Leadership Bench Strength Starts With Managers

Employee Development Happens Long Before Succession Planning

Organizations need people who are ready to take on greater responsibility when opportunities arise. But that readiness isn't created during a succession planning meeting or talent review.

It's built over time, through the feedback, coaching, experiences, and opportunities employees receive along the way. And managers play a critical role in making that development happen.

Bench Strength Isn't Built During the Talent Review

Succession planning is important. It helps organizations identify critical roles, consider potential successors, and understand where talent gaps may exist.

But identifying someone with potential isn't the same as preparing them for what's next.

By the time leaders sit down for a formal talent review, much of the work that determines an employee's readiness has already been happening. Employees have either had opportunities to stretch beyond their current responsibilities, strengthen important capabilities, learn from feedback, and make increasingly complex decisions, or they haven't.

Succession planning can help identify who might be ready. Good managers help people become ready. That's why building bench strength isn't only an HR or talent-management responsibility. It also depends on what managers do every day.

Managers See Development Opportunities Others May Not

Managers have a perspective on employees that isn't easily replicated through a talent review or performance-management process.

They see how someone responds when priorities change. They know who steps up when a project becomes difficult, who can influence others, who learns quickly from feedback, and who may be capable of more than their current responsibilities require.

Those observations can become development opportunities.

A manager might give an employee ownership of a more complex project, invite them into a meeting where they'll gain broader organizational perspective, ask them to lead part of an initiative, or give them greater authority to make decisions.

None of those experiences necessarily requires a new title or promotion.

They give employees opportunities to practice capabilities they may need before the next opportunity becomes available.

Potential Needs Opportunities to Develop

It's easy to identify a strong employee and think, They have a lot of potential.

But potential by itself doesn't create readiness.

Employees need opportunities to test themselves in new situations, receive feedback, learn from mistakes, build confidence, and demonstrate that they can handle greater complexity or responsibility.

This is where managers can make a significant difference.

Rather than continually giving the most challenging work to the person who can already do it fastest, managers can think more intentionally about how work is assigned. A project can accomplish an immediate business objective while also giving someone an opportunity to develop.

That doesn't mean putting employees into situations they're unprepared to handle. It means looking for appropriate stretches that build capability while still providing coaching and support.

Development Shouldn't Only Be About the Next Promotion

Building bench strength can easily become associated with identifying who is ready to move up.

But organizations need depth at every level.

Developing employees can mean strengthening judgment, expanding expertise, improving communication, learning to lead a project, becoming more effective at working across functions, or taking greater ownership in a current role.

Those capabilities matter whether an employee is preparing for a promotion or simply becoming stronger and more versatile in the work they're already doing.

A broader approach to development also creates more options for the organization. When more people are capable of taking on different challenges and responsibilities, organizations aren't relying on a small group of employees every time a need arises.

Stronger Employees Create Capacity for Managers, Too

There's another benefit to developing capable employees: managers can lead differently.

When employees build stronger judgment, solve more problems independently, and take greater ownership, managers don't have to remain involved in every decision.

They can delegate with greater confidence.

That gives managers more capacity to think ahead, support other team members, work across the organization, and focus on responsibilities that require their level of leadership.

Developing employees, then, isn't separate from manager effectiveness. Stronger direct reports can help managers become more effective leaders.

Build Bench Strength Before You Need It

Organizations can't always predict when they'll need someone to step into a larger role, take over an important project, or respond to a new business need.

That's why bench strength has to be built before the opening appears.

HR and L&D can provide the strategy, tools, and formal leadership development that support that work. Managers help bring development into the everyday experiences where employees actually build capability.

The question isn't only “Who could step up?”

It's also “What are we doing now to help more people become ready?”

Help Managers Develop Their People

Managers play an important role in building that readiness, but developing others is a leadership skill that managers need an opportunity to strengthen, too.

Our Manage OnPoint! Developing Your Direct Reports public workshop helps managers distinguish between coaching for performance and coaching for development and use a practical, strengths-based approach to support employee growth and ownership.

If you have one or two managers who could benefit from strengthening this skill, join us for our next virtual workshop on October 27. For a limited time, we are offering a buy 1, get 1 free seat for this workshop.  Learn More and Register »