Now more than ever before, organizations need leadership at all levels and within all areas of their enterprise. The "succession crisis" to which the subtitle of this book refers includes but is by no means limited to C-level executives. With all due respect to formal education and institutional training programs, on-the-job training is (by far) the best preparation for completing more demanding tasks, assuming increased responsibilities and duties, etc. Moreover, Ram Charan is absolutely correct when asserting that organizations "are short on the quantity and quality of leaders they need...[We must] abandon our traditional leadership development practices. They're not working. Tinkering and fine-tuning won't solve the fundamental program. It's time for a completely new approach to finding and developing the kinds of leaders businesses need... To fix the problem, you have to get to its root, which is the faulty conventional wisdom about what leadership is and how to improve it."
Charan offers what he characterizes as a "radically different approach," one "that is not for the fainthearted": the Apprenticeship Model. (What it involves and how to implement it are best revealed within Charan's narrative rather than discussed now, out of context.) Any model is based on certain assumptions and Charan's is no exception. By now, he has concluded that not everyone can become a leader, that leadership ability is developed through practice and self-correction, and that the CEO job requires "giant leaps in learning." The Apprenticeship Model is based on these assumptions. As in all of his previous books, Charan is again a pragmatist when presenting his insights and recommendations in this book and thus almost wholly preoccupied with explaining what works, what doesn't, and how to achieve the desired results. For example:
Chapter 1: How to measure the "leadership talent deficit" in an organization and then fund efforts to reduce (if not eliminate) it
Note: This has serious implications for both hiring and subsequent training.
Chapter 2: How apprenticeship develops effective leaders
Chapter 3: How to recognize leadership potential
Note: My personal opinion is that the material in Chapter 3 should precede the material in Chapter 2.
Chapter 4: How to customize each leader's growth path
Chapter 5: What the crucial role of "bosses" is
Note: Personally, I dislike the term "boss" but agree with Charan that one standard of measurement for a supervisor's performance evaluation should be the extent to which that supervisor developed skills in those for whom she or his is directly responsible.
Chapter 6: How to manage apprenticeship initiatives and relationships systematically
Chapter 7: How to select the CEO candidate who is most likely to provide the leadership and produce the results that are needed
Chapter 8: How to institutionalize the Apprenticeship Model
Once again, I am in total agreement with Charan's assertion that leadership must be development at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise. The Apprenticeship Model is uniquely, indeed ideally suited to help achieve that objective because it is based on a sometimes misunderstood or neglected business reality: those who function as mentors (i.e. "masters") to their direct reports learn much of value while doing so; moreover, their direct reports, in turn, can and should serve as mentors to those for whom they are responsible. This interactive process is precisely what Thomas Davenport, Carla O'Dell, Peter Senge, and others mean when advocating a "total learning organization."
In the Epilogue, Charan observes that individual leaders can and should embrace the Apprenticeship Model even if their companies don't and take ownership of their own development. Those who believe they have leadership potential that is undiscovered should take charge of their own learning and development. They should make their own luck." Quite right.
Two final points. First, the model that Ram Charan recommends does not replace an organization's formal training programs. On the contrary, both should be mutually supportive and carefully coordinated combinations of earning opportunities. Also, what Charan recommends can be implemented in any organization, whatever its size or nature may be.
