to “drive the car” on their own.

If leadership consists of difficult decisions, then G2 professionals need to be in positions where they can make such decisions and be responsible for the results without being overseen or “saved” by the founders. They must have the opportunity to take on the challenges inherent to leadership:

• Leading a client service team, including staffing, managing. and training that team

• Managing employees, delivering performance evaluations, and being responsible for employee contributions and overall development

• Leading a committee and being responsible for the execution of all plans made by that committee, ideally in the context of a firm‐wide business plan

• Championing a new market and paving the way for the firm to grow and expand into that market, including responsibility for the results of that initiative (or lack thereof)

• Implementing a new service or new process, including training others on using that process

• Researching and championing a new technology that can be used across the firm

• Driving a marketing initiative and becoming responsible for its results

There are many other examples possible, and they all share a common characteristic: They offer G2 professionals the opportunity to take ownership of an initiative that is important to the firm. Side projects with little at stake for the firm don't create real opportunities to learn or contribute. Real opportunities come when there is real responsibility.

Another characteristic inherent in these opportunities is the ability to involve others. Projects that can be accomplished by one person are important, but they teach little in terms of motivating and organizing a team. In fact, they often teach professionals to be too self‐reliant, since they suggest that individuals can be successful on their own. This notion can be damaging to professionals later in their careers, when they will likely come to the realization that doing everything on your own is very limiting.

Finally, and very importantly, G2 professionals need to be responsible for the results of these leadership opportunities. They need to be recognized for successes, but also held responsible for failures.

G2s Need the Opportunity to Fail

You will never learn to box by punching the heavy bag. You need someone who can punch back. Similarly, you will never learn to lead without being responsible for the lack of success. Projects that fail are very important: They tell us what not to do. They help us learn about ourselves and our reactions, motivations, and ability to persevere. They tell us about our ability to lead others. It is very easy hosting a party if you don't have to pay the bar tab. The cost of failures is what keeps leaders honest and what makes leaders accepted. We learn whom we can trust when things go wrong.

Founders often struggle with letting their best people fail. Parents are very familiar with this feeling. It is like watching your child learn how to ride a bike. Training wheels can't stay on forever. At some point, you must run along with your child, holding the bike and catching her when she falls. But you can't do that forever. Eventually you have to let go of the bike and watch your child wobble around, milliseconds away from disaster. In fact, you know your child will sooner or later show up crying with a bloody knee or elbow. Unfortunately, there is no other way to learn to ride a bike.

For a firm to truly give G2 professionals a chance to lead, it has to be willing to let them fail. Yes, this could mean losing some clients and perhaps upsetting people (founders included), but the learning process is not complete until we know what it feels like to fail.