Manage for Today, Mentor for Tomorrow:

It Takes More than Just Getting Things Done
to Ready Your Next Round of True Leaders

Michael H. Shenkman President, Keystone International, Inc., Strategic Development Group

By Michael H. Shenkman

The board meeting had gone well. Steve’s plans for the quarter were on track; the strategic plan for the hospital’s next 18 months still made sense. Steve was feeling good.

Hal had planned the board meeting down to the last detail. And it had gone well. His plans for the quarter were on track, and his strategic plan for the next 18 months still made sense. So Hal was feeling good. Then, from the other end of the table, his closest friend on the board raised his hand. "Dave," Hal nonchalantly said, acknowledging his request to speak.

“Steve, great job today. I think we’re all ready for a drink…” There’s laughter from the group, but Steve suddenly feels less at ease. “Steve, I was just wondering, who is in the wings to succeed you? Even you won’t live forever and you probably want to hit the golf course while you can still walk.” More laughs. “So, who is in the wings to lead us next?"

Steve (a fictitious name) said this was the motivating incident that led to him seeking a professional mentoring service. To complete the story: Steve’s mind went blank but, keeping his composure and command style, he responded to his friend, “Rick, great question. You know, I’ve been thinking about that..."

“You planning to leave, Steve?” asks another member. Again laughter.

“No, but, you know, succession is my job. I guess it just became a higher priority!"

Succession planning a CEO job

Yes, succession planning is the CEO’s job, but one that is often put off until another day. “After all, there are other, more immediate things to do,” the executive muses. And, of course, any healthcare executive who thinks this way is absolutely right. Managing large organizations in complex, competitive environments is pressingly demanding. The demands for efficiency, for productivity, for innovation – each one an absorbing challenge – are unrelenting.

Yet, as Steve looked around the room, at the senior executives that had joined him for this pivotal board meeting, he realized there was no real successor among them. It isn’t that he hadn’t thought about it; he had actually taken some steps toward that end. For example, he had dined out, one on one, with several of his executives. But, he still didn’t know whether any of the executives in the room could take over, if he were to be hit by the proverbial bus.

Steve’s situation is far from unusual. Succession planning, especially in the top ranks of the organization, is taken seriously, but not urgently. No executive pooh-poohs the idea of succession planning; it’s just that they don’t quite get to it amid the tumult of a normal business day. Even when time is taken to go to dinner or meet one-on-one with high potential candidates, the conversation usually gets restricted to the most tactical or unrevealing subjects: problems with meeting the numbers, problems with this or that employee, sports or some (safe) current event or TV program.

In the typical one-on-one performance review, there is usually so much angling for decisions around bonuses, raises, promotions or disciplinary issues, a conversation on leading and growing as a leader hardly happens at all. Thus, despite all the good intentions, there are few occasions that yield opportunities to detect nascent leadership or signal optimal choices for succession.

Why mentoring, not just managing, matters

This is no fault of the searching CEO. Leadership doesn’t always present itself in the same way managerial prowess does. That’s why mentoring, not just managing, matters.

The mentoring relationship requires a different kind of attention and interaction than that required of an effective manager. Here are a few key insights and interactions that happen in mentoring and not in managing. As you will see, they are qualitatively different from those interactions that the manager normally has with a direct report.

Decoding the vague feeling of leadership. Often, the call to leading comes in subtle ways and good prospects may be missed. Sometimes the prospects themselves do not necessarily recognize that a drive to lead is taking shape in their lives.

Susan was aware of his concerns. She told the mentor, "I'd never say this to Hal, but sometimes I wonder whether I shouldn't be doing more. There are times I feel I should say things to people or help with their problems in ways I never have before. But I try to ignore the feeling and get back to my job."

When the executive asks, “Who are my potential leaders?” they look at all the people running around pleasing them, managing well and getting things done. Most top executives are determined to drive results now, for this quarter’s reports, to keep costs down, to keep people focused on their tasks. They don’t look at the people who, quietly, with some struggle and loss of their bearings, are asking “Shouldn’t I be doing more?"

Here’s an example, using the story of Steve. This prospect’s name is Susan. Steve confided that he felt Susan took good care of her people and she was great performer – a real “charmer,” in meetings, but he wondered if she wasn’t “soft,” whether she had that extra edge to drive people over the top to success. In the course of a conversation with Susan, she exclaimed: “I’d never say this to Steve, but sometimes I just wonder, well, whether I shouldn’t be doing more. And what bothers me is that I don’t know what that is. It’s nothing about the job, or the people or my boss. I have nothing to complain about. So what could it be? It’s driving me crazy. It’s as though there are times in my work when I feel I should say things to people, or jump in to their problems in ways that I never felt before. But then I’ll ignore the feeling, and go back to my job,” she said.

If she confided this is her CEO, Steve, he may view this as “soft,” or the result of a lack of imagination, or even burnout. Steve is a hard-driving executive. If she had asked that question of him, his suspicions about her “softness” would no doubt have been confirmed.

But by confiding in her mentor, not her manager, the mentor would hear a different concern in her question and realize that it reflected her own impulse to bring something more to the situation than she had in the past. The mentor would sense that she felt highly anxious, but this was due to a sense of obligation and desire to contribute more.

Mentors let their protégés fail. Mentors aren’t coaches who help leaders “perform” better, apply better managerial skills, or even give better speeches. Coaches, who are often the leader’s direct supervisor, cannot afford failure. Coaches, therefore, coach their direct reports to succeed at any cost. Mentors, on the other hand, have the luxury of encouraging more leadership-developing risks and allowing failure. This doesn’t mean they want their charges to lose heart as a result of such failures, or to forget the big picture, or to be too timid about what the leader is willing to risk.

As the mentor is objective and not directly involved in the picture, he or she cannot predict how a new leader may light up as the challenge before them unfolds. A mentor cannot express the awesome sense of responsibility one feels in that situation. A mentor can’t explain the terrible pain at seeing a venture sputter or fail, or how unsatisfying winning might feel, in comparison to the thrill of leading ever-greater challenges. The mentor simply puts people in the right situations, with the right frame of mind. Then it’s up to the protégé.

The mentor lets the protégé experience the full force of leading and guides the protégé’s perceptions and responses. The mentor might smile, giving the protégé a moment of recognition for being on the right course. Or the mentor might just provide the occasion for his protégé to keep talking about what is going on. The mentor might just say, “Well, give it a try,” and reveal “attentive responsibility” through a smile or look of concern. Such a response says, “I am paying attention, you are not alone; and in doing this, we are a part of something together."

Mentors bring the bad news. Mentors bring the bad news that no one else will ever convey. Dave comes to mind: a young executive at a major HMO whom Steve thought to be among the highest potential candidate for succeeding the founding president. His mentor found him to indeed be an effective manager, hard driving and executive-like. He had a great sense of humor. During one of their sessions, the mentor observed him in a different role, as his family, wife and two young daughters came into the office. He was affectionate, animated, and full of joy at their entrance. They left, and we returned to the subject of his role at the HMO. His passion drained. The color in his face even paled. He looked down and started to talk about the objectives and the numbers. What a contrast.

“Are you always this way, when it comes to your role in the company,” the mentor asked? “What way?” Dave responded, with some defensiveness creeping in. “Dispassionate. By the numbers. Calculating. That’s the way I experience you; and that’s what I feel from you whenever we discuss your role here. Seeing you with your family really drove it home for me, made it clear why I find our conversations, well, even a bit boring."

“You think I am that way? I am not that way,” responded Dave.

“Well, I certainly see that you aren’t such a cool, calculating character with your family; but as soon as they left and we got back to your role here, all that excitement went away, didn’t it? How do you expect to get people to rise up and perform with excitement and passion if you are a dry, execution-mongering executive?” the mentor asked.

Who else but a mentor would give Dave the benefit of such an observation? His boss wouldn’t. Dave got things done without fail, with little or no supervision; Dave was the very embodiment of my maxim, “Managers are needed by their bosses; leaders are needed by their followers.” Why spoil a good thing? The people that report to Dave obviously wouldn’t say anything. His wife and family see a completely different person. Only a mentor could bring this kind of news of his lack of leadership charisma.

If an executive were not a prospect for leading, having a cool, uninspiring demeanor would not be an issue. But if he or she is going to inspire success and steer the organization to growth and prosperity, it is an issue.

The mentor has to be willing to risk the hurt, the insult, even the parting of ways in order to bring to prominence the kinds of attitudes and orientations that go into creative leading. If a person is going to have a chance at leading successfully, who else but a mentor can provide this kind of guidance?
Executives need to shift their attention and mindset into the conversations that offer opportunities for insight into a candidate’s potential and opening into discussions that offer mentoring to the candidate. To this we add the fact that, while executives are well schooled in delivering bad news, or looking forward to those occasions when a deserving prospect can be promoted, most are not good at conversations in which mentoring transpires.

No one’s at fault here. A mentoring conversation is quite counter to ones that have to do with performance and managerial proficiency. While managing focuses on processes that encompass people, machines, resources, organization, mentoring focuses on a single person. Of course, managing concentrates attention on an end result. Mentoring focuses attention on a person’s here and now. Managing can rely on information that is generated, processed and organized in a way that is decision-ready, awaiting the executive’s assent. Mentoring has to unearth personal information that may not be readily given: the engagement often hinges on noticing and responding to completely unspoken signals, and it requires a mutual willingness to give and take. None of these are the managerial skills that executives keep at the top of their repertoires.

To sum up, mentoring is that distinctive human endeavor in which some take it upon themselves to closely attend to the growth and development of others, and take responsibility for seeing them succeed at a higher level of human accomplishment and maturity.

Michael Shenkman, Ph.D., is founder and president of the Arch of Leadership (www.archofleadership.com), a leader mentoring company. This article was adapted from his new book, The Arch and The Path, the Life of Leading Greatly (Sandia Heights Media, 2005).