1. Leadership Transitions: Differences Across Leadership Levels
25 June 2013
Leadership Transitions: Differences Across Leadership Levels
Joy F. Hazucha
Copyright © 2011 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved. 1

2. The Korn/Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting family
Mission
Vision
Better leaders, Better world
Premier global provider of talent management solutions that accelerate leadership effectiveness and maximize business impact 2
© 2008 PDI Ninth House. All rights reserved.

3. Global Footprint MADRID MEDELLIN AMSTERDAM ATHENS MELBOURNE ATLANTA
MEXICO CITY
MIAMI
MILAN
MINNEAPOLIS
MONTERREY
MONTREAL
MOSCOW
MUMBAI
MUNICH
NEW DELHI
NEW YORK
NORTHERN VIRGINA
OSLO
PARIS
PHILADELPHIA
PRINCETON
QUITO
RIO DE JANEIRO
SAN FRANCISCO
SANTIAGO
SAO PAULO
SEOUL
SHANGHAI
SINGAPORE
STAMFORD
SYDNEY
TAIPEI
TEL AVIV
TOKYO
TORONTO
VANCOUVER
VIENNA
WARSAW
WASHINGTON, DC
WELLINGTON
ZURICH
AMSTERDAM
ATHENS
ATLANTA
AUCKLAND
BANGALORE
BARCELONA
BEIJING
BOGOTA
BOSTON
BRISBANE
BRUSSELS
BUDAPEST
BUENOS AIRES
CALGARY
CARACAS
CASABLANCA
CHICAGO
COPENHAGEN
DALLAS
DUBAI
DURANGO
FRANKFURT
GENEVA
GUANGZHOU
HAMBURG
HELSINKI
HONG KONG
HOUSTON
IRVINE
ISTANBUL
JAKARTA
JOHANNESBURG
KIEV
KUALA LUMPUR
LIMA
LONDON
LOS ANGELES
LYON

4. Research on differences between levels
Agenda
Research on differences between levels
Implications for your organizations
Copyright © 2011 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

5. Transitions Across the Leadership Pipeline
Copyright © 2011 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

6. Leadership Transitions The ‘Stats’
Fewer than 36% of executives hired from outside the organization will succeed (Bradt, Check & Pedraza , 2009)
Up to 40% of internal promotions find the transition a challenge; 20% rate it a downright disappointment (rhr research)
8% of new managers continued to operate more as individual contributors than leaders (concept reserve)

7. Transitions in the ‘Danger Zone’
Why?
Peter Principle; high performers who have been misidentified
Never learned how to manage transition process
Lack of support for big stretch assignments
Lack of clarity around expectations
Radically different success factors in new role—they don’t naturally occur

8. The Transformation Trilogy
Need to understand what to Add On, Preserve, and Let Go
Add On
Preserve
Let Go
The Transformation Trilogy
— Arthur Freedman, 1998

9. Whole Person Assessment: Compare Levels on Each
4. Behaviors and Skills:
Skills and behaviors that can be applied on the job
3. Knowledge, Experiences:
Relevant experiences and track record
1. Traits, Aptitudes, & Derailers:
Behavior tendencies and abilities
2. Motivators, Interests, & Values:
Career goals, What interests and engages them
More observable
Easier to develop
Less observable
More difficult to develop

10. Methodology overview:
Looked at 30,000+ leadership assessments
Determined leadership level at time assessment
Contrasted each level to the ones above and below
Isolated the attributes that reliably differentiate each level
Replicated across samples, reliably classifies into correct level
Copyright © 2013 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

11. 1. Motivators: Data Collection
Career History Questionnaire: inventory used as pre-work for in-depth assessments – asks leaders to rank order their top 5 motivators from a list of 19
Data collected from over 17,000 leaders from 2006 To 2011
Leaders represented a variety of industries as well as geographies
Categorized into 4 levels of leadership
Copyright © 2011 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

12. 19 Motivators: Choose top 5
Advancement opportunities (promotions)
Fast-paced environment with lots of change
Friendly workplace with good relations with coworkers, vendors, and/or clients
Sense of personal accomplishment
Hard-driving, performance-based culture
Autonomy in carrying out my responsibilities
Belief in the mission of the organization
Expert or authority status
Fair and consistent managers
Influence on the direction of the organization
Monetary compensation
Opportunity to be creative
Responsibility for the performance of others and the results of the unit
Stimulating, challenging work
Training or development opportunities
Variety in job duties
Visibility and recognition
Working in a stable job with little change
Work-life balance
Copyright © 2013 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

13. US Leader Motivators by Level
High correlations between profiles -> more similar than different for all management levels. But the correlations go down with distance (first to senior is the lowest)
Correlations between level profiles US
mid funcbus senior
first
mid
funcbus
Copyright © 2010 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

14. Preserve Across Levels
Motivators
Lower Level
Senior Level
Self Focused Motivators
Influence Drives
Advancement
Influence on Organization Decisions
Friendly Workplace
Responsibilities for Others
Development Opportunities
Performance Based Culture
Work-life Balance
Belief in Organizational Mission
Preserve Across Levels
Achievement Drives
Stimulating, Challenging Work
Personal Accomplishments
Monetary Compensation

15. 2. Personality by Level
Copyright © 2013 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

16. Consideration of Others
Personality: Preserve
Preserve
Individual
Contributor
First-level
Leader
Mid-level
Leader
Business Unit
Leader
Senior
Executive
CONSISTENT
Self-Confidence
Emotional Control
Consideration of Others
Responsibility 16 16

17. Let Go Personality: Let Go DECLINING Micro-Managing Attend to Detail
Individual
Contributor
First-level
Leader
Mid-level
Leader
Business Unit
Leader
Senior
Executive
DECLINING
Micro-Managing
Attend to Detail
Passive-Aggressive
Keep People Happy
Independence 17 17

18. Add On Personality: Add On INCREASING Energy Adaptability Influence
Individual
Contributor
First-level
Leader
Mid-level
Leader
Business Unit
Leader
Senior
Executive
INCREASING
Energy
Adaptability
Influence
Risk-Taking
Optimism
Vision 18 18

19. Personality Twist: Add On, then Let Go
Copyright © 2013 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

20. Create a Negative Environment Handle Conflict Poorly Create Distrust
Derailment
Lack Self-Insight
Poor Relationships
Create a Negative Environment
Handle Conflict Poorly
Create Distrust

21. Personality Summary Summary Business Unit Leader
ADD ON:
LET GO:
Strategic, trusting, idea generator, optimistic
Acting independently
Managing Managers (Mid-Level)
ADD ON:
LET GO:
Influencer, energetic, executor, risk taker
Attending to daily details
Managing Others (First Level)
ADD ON:
LET GO:
Willing to give direction, depends on others
Needing to be liked

22. 3. Experiences by Level
Copyright © 2013 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

23. Lower Level Senior Level
Experiences to Accelerate Transitions
Lower Level
Senior Level
Difficult Staffing Situations
Strategy Development
Financial Management
Critical/Visible Assignment
Interpersonal Challenges
High Risk Situations
Support Function Experience
Critical Negotiations
Inherited Problems
External Relations

24. Problem-Solving and Personality
Note:
Experience Differences much larger than Personality
Problem-Solving and Personality
Experience
Copyright © 2013 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

25. 4. Skills and Competencies
Responses to The PROFILOR® from 8,000+ leaders across the globe:
The PROFILOR®
360◦ feedback tool used for development purposes
Feedback collected from sources including Manager/Boss perspective
Boss Ratings of leaders from 4 levels
Importance of each competency
Skill level on behaviors -> competencies
Skill
Importance
Model
Nlow
Nhigh
Sr Exec
952
1,014
1,007
1,008
BUL
1,232
1,292
1,288
1,290
MLL
2,572
2,603
2,586
2,589
FLL
3,119
3,249
3,232
3,239
Level
Copyright © 2011 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

26. Ratings of Importance Thought Leadership Results Leadership
Critically Important
More Important at lower levels
Adaptability (Self)
Communication (People)
Structure the Work – Plans (Results)
Critically Important at all levels
Judgment (Thought)
Structure the Work- Execution (Results)
Drive for Results (Results)
More Important at Higher Levels
Building Talent (People)
Engage and Inspire (People)
Influencing (People)
Strategy (Thought)
Trust (Self)
Similarities
High Importance across levels
Analysis/Judgment
Structure the Work- Execution
Drive for Results (MLL is close to threshold)
Low Importance across levels
Global perspective- I used global norm groups which were equally weighted for NA, Asia, and Europe samples so odd that global is rated low. Global is not seen as important which coincides with previous PDI research showing that even in Global companies the Global competency comes out low on importance.
Differences
Highly Important at certain levels
Sr Exec: Talent, Trust (other levels close to threshold too)
BUL: (Drive for Results is very high)
MLL: Customers
FLL: Communication
Other competencies close to threshold across all levels are Collaboration and Trust (People and Personal)
All levels are required to make good decisions, execute, and drive for results (Thought and Results)
At higher levels, the more complex People and Thought competencies tend to become more important
All 4 Leadership Superfactors are important across leadership levels (Thought, Results, People, Personal)
Most critical at all levels: Judgment, Structure the Work-Execution, Drive for Results [thought and results leadership]
Increasing Importance with higher leadership levels: Talent, Engage and Inspire (though doesn’t reach the cutoff the pattern is still strong)
Other interesting trends:
4-5 competencies are really important for each level and they have some similarities and some differences
Similar: Analysis/Judgment, Structure-Execution, Drive for Results
Uniquely important to
Sr Exec: Talent, Trust (though other levels are close to threshold as well)
BUL: (Drive for Results is really high)
Strategy & Influence tend to get more important
Least important (even for global companies): Global
Thought Leadership
Results Leadership
People Leadership
Personal Leadership

27. Demonstrates competency to a great/very great extent
Ratings of Skill
Demonstrates competency to a great/very great extent
5 = to a very great extent
4 = to a great extent Values greater than 4 were considered high ratings for these analyses
3 = to some extent
2 = to a little extent
1 = not at all
Mean ratings were high overall
Similarities: Demonstrated to a great/very great extent at all 4 Levels
Trust
Demonstrated to a great/very great extent for specific levels
Sr Exec = n/a
BUL = Drive for Results, Engage & Inspire
MLL = Customers, Drive for Results
FLL = Drive for Results, Engage & Inspire, Relationships
Sr Exec tend to score the lowest across competencies.
Talent rated lower as you increase levels.
Thought Leadership
Results Leadership
People Leadership
Personal Leadership
Copyright © 2011 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

28. Development Priorities Matrix
Lower Importance (from PROFILOR)
Higher Importance (from PROFILOR)
Higher Skill
(BOTH in PROFILOR & Assessments)
Lower Skill
Primary
Strengths
Primary
Development
Needs
To provide additional verification of the higher and lower skill ratings, we looked at rank orders of competencies from high to low skill in both Profilor and in PDI NH Assessments Database. Included the competency in the importance x skill matrix above if the competency was higher skill in BOTH Profilor and Assessments data or lower skill in both databases.
Critical & Performing Very Well = Key Strengths!
Sr Exec = Trust
BUL = Drive for Results
MLL = Customers
Critical & Performing Less Well = Key Vulnerabilities!
The same pattern showed up for ALL levels
Structure the Work: execution
Additionally, for Sr Exec, Talent is rated Critical but has the lowest rated skill level of any competency.
Hidden Weakness:
Sr Exec & MLL = Financial
Additionally, for Sr Exec, Global is rated much less important, and the skill level is also low. If this is not seen as important for individual jobs at any level, how will an organization succeed globally?
Key Vulnerabilities At All Levels
Structure the Work/ Execution
Additionally, Talent becomes more important as level increases, but people are rated less well on it as level increases, which means the vulnerability on this increases with level.
Copyright © 2011 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

29. Development Priorities Matrix
Lower Importance (from PROFILOR)
Higher Importance (from PROFILOR)
Higher
Skill
(BOTH in PROFILOR & Assessments)
Lower Skill
Secondary Strengths
Sr Exec: none
BUL: Trust
MLL: Trust
Drive for Results
Primary Strengths
Sr Exec: Trust
BUL: Drive for Results
MLL: Customers
Secondary Development Needs
Sr Exec: Global
Financial
Structure Work-Plans
Courage
BUL: Talent
MLL: Financial
Primary Development Needs
Sr Exec: Drive for Results
Talent
Structure Work-Execution
BUL: Structure Work-Execution
MLL: Structure Work-Execution
To provide additional verification of the higher and lower skill ratings, we looked at rank orders of competencies from high to low skill in both Profilor and in PDI NH Assessments Database. Included the competency in the importance x skill matrix above if the competency was higher skill in BOTH Profilor and Assessments data or lower skill in both databases.
Critical & Performing Very Well = Key Strengths!
Sr Exec = Trust
BUL = Drive for Results
MLL = Customers
Critical & Performing Less Well = Key Vulnerabilities!
The same pattern showed up for ALL levels
Structure the Work: execution
Additionally, for Sr Exec, Talent is rated Critical but has the lowest rated skill level of any competency.
Hidden Weakness:
Sr Exec & MLL = Financial
Additionally, for Sr Exec, Global is rated much less important, and the skill level is also low. If this is not seen as important for individual jobs at any level, how will an organization succeed globally?
Key Vulnerabilities At All Levels
Structure the Work/ Execution
Additionally, Talent becomes more important as level increases, but people are rated less well on it as level increases, which means the vulnerability on this increases with level.
Copyright © 2011 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.

30. Preserve Across Levels
Most Important Competencies
Lower Level
Senior Level
Adaptability
Build Talent
Communication
Engage & Inspire
Influence
Strategic Thinking
Trust
Preserve Across Levels
Judgment
Structure the Work
Drive for Results

31. The Five Agendas of a Leader: Framework for Transitions and Engagement
Leadership Agenda
Identify core values and principles
Set the tone for leadership
Demonstrate organizational savvy
Engage and inspire others
Leadership
Business Agenda
Define strategic priorities
Understand and leverage key business drivers
Outline short-term and long-term action plans to accomplish significant results with speed and quality
Relationship Agenda
Establish positive working relationships with important stakeholders
Proactively network and build relationships to ensure long-term success
Business
Relationship
Personal
Personal Agenda
Clarify life goals and values
Balance work life with family, health, and fitness, and other priorities
Maintain motivation and focus
Learning
Learning Agenda
Identify key strengths and weaknesses
Establish development plans to build capabilities where needed
Learn from experience

32. Developing leaders can help:
Implications
Focus on motivators, style, competencies & experiences to develop leaders
Some attributes matter more at specific levels of leadership (influence, risk taking, strategy)
Some attributes matter at all levels of leadership (achievement drive and results)
Developing leaders can help:
Place more time and focus on important areas that might otherwise be ignored
Learn and intentionally use helpful tools and frameworks
Seek relevant experiences and feedback
Identify colleagues with complementary strengths

33. Your Questions?
Copyright © 2010 Personnel Decisions International Corporation, d.b.a. PDI Ninth House. All Rights Reserved.