Proceedings of 7th Global Business and Social Science Research Conference
13 - 14 June, 2013, Radisson Blu Hotel, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-26-9
Senior Leader’s Role in Developing a Strong Pipeline in
Organization
Sakinah Muslim, Shireen Haron and Rugayah Hashim
Leadership development and succession planning have been widely
discussed and studied
with a varying focus. In recent times, many
academicians and researchers have made significant contributions in the
theories and practice of leadership development and succession
planning. Theses efforts are the most promising means of assuring the
sustainability which is vital to the long-term success of an organisation.
However, leadership development is an area that is insufficient within
institutions of higher education. This paper discusses the senior leader’s
of public institutions of higher education’s role in developing a strong
pipeline in organization. It also examine the challenges of senior leaders
involvement and recommends some efforts that need to be taken.
Field of research: Human Resource Planning
Introduction
The essences of succession planning includes identification and development for key
positions (Rothwell, 2010). Meanwhile, Hart, Conklin and Allen (2008) defined
leadership development as a process of expanding an organization‟s capacity to
generate leadership potential within the organization to achieve organizational goals.
Therefore, developing future leaders is critically important in succession planning and
leadership development. In best-practice organization, senior leaders seem to be in the
lead role to develop potential leaders (Morrison, 2011).
Research on leadership development strongly and consistently supports the notion that
regardless of actual developmental methods, the acquisition of leadership skills is
facilitated by visible senior leaders commitment and involvement (Tichy, 1997; 2012;
Cacioppe, 1998a; Groves, 2007). According to Molinaro and Weiss (2005), among
best-practice organizations they have studied, they found that senior leaders see
leadership development as their priority. In addition, organizational culture that values
learning and development is useful to achieve shared goals (Groves, 2007; Van Velsor
et al., 2010). Hence, the aim of this conceptual paper is to explore the senior leader‟s
role and to discuss the challenges to ensure their involvement and participation give
meaningful contribution in developing leadership pipeline.
This is a conceptual review of the importance of senior leader‟s role. The paper
discusses the senior leader‟s of public institutions of higher education‟s role in
________________________________________________________________________
Sakinah Muslim, Universiti Teknologi MARA (Uitm), Malaysia, sakinah@uum.edu.my
Shireen Haron, Universiti Teknologi MARA (Uitm), Malaysia, shireen738@salam.uitm.edu.my
Rugayah Hashim, Universiti Teknologi MARA (Uitm), Malaysia, gy@salam.uitm.edu.my
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Proceedings of 7th Global Business and Social Science Research Conference
13 - 14 June, 2013, Radisson Blu Hotel, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-26-9
developing a strong pipeline in organization. It also examine the challenges of senior
leaders‟ involvement and recommends some efforts that need to be taken.
Senior leader’s involvement and participation
By cultivating existing talent internally, companies will keep skilled employees longer,
decrease training costs, and reduce or eliminate hiring cycles (Kristick, 2009). In this
effort, organization must fully engage and utilize senior leaders in the process. They
cannot be just “organisational celebrities” who pass briefly through the program and
delegate the task to human resource department. This level of participation does not
fully utilise the expertise and experience senior leaders have. In other words, this level
of participation does not allow the strategic issues to be explored and understood
(Cacioppe, 1998a).
Many have touted the importance of senior leaders in leadership development
initiatives. Allio (2003) and Brown (2010) assert that the principle job of a leader and
the important competency that leaders should have is to help develop the next
generation of leaders. Tichy (1997) notes that to be a true leader, leaders must
develop future leaders. This task will ensure organization‟s sustainability. Thus,
involvement and participation of senior leaders in the succession planning and
leadership development programme is vital (Tropiano, 2004; Cacioppe, 1998). In fact,
development efforts are more successful when senior leaders not only own, but also
demonstrate interest and ongoing involvement in succession planning and development
(Bunker et al., 2010).
Senior leaders participation and support is one of the characteristics of effective
succession (Rothwell, 2010). It should also be noted that the National Academy of
Public Administration (NAPA) mentions that the first benchmark principle for managing
succession and developing leaders is personal involvement and deep commitment from
top organizational leaders (Tropiano, 2004). Without commitment and the involvement
of leadership to the development of potential leaders, it will be impossible to succeed in
these efforts (Fulmer, Gibbs and Goldsmith, 2000) and future leaders may not commit
to the program (Conger and Fulmer, 2003). This scenario is supported by recent Bersin
and Associates research that shows three time greater business impact generated by
senior leaders who coach and develop employees than those who do not (Anonymous,
2011).
Given the scrutiny of the leadership development initiatives, there is a need for senior
leaders to spend as much as one third of their time developing the organisation‟s
leaders in formal programs (Tichy, 2012). There are a few reasons behind this
suggestion:
a) During the leadership development program, participants are receptive to new ideas
and directions. If future leaders get all this thing from the top leaders of the
organisation, it will gives power, support and the thinking behind the new directions and
behaviours required.
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Proceedings of 7th Global Business and Social Science Research Conference
13 - 14 June, 2013, Radisson Blu Hotel, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-26-9
b) Senior leaders as teachers in the program assess the changing realities of the ideas
and modify them to be relevant and fit the needs of the current setting. They can select
ideas that add significant value to the organisation.
c) They provide frameworks for the decisions of managers in an organization. They give
a focus for common goals and actions which can be implemented back in the work
environment (Cacioppe, 1998a).
These reasons may help to answer the importance of senior leaders role in leadership
development initiatives.
In line with the organization‟s awareness of the importance of the role played by senior
leaders, they are increasingly engaging managerial personnel in the leadership
development process, and that managers add unique value to building the leadership
pipeline beyond that of external experts and other professionals (Tichy, 2004; Allio,
2003). Several large corporations are taking senior management leaders to the next
level by having senior leaders conduct the leadership development initiatives themself.
For instance, former CEO of PepsiCo, Roger Enrico, spent 100 days a year running
Pepsi‟s leadership development program for top management.
Similarly, General
Electric‟s (GE) John F. Welch Leadership Center, a comprehensive development
program in which executives and managers at all levels are largely responsible for
teaching the curriculum and delivering a range of leadership development activities
(Tichy, 1989). Mort Topfer, vice chairman of the board of Dell was involved not only
as executive sponsor, but as par ticipant, instructor, coach, and cheerleader in their
leadership development program (Winston, 2008). Scientific-Atlantic, a high tech
company implemented the Leaders Developing Leaders Mentoring Program. The
mentors that participate in the program are the organization‟s top leaders (Salopek,
2004). Other organizations have taken and are taking this same kind of initiative such
as Compaq, Servicemaster‟s, Hewlett-Packard‟s, Johnson & Johnson, and Shell
(Fulmer et al., 2000; Hurt and Homan, 2005).
There are a few scholars who discussed the role that should be played by senior
leaders. For instance, Cohn, Khurana and Reeves (2005) assert that, a part of the line
manager‟s role is recognizing her subordinates‟ developmental needs, helping them
develop new skills, and providing them with opportunities for professional and personal
growth. They need to mentor emerging leaders both within and outside of their own
department, disseminating key knowledge and offering evaluations and feedback.
Basically, leadership commitment and involvement can be translated into a number of
functions as follows.
a) Preparation activities
The starting point for leadership development is preparation activities. In this regard,
senior leaders must identify development opportunities that are crucial to leadership
development (Leibman, Bruer and Maki, 1996). In addition, Harris and Barnes (2006)
shared their experience on how Lilly Research Laboratories encourage and supported
deep engagement of senior leaders in leadership development. They play roles in
preparation activities by shaping strategy and focus on implementation, assess needs
and gap in leadership pipeline.
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Proceedings of 7th Global Business and Social Science Research Conference
13 - 14 June, 2013, Radisson Blu Hotel, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-26-9
b) Teaching
Normally, organization will hire or invite professors and consultant leadership trainers to
develop future leaders. However, Allio (2003) claims that they are not the right people
to develop leaders. Senior leaders leaders are in best position to teach future leaders .
They are the people who are able to provide the best insights into the unwritten rules of
the organization, help navigate employees around potential issues, and provide
encouragement (Zenger and Folkman, 2003). In fact, history has proven that great
leaders are also great teachers (Cacioppe, 1998; Tichy, 2012).
Active role in teaching future leaders is the hallmarks of winning companies. Research
on leadership development programs at leading companies‟ supports the notion that
managers must play an active role in developing the next generation of leaders through
teaching experiences with high potential employees (Tichy, 2004). Past literature
recorded that, experienced and accomplished leaders in winning organizations teach
people to be effective leaders (Cohen and Tichy, 1997; Cacioppe, 1998; Tichy, 2012).
Pollit (2007) explained experience of Capital One University developing “leaders as
teacher” approach in order ensure knowledge and the skills of senior leaders are being
fully utilised. They become executive speaker series, business-leader workshops, short
session on particular expertise, delivering training programme particular subject areas
and involvement in particular session on training programme. In addition, Harris and
Barnes (2006) shared their experience on how Lilly Research Laboratories encourage
and supported deep engagement of senior leaders in leadership development. They
become faculty member for a core program, and share their experience and participate
in various leadership development programs.
The leading organization also encourages senior leaders to teach classes and facilitate
workshops on a series of leadership development topics. Groves (2007) in his study of
30 CEOs and human resource executives across 15 best practice organizations found
that leading organizations actively encourage learning and knowledge sharing by
tasking their leaders with teaching responsibilities. The teaching process actively
reinforces the value of learning, encourages the effective dissemination of knowledge,
and helps employees understand how they may apply such knowledge to their work
and collectively influence important outcomes in the organization.
Tichy (2012) claims that the
secret of successful organization is their leaders
personally and actively develop leaders. In addition, senior leaders must have a
“teachable point of view”, a point of view that they were committed to, that involved a
dynamic, compelling vision or story of where the organisation is going and how it is
going to get there. They should orchestrate open and candid discussion. They teach,
conduct a discussion and informal interaction. This way, they can pass their experience
to future leaders.
c) Developmental relationship
Usually delivered through coaching and mentoring, developmental relationship is an
essential initiatives in leadership development. Internal mentoring and coaching has a
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Proceedings of 7th Global Business and Social Science Research Conference
13 - 14 June, 2013, Radisson Blu Hotel, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-26-9
significant impact on the development of emerging leaders. Basically, senior leaders
should mentor and showcase potential leaders (Leibman et al. 1996). Mullen (2009)
describes mentor as the “a guide who opens up others to new experiences and the
world, and who encourages and protects protégés” (2009, p.10). A majority of leading
firms use internal mentoring programs to develop high-potential employees. Through
pairing with internal senior mentors, high-potentials are introduced to years of
knowledge and experience. Leading firms use both internal and external coaches to
address specific developmental needs or to help action learning groups as they
grapple with complex challenges (Fulmer, Stumpf and Bleak, 2009).
Groves (2007) recommended that organization must develop the organization‟s mentor
network. This effort can be implemented by fully engaging all managers in mentoring
relationships with direct reports and high potential employees. This initiatives can
effectively build their leadership pipeline.
d) Experiential learning
It's very effective to pair classroom training with real-life exposure to a variety of jobs
and bosses-using techniques like job rotation, special assignments "action learning"
(Conger and Fulmer, 2003). According to Leibman et al. (1996), senior leaders should
manage developmental opportunities for potential leaders. In this regard, senior leaders
must arrange assignments that are challenging, critical and significant. Managers at all
levels are engaged in delivering leadership development activities such as facilitating
action learning projects, and creating assignments that fall outside the employee‟s
functional background (Groves, 2007).
Senior leaders, with the support of human resource professionals, deliver the projects,
assignments, and courses. Regarding stretch assignments, the executives reported that
the many developmental benefits include exposing high potentials to several functional
and product areas, providing invaluable working experiences with a variety of
executives and colleagues, and collecting diagnostic data on high potentials‟
performance to inform the succession planning decisions. As managers‟ developmental
needs change over the course of their career, executives task them with stretch
assignments that address the organization‟s strategic issues and adjust the lists of high
potentials according to their performance on such assignments (Groves, 2007).
Other related roles
a) Sponsorship
Sponsorship refers to a person or persons who encouraged and provided a critical
opportunities for the individual on the journey to become leader (Kambil, 2010). It is
suggested that sponsors be selected to assist future leaders in advancing within the
organization (Friday, Friday and Green, 2004). Kambil (2010) emphasized a model of
„„sponsorship‟‟ in leadership development. This approach empowered to directly invite
an aspiring leader to a task or role often outside their immediate skill or task base, to
provide a critical learning and leadership development experience. Ideal sponsors are
also willing to use their political capital in an organization, when necessary, to support
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Proceedings of 7th Global Business and Social Science Research Conference
13 - 14 June, 2013, Radisson Blu Hotel, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-26-9
a promising young leader in getting the resources to do a task, or when they fail at a
task for unforeseen reasons (Kambil, 2010).
b) “Leaders developing leaders”
One of the related strategy that can be use by organization is to leverage the use of
senior leaders to develop future leaders is “leaders developing leaders”. This involves
getting senior managers directly involved in teaching and facilitating leadership
development (Cacioppe, 1998b). Underscoring the importance of senior leader‟s
involvement and participation, The Human Capital Institute (HCI), together with Lee
Hecht Harrison (LHH), released a research report on this topic in 2010. The research
compared global top companies with more than 530 other organizations around the
globe. The single characteristic that distinguished these companies from the others is
that they made leadership a critical part of their organizational fabric. They also found
that leadership development was embedded into the culture of top companies.
According to the report, this programs are built on the theory that senior leaders are
uniquely positioned to espouse and teach the leadership values and skills of
organizations. In this inexpensive, scalability, and efficient program, calibre senior
leaders will become teachers, coaches, and or mentors for the organization‟s future
leaders. In fact, this program must be a priority in any organization if they serious to
develop their leadership pipeline.
c) Inculcating the culture of leadership development in institutions of higher education
Leaders should embed leadership development in the organization culture, structure
and system. Top management should supports and reinforces shared accountability,
feedback mechanism and the overall importance of leadership development. This effort
must be visible so that it can send a clear message to all employees that leadership
development should be their priority. Full support from senior leaders includes
involvement in curriculum development, targeted individuals selection and involvement
with learning activities (Leskiew and Singh, 2007).
In addition, organization should make leadership development a top strategic priority
and create a supportive organizational culture. Senior leaders must be involved in
teaching courses and workshops, facilitating action learning projects, and engaging
direct reports in regular discussions of high potential employees. Without strong support
from the senior leaders, leadership development and succession planning will be
viewed as non-essential activities (Groves, 2007). When it becomes visible, it will be
much easier to instil a favourable culture of learning and a genuine commitment to
development (Brooks, Ferrandou and Anderson, 2007).
Instilling the culture of developing people has to start from the top. Setting expectations
through the performance management process and reinforcing them through rewards
and recognition are critical for embedding these priorities in the culture, and managers
need to be held accountable for supporting the development of their staff (Brown,
2010).
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Proceedings of 7th Global Business and Social Science Research Conference
13 - 14 June, 2013, Radisson Blu Hotel, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-26-9
Challenges and Recommendations
Despite recognising the importance of developing future leaders, many managers lack
the knowledge, capability, and organizational support they need to participate and
involve in development. Organization also lack the skills to engage senior leaders in
the process (Brooks, Ferrandou and Anderson, 2007). Normally, organization end up
to hire management development specialists, consultants, academic and other
professional.
Based on the Report of Leadership Development in European Organisation Study ( and
Hewes et al. (2012), there are a few steps to secure senior leader‟s involvement. First,
organization must create compelling vision and effectively communicated to senior
management. This vision must be in line with organization goals, inspiring and
interesting. Organization must also obtain senior leader‟s commitment at the very start.
It begins at the project approval process, talking with leaders to gain their support for
the program and their commitment to be engaged with it. In this regard, organization
also can form an advisory board. This board consist of senior leaders that will contribute
ideas for upcoming sessions,
provide feedback on past programmes and give
approval for new programs.
In addition, organization must develop a network of „„believers‟‟ in senior leaders
through:
a) Bringing data to support the argument for why they should be involved.
b) Providing benchmarks that describe how other companies have used senior leaders
in these roles with good results.
c) Being persuasive and persistent by emphasizing the value to both the individual
leader and to the organization.
In short, the way to get senior leaders involved in leadership development is to make
them central to the process and to communicate the organizational value and the
personal rewards that will result from their engagement (Harris and Barnes, 2006).
Another challenge is to ensure the success of senior leader‟s efforts. In this regard,
organization should incorporate the following four important components: use a
selection process to identify which leaders will develop new leaders, prepare and
develop your seasoned leaders to effectively teach, coach, and develop future leaders,
hold leaders accountable for developing others through assessment, and recognize
those leaders who do it well (The Human Capital Institute, 2010). In this sense, senior
leaders have succession planning objectives as part of their performance objectives,
which drive rewards.
HRD professionals role in organization must also change. They must identify senior
leaders to teach and help them to create a point of view as well as design the right
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Proceedings of 7th Global Business and Social Science Research Conference
13 - 14 June, 2013, Radisson Blu Hotel, Beijing, China, ISBN: 978-1-922069-26-9
approaches for development. When senior leaders do become involved in potential
leaders development, learning professionals may be called upon to help them prepare
for roles as mentors and coaches. A close alliance between leaders and the learning
function can help to ensure that candidate development activities actually address the
needs identified for each candidate and are relevant to specific challenges the
organization faces, while also providing oversight to maintain consistency and quality in
the development process (Morrison, 2011).
Conclusion
Clearly, having the leader‟s involvement and participation in every stage and form of
leadership development initiatives is very crucial. They are the driver of development
efforts and they add unique value to the process. It is a core skill required of senior
leaders and should be emphasised in organizational leadership development initiatives
to facilitate leadership pipeline. This paper noted the importance of senior leaders
involvement and participation. They need to show their interest and commitment in
order to get commitment from others. They must make use their valuable experience in
order to fill leadership pipeline. They play a central role in making development visible
and exhibit commitment to the development agenda. In short, senior leaders‟
involvement and participation is very critical to develop a strong pipeline in any
organization.
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