54 Self-Development

FACTOR VI: PERSONALAND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
CLUSTER T: DEMONSTRATING PERSONAL FLEXIBILITY
54 Self-Development
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. John F. Kennedy – 35th President of the United
States
Section 1: Your Development Need(s)

Unskilled
 Doesn’t put in the effort to grow and change
 Doesn’t do anything to act on constructive feedback
 May not know what to work on or how
 May know what but doesn’t act on it
 Doesn’t adjust approach to different audiences and situations
 May be immune to negative feedback—arrogant or defensive
 May fear failure and the risk of admitting shortcomings
 May not believe people really change, therefore it’s not worth the effort
 May believe current skills will last
 May believe in development but is always too busy
Select one to three of the competencies listed below to use as a substitute for this competency if you decide not to
work on it directly.
Substitutes: 1,6,19,32,33,44,45,55,61
Skilled
 Is personally committed to and actively works to continuously improve him/herself
 Understands that different situations and levels may call for different skills and approaches
 Works to deploy strengths
 Works on compensating for weakness and limits
Overused Skill
 May be a self-help development junkie
 Can lead to navel-gazing
 May confuse others with constant efforts to improve and change
 May be too self-centered
 May be susceptible to self-help fads
 May spend too much time improving and too little time acting and performing
Select one to three of the competencies listed below to work on to compensate for an overuse of this skill.
Compensators: 1,24,43,46,50,51,53,55,57,63
COPYRIGHT © 1996–2010 LOMINGER INTERNATIONAL: A KORN/FERRY COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MICHAEL M. LOMBARDO & 578
ROBERT W. EICHINGER
Some Causes
 Arrogant; don’t have any weaknesses
 Defensiveness
 Don’t know what I should be developing
 Don’t know what to do
 Don’t need any development; I can make it on what I have
 Don’t think people really change
 Fear of failure or of admitting shortcomings
 Too busy getting the work out
Leadership Architect® Factors and Clusters

This competency is in the Personal and Interpersonal Skills Factor (VI). This competency is in the
Demonstrating Personal Flexibility Cluster (T) with: 40, 45, 55. You may want to check other competencies in
the same Factor/Cluster for related tips.
The Map
The bottom line is, those who learn, grow and change continuously across their careers are the most
successful. Whatever skills you have now are unlikely to be enough in the future. Acquiring new skills is the
best insurance you can get for an uncertain future. Some of us won’t face our limitations; we make excuses,
blame it on the boss or the job or the organization. Others are defensive and fight any corrective feedback.
Some are just reluctant to do anything about our problems. Some of us want a quick fix; we don’t have time for
development. Some of us simply don’t know what to do.
Section 2: Learning on Your Own

These self-development remedies will help you build your skill(s).
Some Remedies
 1. Not sure where to start? Do a skills audit. First, get a good multi-source assessment, a 360°
questionnaire, or poll 10 people who know you well to give you detailed feedback on what you do well and
not well, what they’d like to see you keep doing, start doing and stop doing. You don’t want to waste time
on developing things that turn out not to be needs.
 2. Difficulty categorizing skills? Divide your skills into these categories:
 Clear strengths—Me at my best. ––
 Overdone strengths—I do too much of a good thing—―I’m so confident that ––I’m seen as arrogant.‖
 Hidden strengths—Others rate me higher than I rate myself. ––
 Blind spots—I rate myself higher than others rate me. ––
ROBERT W. EICHINGER
 Weaknesses—I don’t do it well. ––
 Untested areas—I’ve never been involved in strategy formulation. ––
 Don’t knows—I need more feedback.––
 3. Trouble choosing the most productive path? Identify and develop what’s important. Find out
what’s important for your current job and the two or three next jobs you might have an opportunity to get.
See if there are success profiles for those jobs. Compare the top requirements with your appraisal. If there
are no success profiles, ask the Human Resources Department for help or ask one or two people who now
have those jobs what skills they need and use to be successful.
 4. Not applying your talents? Leverage your strengths. A recent worldwide Gallup survey found that
only 20% of employees thought their strengths were used every day. This is your greatest chance of
success. What have you mastered? What do you learn quickly? What gives you the most satisfaction at
work? If you are creative, what are three things you can start doing today? Where can you use your
strengths to help others (so they will help you in return)? Can’t use your strengths on your current job? How
about a project, special assignment, or a task trade? So maintain the clear strengths you will need in the
future by testing them in new task assignments. (You’re good at conflict resolution—use this strength on a
cross-functional problem-solving group while you learn about other functions.) Coach others in your
strengths and ask for some help from them in their strengths.
 5. Overusing strengths? Balance your overdone strengths in important areas. If you’re creative,
telling yourself to do less of this won’t work—it’s the primary reason for your success to date. The key is to
leave it alone and focus on the unintended consequences. (You’re seen as lacking in detail orientation or
disorganized.) Get the downside of your strength up to neutral; the goal is not to be good at it, but rather to
see that it doesn’t hurt you. FYI For Your Improvement™ lists the competencies that you can work on to
balance your overused strengths.
 6. Lacking critical skills? Build skill in weaker areas. More help? – See #19 Developing Direct Reports
and Others for how to work on your weaknesses. Weaknesses are best handled with a development plan
which involves four keystones: stretching tasks in which you develop the skill or fail at the task (usually
70% of real development); continued feedback to help you understand how you’re doing (usually 20% of
learnings); building frameworks to understand through courses (about 10%); and ways to cement all your
learning so you can repeat them next time.
 7. Limited chance for improvement? Use existing skills to compensate for weaknesses. We are all
poor at something and beating on it is counterproductive. If you have failed repeatedly at sales, detail work
ROBERT W. EICHINGER
or public speaking, find others who do this well, change jobs, or restructure your current job. Sometimes
you can find indirect ways to compensate. Lincoln managed his temper by writing nasty letters, extracting
the key points from the letters, tearing the letters up, then dealing with the key points contained in the letter
when he regained composure.
 8. Never tried it? Focus on untested areas. Minimize weaknesses, but go after untested areas as well. In
our research, we find that the profile of an individual contributor looks much like that of a manager, which in
turn looks much like that of an executive. Nobody’s developing much across time. Few managers are good
at developing others, few executives at managing vision and purpose. But did they ever have a real chance
to develop in these areas? The key is to find out the core demands of performance in a role, then work on
these a level before they are necessary. Get involved in small versions of your untested areas—write a
strategic plan for your unit, then show it to people; negotiate the purchase of office furniture. Write down
what you did well and what you didn’t. Then try a second bigger task and again write down the +’s and –’s
of your performance. At this point, you may want to read a book or attend a course in this area. Keep
upping the size and stakes until you have the skill at the level you need it to be.
 9. Unaware of a need? Minimize blind spots. Be very careful of blind spots, since you think you’re much
better at this than do others. Resist trying challenging tasks involving this skill until you clearly understand
your behavior, have a target model of excellent behavior, and a plan so you don’t get yourself into trouble.
Collect more data. Ask someone you trust to monitor you and give you feedback each time. Study three
people who are good at this and compare what you do with what they do. Don’t rest until you have cleared
up the blind spot.
 10. Need support? Show others you take your development seriously. State your developmental
needs and ask for their help. Research shows that people are much more likely to help and give the benefit
of the doubt to those who admit their shortcomings and try to do something about them. They know it takes
courage. More help? – See #44 Personal Disclosure.
Section 3: Learning from Feedback

These sources would give you the most accurate and detailed feedback on your skill(s).
 1. Human Resource Professionals
Human Resource professionals have both a formal and informal feedback role. Since they have access to
unique and confidential information, they can provide the right context for feedback you’ve received.
Sometimes they may be ―directed‖ to give you feedback. Other times, they may pass on feedback just to
be helpful to you.
ROBERT W. EICHINGER
 2. Natural Mentors
Natural mentors have a special relationship with you and are interested in your success and your future.
Since they are usually not in your direct chain of com-mand, you can have more open, relaxed, and fruitful
discussions about yourself and your career prospects. They can be a very important source for candid or
critical feedback others may not give you.
 3. Spouse
Spouses can be powerful sources of feedback on such things as interpersonal style, values, balance
between work, career, and personal life, etc. Many participants attending development programs share
their feedback with their spouses for value-adding confirmation or context and for specific examples.
 4. Yourself
You are an important source of feedback on yourself. But some caution is appropriate. If you have not
received much feedback, you may be less accurate than the other sources. We all have blind spots,
defense shields, ideal self-views, and fantasies. Before acting on your own self-views, get outside
confirmation from other appropriate sources.
Section 4: Learning from Develop-in-Place Assignments

These part-time develop-in-place assignments will help you build your skill(s).
 Attend a course or event which will push you personally beyond your usual limits or outside your comfort
zone (e.g., Outward Bound, language immersion training, sensitivity group, public speaking).
 Teach a course, seminar, or workshop on something you don’t know well.
 Manage a group of people who are towering experts but you are not.
 Take on a task you dislike or hate to do.
 Make peace with an enemy or someone you’ve disappointed with a product or service or someone you’ve
had some trouble with or don’t get along with very well.
 Do a study of failed executives in your organization, including interviewing people still with the organization
who knew or worked with them, and report the findings to top management.
 Seek out and use a seed budget to create and pursue a personal idea, product, or service.
 Volunteer to fill an open management job temporarily until it’s filled.
 Write a speech for someone higher up in the organization.
 Manage a project team of people who are older and more experienced than you.
ROBERT W. EICHINGER
Section 5: Learning from Full-Time Jobs
These full-time jobs offer the opportunity to build your skill(s).
 1. Cross-Moves
The core demands necessary to qualify as a Cross-Move are: (1) Move to a very different set of
challenges. (2) Abrupt jump/shift in tasks/activities. (3) Never been there before. (4) New setting/conditions.
Examples of Cross-Moves are: (1) Changing divisions. (2) Changing functions. (3) Field/headquarters
shifts. (4) Line/staff switches. (5) Country switches. (6) Working with all new people. (7) Changing lines of
business.
 2. International Assignments
The core demands to qualify as an International assignment are: (1) First-time working in the country. (2)
Significant challenges like new language, hardship location, unique business rules/practices, significant
cultural/marketplace differences, different functional task, etc. (3) More than a year assignment. (4) No
automatic return deal. (5) Not necessarily a change in job challenge, technical content, or responsibilities.
Examples of International assignments would be: (1) Managing local operations for an office located
outside your home country. (2) Leading the expansion into new global markets. (3) International sales
position. (4) Country/region head. (5) Managing transition for outsourced operations at an international
location. (6) Head of supply chain or manufacturing for global business. (7) Global compliance manager at
an international post.
 3. Scope Assignments
The core demands for a Scope (complexity) assignment are: (1) Significant in-crease in both internal and
external scope or complexity. (2) Significant increase in visibility and/or bottom-line responsibility. (3)
Unfamiliar area, business, technol-ogy, or territory. Examples of Scope assignments involving shifts: (1)
Switching to new function/technology/business. (2) Moving to new organization. (3) Moving to overseas
assignment. (4) Moving to new location. (5) Adding new products/services. (6) Moving between
headquarters/field. (7) Switches in ownership/top management of the unit/organization. Examples of Scope
assignments involving ―firsts‖: (1) First-time manager. (2) First-time managing managers. (3) First-time
executive. (4) First-time overseas. (5) First-time headquarters/field. (6) First-time team leader. (7) First-time
new technology/business/function. Scope assignments involving increased complexity: (1) Managing a
significant expansion of an existing product or service. (2) Managing adding new products/services into an
existing unit. (3) Managing a reorganized and more diverse unit. (4) Managing explosive growth. (5) Adding
new technologies.
ROBERT W. EICHINGER
 4. Staff to Line Shifts
Core demands necessary to qualify for a Staff to Line shift are: (1) Moving to a job with an easily
determined bottom line or results. (2) Managing bigger scope and/or scale. (3) Requires new
skills/perspectives. (4) Unfamiliar aspects of the assignment. Examples of Staff to Line shifts would be: (1)
Moving from support function to business unit with P&L responsibility. (2) Product manager responsible for
product life cycle, revenue projections, and inventory planning. (3) General manager position. (4) Manager
responsible for a region or a product line or brand.
Section 6: Learning from Your Plan

These additional remedies will help make this development plan more effective for you.
Learning to Learn Better
 1. Form a Learning Network with Others Working on the Same Problem
Look for people in similar situations, and create a process for sharing and learning together. Look for a
variety of people inside and outside your organization. Give feedback to each other; try new and different
things together; share successes, failures, and lessons.
 2. Use a Tutor to Learn Something New

Set up a tutor relationship in the areas you’re working on; open up, listen, learn, and try new things. Learn
from the tutoring/learning process. Do you learn more easily from a tutor or do you get blocked? Test out
your thinking with the tutor; do debriefs after trying the tutor’s advice.
 3. Learn New and Frivolous Skills to Study How You Learn

Practice learning frivolous and fun skills (like juggling, square dancing, skeet shooting, video games, etc.)
to see yourself under different and less personal or stressful learning conditions. Ask yourself why that was
easy while developing new personal/managerial skills is so hard. Try something harder with the same
tactics.
 4. Try Some New Things out of Your Normal Comfort Zone

Periodically, practice going against your grain (what’s normal for you) and getting out of your comfort zone.
Try something different and opposite to your nature; take a learning risk. Explore: If you’re a thinker, act; if
you’re an action person, think. Test the unfamiliar; try the new; go beyond your self-determined limits and
boundaries.
ROBERT W. EICHINGER
 5. Do a Career Learning Time Line for Insights
Do a time line (a chronology from schooling to the present) for yourself in terms of the development of your
thinking and problem-solving style and preferences. List the good and the bad times. What made the
difference? What breakthroughs did you have? How have you developed as a learner? How did you get rid
of previous blocks? Are you still growing?
 6. Throw Yourself into Something New with More Vigor Than Usual
Throw yourself into a new area, something you’ve not done before so you will have to learn quickly, such
as a new technical area, a new management practice, or a self-development project. Pick something that is
out of your skill and strength set.
Learning from Experience, Feedback, and Other People

 7. Learning from Interviewing Others
Interview others. Ask not only what they do, but how and why they do it. What do they think are the rules of
thumb they are following? Where did they learn the behaviors? How do they keep them current? How do
they monitor the effect they have on others?
 8. Learning from Observing Others

Observe others. Find opportunities to observe without interacting with your model. This enables you to
objectively study the person, note what he/she is doing or not doing, and compare that with what you would
typically do in similar situations. Many times you can learn more by watching than asking. Your model may
not be able to explain what he/she does or may be an unwilling teacher.
Learning from Courses

 9. Insight Events
These are courses designed around assessing skills and providing feedback to the participants. These
events can be a powerful source of self-knowledge and can lead to significant development if done right.
When selecting a self-insight course, consider the following: (1) Are the skills assessed the important
ones? (2) Are the assessment techniques and instruments sound? (3) Are those who are providing the
feedback trained and professional? (4) Is the feedback provided in a user-friendly and ―actionable‖ format?
(5) Does the feedback include development planning? (6) Is the setting comfortable and conducive to
reflection and learning? (7) Are the other participants the kinds of people you could learn from? (8) Are you
in the right frame of mind to learn from this kind of intense experience? Select events on the basis of
positive answers to these eight questions.
ROBERT W. EICHINGER
 10. Attitude Toward Learning
In addition to selecting the right course, a learning attitude is required. Be open. Close down your
―like/dislike‖ switch, your ―agree/disagree‖ blinders, and your ―like me/not like me‖ feelings toward the
instructors. Learning requires new lessons, change, and new behaviors and perspectives—all scary stuff
for most people. Don’t resist. Take in all you can during the course. Ask clarifying questions. Discuss
concerns with the other participants. Jot down what you learn as you go. After the course is over, take
some time to reflect. Make practical decisions about what you can and cannot use.
If I am through learning, I am through. John Wooden – American Hall of Fame basketball coach
ROBERT W. EICHINGER
Suggested Readings
Bell, A. H., & Smith, D. M. (2002). Motivating yourself for achievement. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bolles, R. N. (2009). What color is your parachute? A practical manual for job-hunters & career-changers.
Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.
Brim, G. (2000). Ambition: How we manage success and failure throughout our lives. New York:
Backinprint.com.
Camarota, A. G. (2004). Finding the leader in you: A practical guide to expanding your leadership skills.
Milwaukee, WI: American Society for Quality.
Cashman, K. (2008). Leadership from the inside out: Becoming a leader for life (2nd ed.). San Francisco:
Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Cashman, K. (with Forem, J.). (2003). Awakening the leader within: A story of transformation. Hoboken, NJ:
John Wiley & Sons.
Christian, K. (2004). Your own worst enemy: Breaking the habit of adult underachieve-ment. New York: Regan
Books.
Edmondson, A. C. (2008). The competitive imperative of learning. Harvard Business Review, 86(7/8), 60-67.
Glickman, R. (2002). Optimal thinking: How to be your best self. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Lombardo, M. M., & Eichinger, R. W. (2004). The leadership machine. Minneapolis, MN: Lominger
International: A Korn/Ferry Company.
Maslow, A. H., & Stephens, D. C. (Ed.). (2000). The Maslow business reader. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley &
Sons.
McCall, M. W., Lombardo, M. M., & Morrison, A. M. (1988). The lessons of experience. Lexington, MA:
Lexington Books.
Morrison, A. M., White, R. P., Van Velsor, E., & The Center for Creative Leadership. (1992). Breaking the glass
ceiling: Can women reach the top of America‘s largest corporations? Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Niven, D. (2006). The 100 simple secrets of successful people: What scientists have learned and how you can
use it (2nd ed.). New York: HarperBusiness.
Pedler, M., Burgoyne, J., & Boydell, T. (2007). A manager‘s guide to self-development. Berkshire, England:
McGraw-Hill.
Rimanoczy, I., & Turner, E. (2008). Action Reflection Learning™: Solving real business problems by connecting
learning with earning. Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black.
ROBERT W. EICHINGER

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FACTOR VI: PERSONALAND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

CLUSTER T: DEMONSTRATING PERSONAL FLEXIBILITY

Section 1: Your Development Need(s)

Leadership Architect® Factors and Clusters

Section 2: Learning on Your Own

Section 3: Learning from Feedback

Section 4: Learning from Develop-in-Place Assignments

Section 6: Learning from Your Plan

 2. Use a Tutor to Learn Something New

 3. Learn New and Frivolous Skills to Study How You Learn

 4. Try Some New Things out of Your Normal Comfort Zone

Learning from Experience, Feedback, and Other People

 8. Learning from Observing Others

Learning from Courses

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