Reading Room

The Leadership Pipeline: How To Build The Leadership Powered Company

A re-read this month of a modern leadership classic.  The Leadership Pipeline looks at how successful companies work to create their own leaders from within the business.  Yet as with many books which select successful businesses and write up case studies around them, many of those businesses have since seen their fortunes slide.

The Leadership Pipeline highlights the many facets of the step up that good managers need to make in order to become good leaders.  In some businesses these steps are expected before someone takes a broader leadership role, in others managers are appointed and then expected to demonstrate a wider skill base.  It’s rare that someone who has demonstrated little leadership will suddenly make the transition on receipt of a new job title.

The Leadership Pipeline does contain a useful section on diagnostics which can help individuals to reflect on their behaviour and make choices for the future, using case studies to make key points, yet its emphasis as leadership as a senior job role within an organisation rather than way of contributing at all levels seems dated now.

Claudine McClean
T: +44 (0) 1789 734333
E: claudinem@predaptive.com