Meridian Group - Company Culture Consultants

tap into new ideas from subordinates to select the next boss

Recently, a director in a client's firm announced he was retiring. He told me he would like to use his leaving as an opportunity to engage his managers and supervisors in discussing the department's leadership. Because his subordinates were most affected by who held his job, he felt that they should be most involved in the replacement decision.

Retirements, leaving, or promotions are regular events in all businesses. They are a golden opportunity for a department to reflect on where it is, where it wants to go, and what sort of person should lead it there. Most people are highly motivated on the subject of their boss. They have lots of ideas that they rarely discuss with the full work group. I outlined for him a general process for engaging people on this subject, which I have used effectively with many companies.

I suggest you use only the pieces of the full process that you are comfortable with. Shape it to suit your needs. For example, you might omit most of Step 1, and do only Step 2, or perhaps use Steps 2 and 3. To strengthen teamwork, do as much as possible with all the subordinates (and related managers if available) together in the same room.

Step 1—Build an understanding of the leader's job.
This step, or parts of it, could be done before the group comes together. It asks people to write down their view of the job. This is not a performance appraisal or a love fest. It is a serious attempt to better understand the job from a full 360-degree systems perspective. The comments in parenthesis indicate the degree of importance of receiving this information. Receive feedback from:

The current leader (very desirable)
Describe the job as you do it now. Include what a day, a week, a month, last year, looks like. How you spend time, what is important, what were the highlights in the last year. Perhaps note what you thought added most value.

The leader's boss (desirable)
Describe the job as you see it now. List the top three things the person did in the last year that were most valuable for you and the company. Describe what you need from the position in the next year—be specific if you can.

The leader's peers (helpful)
Describe what you need from the position to make your job work well. List the top three things the person did in the last year that were most valuable for you. Describe what you need from the position in the next year—be specific if you can.

The leader's subordinates (essential).
Describe what you want from the position to make your job work well. List the top three things the person did in the last year that were most valuable for you. Describe what you need from the position in the next year—be specific if you can.

The group then comes together to read and discuss what they have written. Alternatively, people may read the feedback before the meeting. Using a flip-chart, write down what each person now wants from the job. There is no discussion, each person reports one item at a time, and there is no more than three times around group. Be sure to number each item. Now, each votes secretly on their top four. Tally the results on the original sheets and discuss them. Agree on the top six items and describe each with one phrase or word.

Step 2—Describe the right person for that job.
Ask the whole group, "Based on what you know of the job and what you need from the position, what qualities would you like the person to have? Please do not think of or discuss an actual person."

Using a flip-chart, write down what each person says. There should be no discussion, record one item per person at a time, with a maximum of three times around the group. Number each item. This will probably be a short list. Next, ask each person to rank their top four items on a piece of paper. Tally and discuss the results. Agree on the top four qualities and describe each with one phrase or word. (Some may be similar to items on the first list of six items.)

Write down the top six Step 1 items and four Step 2 qualities and have the group vote to rank order the combined ten job requirements.

Step 3—Rank potential applicants or people in the meeting. On an 8" x 11" page, make a matrix spreadsheet. In the left column list each of the ten job "Desired Qualities" as separate rows with the top item as the top row. Across the top, as separate columns, put the initials of the "Candidates", everyone in the group, as the example below shows:

Desired Qualities \ Candidates	JG	MB	BH	JC	RF	MH	KM
1. Mobilizes needed resources
2. Involves affected people
3. Communications-information
4. Builds relationships
5. Technical job knowledge
6. Etc.

Copy the blank matrix and give one to each person. Ask each person to fill in the blanks by rank ordering everyone (except themselves) on all ten rows from strongest 1 to weakest 10, no ties allowed. Give the completed pages with no author name on the page to a neutral person to tally. This will take time.

At the next meeting, each person gets a copy or summary results and the group discusses them. This is not a decision. None of this information should leave the room.

Once again, the purpose of this process is to understand better what the leader's role should be from the perspective of those closest to it. While the outcome will be informative to all involved and might lead to choosing a top candidate, it is also conceivable that the group could conclude that the job is not needed or that no one close by is suitable. Or, some other possibility may surface, such as merging the function with another.

You are not obligated to act on what comes from these discussions. This process could be an information process, a decision process or something in between. Whatever you do with the output, based on the experience of managers who have used this process, I am confident you will have a stimulating, informative and most valuable discussion.