Preparing BU Heads for Moves to Regional Leader Roles

I was recently asked about what development needs there might be for a manager currently in a single unit MD role, whose next move was to be a regional CEO role. In a world where talent development is increasingly on the 'A' list of management priorities, this is probably a question that is occuring with increasing frequency, so I thought I'd shared my thoughts on this. My start point was that I would focus on the most significant changes in the role and then work back to the develop needs.

I would expect to see six major changes in role demands in this situation. Each of these demands points to different develop needs that will be more or less urgent depending on the background of the person making the move. Taking each in turn, the role demands and associated development needs might include the following:

1. A wider span of control, which means a greater reliance on others (development needs: delegation skills and learning to manage from data rather than involvement in tasks)
2. An increased distance from the real work of the organization, which makes it harder to know what is happening and exercise controls (development needs: risk management, business analytics and controls)
3. Cross-border activities, which mean different cultural issues, talent pools, and regulatory contexts (development need: x-cultural training, education about the political and regulatory environments for each country)
4. Less direct influence on events, which means a higher dependence on the effects of symbolic actions and weaker personal relationships (development needs: understanding and managing networks, managing messages/ executive level communications, psychology of large groups)
5. A higher level of discretion over how to spend time because of the longer term issues that are being dealt with (development needs: prioritization, personal philosophy of leadership, framing a 90 day plan (for customers, operations, people))
6. More strategic expectations of the role (development needs: strategy formulation, business finance, competitive and market contexts for each country under the role).

Delivery mechanisms will likely depend on whether the learning content is related to knowledge or skills development – the first can be delivered through classroom training or self learning, the latter through courses, advice (another leader with the right level of experience acting as a buddy or an external coach) but always through involvement in doing the task. Also, use of cross business projects as a development tool can be useful to prepare people for this kind of transition.

Any other thoughts on this would be welcomed!