When one
of my employees recently transferred to a new job in a different
department, several colleagues asked whether I was upset about
his transfer. They implied that because I was losing a veteran
and my staff was smaller, at least for the moment, my status would
decline. Some hinted that I should have discouraged his move.
In fact,
I believe my efforts to help employees advance to new, better
positions and gain different job experience is one of my prime
management responsibilities.
That task
has become more of a challenge now. With budgets tight, many companies
aren't filling job openings created when an employee moves to
a new spot. Still, bosses who resist their employees' chances
for advancement end up with a stagnant workplace and short- change
their companies.
"In
a world of shrinking staffs, there's more of a tendency among
managers to hang on to their stars as long as they can,"
says Patricia Cook, CEO of Cook & Co., a Bronxville, N.Y.,
boutique executive-search firm. "But grooming people who
others want benefits the entire company and keeps employees loyal
and motivated."
To get a
reputation as a boss who produces talent, managers first have
to be constantly on the lookout for new people they are willing
to train. After the hire, they have to work to develop employees'
special talents. And in the end, they must be willing to tolerate
staff disruption and uncertainty as they sacrifice key players
they have depended on.
"That
can be painful in the short term but very productive over the
long haul," says Harry Gruber, CEO and founder of Kintera,
a software provider to nonprofit organizations, and the founder
of Intervu, an Internet video and audio company that's now a unit
of Akamai Technologies.
When his
chief financial officer, who had been in that job for only a year,
said he wanted to become head of sales last year, Dr. Gruber didn't
reject the request.
"He
had no sales background, but he lobbied hard for the change and
even went on trial runs with customers to practice," says
Dr. Gruber, who was convinced his finance chief was unhappy in
his job and could perform better in sales. "If someone is
no longer passionate about what they are doing, I have to move
them, or else I don't have a very functional employee."
That left
Kintera without a finance chief, a post for which top candidates
currently are in short supply. Dr. Gruber says he got lucky when
he mentioned his predicament to a customer, who then recommended
her son for the job. The son had been the outside accountant at
Dr. Gruber's prior companies and proved a good match.
On other
occasions, Dr .Gruber has moved employees through several positions
until they found the right job match. One employee was a highly
skilled account manager but preferred being a product designer.
"We had her doing both for a while, but the account management
was distracting her so we had her drop that, even though she was
valuable to us there," says Dr. Gruber. "Trying to force
people to stay in jobs they don't want or have outgrown only weakens
a company."
Scott Flanders,
CEO of Columbia House, the marketer of entertainment products,
advocates moving talent across functions to give them broad experience.
"If you just go from being director to vice president of
the same department, you don't really have a new challenge,"
he says. "You have to allow for a learning curve when you
move people across departments but you also build a leader- ship
pipeline."
Companies
that reward executives for advancing talented staff to new opportunities
can overcome individual managers' resistance to turnover.
"There's
an element of selflessness that's called for, and you need a corporate
culture that emphasizes putting the needs of customers and shareholders
above your own immediate needs," says Bill Oldsey, executive
vice president of McGraw-Hill Education, an educational arm of
the publisher. When one of his business units recently needed
a chief financial officer, McGraw-Hill's corporate finance chief
offered a key person from his staff.
"He
knew we needed help and talent in a hurry and so he made the recommendation
even though it was someone he had just started investing in,"
says Mr. Oldsey.
Mr. Oldsey
attributes some of his own success-he now supervises 3,000 people-
to a boss who encouraged him early in his career to take a general
management position. "He told me, 'I'm going to lose you,
but you're ready for this,' " he recalls. "If he hadn't
been willing to take one from his team, I wouldn't be where I
am now."
Managers
who help their staff can create lasting alliances over the long
term. Mr .Oldsey, for example, was recruited to McGraw-Hill last
year by the former boss who pushed him to become a more senior
manager. And he keeps in touch and exchanges ideas with former
employees he helped groom for more advanced jobs. "I get
a lot of personal satisfaction seeing someone I hired succeed
well in another place in the company."
