High potentials usually have good ideas, but what transforms a high potential into a genuine leader is the capacity to move agendas and get results. Ideas must be implemented. Samuel Bacharach believes that leadership is about “executing” and getting things done. Leadership need not be driven by charisma or personality, but by the exercise of specific microskills that allow leaders to move an agenda through an organization. In this world of mergers and acquisitions, turf and uncertainty, in which the solution mindset is replacing the product mindset, your high potentials need to have the political skills to mobilize groups and the managerial skills to sustain momentum. This webinar will discuss some of the specifics of these pragmatic skills and elaborate on how you can implement a program to help high potentials within your organization develop these skills. Samuel Bacharach is the McKelvey-Grant Professor in the Department of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University (ILR). He is also the co-founder of the Bacharach Leadership Group (BLG), an organization which specializes in leadership development programs with an emphasis on microskills of change, innovation, execution, negotiation and coaching. Sam writes a weekly column for Inc.com, focusing on issues of pragmatic leadership, and has published over 100 academic articles and over 20 books. He is the author of Get Them on Your Side, Keep Them on Your Side and the forthcoming volume, Moving Your Agenda: Leading for Innovation and Change.

1. March 12, 2014
Develop Your High Potentials
Into Results-Driven Leaders
Ivy Exec

2. Samuel B. Bacharach
McKelvey-Grant Professor, Cornell University
@samuelbacharach
blg-lead.com
sb@blg-lead.com

3. You build your future on the
core knowledge and skills of
your high potentials

4. Who are your
high potentials
& why train
them?

5. 1. They know the business
2. Others respect them
3. They are ambitious
4. They work well with others
5. They have guts
Criteria for Selecting High Potentials

6. Train them in the micro-skills of execution

7. Results-driven leadership is
about moving agendas

8. It’s about giving your high
potentials the political skills
to mobilize teams and the
managerial skills to move
agendas for results

9. High potentials need
the micro-skills to
move agendas

10. micro-skills
It’s about

11. Why the focus on micro-skills?

12. If you want to create
change you must
lead a campaign

13. Political
Competence
Managerial
Competence
1. Anticipate
2. Coalesce
The Skills of
Sustaining
Momentum
3. Engage
4. Enhance
The Skills of
Mobilization
& &

14. The challenge of political competence
Overcome
resistance & get
them on board

15. Political
Competence
1. Anticipate
2. Coalesce
The Skills of
Mobilization
&

16. Step 1:
Train them to anticipate

17. Bacharach Leadership Group ©2010
resistance
have there will be pockets of
For every agenda item you
criticism

18. Anticipate their agendas

19. Adjuster Traditionalist
Revolutionary Developer

20. Anticipate their arguments

21. Leaders must anticipate
what others are going to say

22. Bacharach Leadership Group ©2010Bacharach Leadership Group ©2010
Leaders must anticipate the
game

23. 1. We’ve tried it before!
2. Your idea is too risky!
3. You’re doing it wrong!
4. You don’t know the issues well
enough!
5. Your idea will actually make things
worse!
6. Your proposal won’t change a thing!
7. You have ulterior motives!
The 7 Yes-But Arguments

24. Political
Competence
Managerial
Competence
1. Anticipate
2. Coalesce
The Skills of
Sustaining
Momentum
3. Engage
4. Enhance
The Skills of
Mobilization
& &

25. The challenge of managerial competence
You have them on
board, now you
have to sustain
momentum for
results

26. Political
Competence
1. Anticipate
2. Coalesce
The Skills of
Mobilization
&

27. Step 2:
Train them to coalesce
and get the buy-in

28. Four Benefits
of the Coalition
Mindset

29. Coalitions diffuse risk

30. Coalitions establish legitimacy

31. Coalitions deflect sabotage

32. Coalitions help deflect revenge

33. 4 Ways to Justify Your Initiative
Regulation Scenario: “They made us do it”
Rational Scenario: “Look at the numbers”
Mimicking Scenario: “Everyone is doing it”
Standards Scenario: “People expect it of us”

34. 4 Ways to Establish Credibility
Expertise: “I Know What I’m Talking About”
Integrity: “I Can Be Trusted”
Positional: “It Comes With the Turf”
Opportunity: “The Right Place at the Right Time”

35. Political
Competence
Managerial
Competence
1. Anticipate
2. Coalesce
The Skills of
Sustaining
Momentum
3. Engage
4. Enhance
The Skills of
Mobilization
& &

36. Managerial
Competence
The Skills of
Sustaining
Momentum
3. Engage
4. Enhance
&

37. Step 3:
Train them to structure,
guide, integrate, &
sustain for engagement

38. How to structure
your team for
momentum

39. don’t forget teams
Create hierarchies but

40. Provide resources but
welfare agency
don’t become a

41. Give autonomy but
define parameters

42. How to guide
your team to for
engagement

43. subjective bottom line
Be clear about the

44. Make adjustments
but don’t overreact

45. How to
integrate your
team for
engagment

46. Create a problem-solving
culture but don’t process
things to death

47. Pump up the collective
but don’t forget the individual

48. Celebrate but don’t
worship idols

49. How to sustain
your team for
engagement

50. Don’t let the coalition
mindset slip away

51. counter-coalitions
Beware of

52. Political
Competence
Managerial
Competence
1. Anticipate
2. Coalesce
The Skills of
Sustaining
Momentum
3. Engage
4. Enhance
The Skills of
Mobilization
& &

53. Managerial
Competence
The Skills of
Sustaining
Momentum
3. Engage
4. Enhance
&

54. Step 4:
Train them to enhance

55. Two keys to enhancing your team:
Dialogue1:
Coach2:

56. 1. Emphasize that the micro-skills align
with your business strategy
Developing a Successful Skill Based High-
Potential Leadership Program
2. Make sure the skills the are integrated
3. Establish a learning cohort

57. 4. Create micro-skill metrics
5. Match skill evaluation (to skill training)
6. Follow up for proactive ownership
Developing a Successful Skill Based High-
Potential Leadership Program

58. You can’t do it alone
Remember:

59. 1. Online
2. Mixed-modalities
3. Face-to-face
&

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Sales & Growth-Focused Content with Real World Application

61. The End

62. Samuel B. Bacharach
McKelvey-Grant Professor, Cornell University
@samuelbacharach
blg-lead.com
sb@blg-lead.com