No doubt this, along with posters, viral stories about founders, and processes to monitor, will all help a great deal. It is often said that culture building requires more than just mobilising and getting a good document. It will also help to get the participants to document their experiences in creating a repository for reference. By its nature, it is a cost-effective one, but having the data to back the intuitive analysis is necessary to fine-tune it further. Evaluating the returns from this initiative is important. SME leaders can do several things for this programme to succeed. Admittedly, in today’s connected world, that is a tad difficult.

There have been several series - for example, Boss’s Day Out by the BBC - in which the CEO went incognito to do first-level jobs. By moving with and donning the role of a junior person or a frontline sales or operations staff, they get a first-hand experience that is far more impactful than any cognitive or intellectual understanding of how things work and what actually makes the business tick on the ground level. Reverse shadowing: Leaders will be able to understand ground realities by not just keeping their ears to the ground but also being on the battlefield.

This can also be a step towards making the next-generation leadership team more cohesive and collaborative.Īssignment-based learning: Assign participants to work on specific projects alongside leaders, giving them hands-on experience and the opportunity to apply the learning. The interaction can be an event where high-potential people are gathered from different functions and locations and get to spend half a day with the big boss. Group conversations: For very senior leaders, selected high-potential staff members are given the unique opportunity of an “Ask Me Anything” session. Rotational shadowing: Allow employees to rotate through various leadership roles within the organisation, giving them exposure to different leadership styles and responsibilities. This allows for personalised guidance and a strong foundation for learning. Mapping the pair: Assign each participant a mentor from the leadership team whom they shadow regularly. There can be many variations in a structured programme for shadowing, and it can be one part of an overall mentoring system as well. Knowledge sharing: There will very likely be a lot of knowledge sharing, especially in cross-functional areas and areas that, for the shadowed person, are likely to be of a more strategic nature.Īppreciating the nature of the role: It can help them appreciate the complexities of the job that the person occupying the role has to face and foreshadow what the person shadowing may have to face, should they be able to occupy that position.įor the person being shadowed, some of the takeaways could be:įresh perspectives at an operational levelįeeling the pulse of the organisation firsthand How he/she decides which tasks or meetings take priority, which ones can be postponed to another time or day, and what criteria will be used to determine that. The leader may share his/her calendar and explain his/her prioritisation criteria. Specific skills: For example, time management. Here are some of them:įor the person who is doing the shadowing, the benefits can range from…. There are several benefits for the people involved in the process. Encouraging both participants to set specific goals that they want to achieve through this exercise and holding them accountable for their progress is an important element in making this programme effective. The shadowing programme needs an objective before it is implemented or rolled out. Remember the times we were in the physics laboratory in school and conducted experiments? We always needed an objective. However, for the entire company to make effective use of it, the programme has to be well structured. This is an exercise involving mostly two people. In the earlier articles, we looked at this technique from two perspectives – one from the person shadowing and the other from the person who is getting shadowed. Shadowing leaders is a very effective tool for developing good next-level leaders. Previously, in these columns, we have covered how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can utilise different tools for leadership development.

Mare of easttown season 1 episode 7