#15 JooBee's newsletter

TL;DR

🍔 Leadership development: fast, good or cheap?

🤨 I'm an L&D expert. Here's why I don't build leadership programs internally

💥 Start-up career hacks with Galina Esther Shubina, Sr. Director Machine Learning (exclusive content)

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Leadership development: fast, good or cheap?

Picture a great manager, akin to the chef on the renowned ‘MasterChef’ cooking show. They're not merely following a recipe, they're crafting an innovative dish from whatever ingredients they're given. They mix flavours to complement each other and enhance each other based on their understanding of exactly how the ingredients work together.

Now, picture an average manager, which is more of a novice chef. They can follow a recipe well but if one ingredient is missing, the dish falls apart. They haven't yet mastered the art of adjusting and balancing flavours on the fly.

And then there's the poor manager who doesn't even realise they're in the kitchen. When the dish doesn’t turn out right, they blame the ingredients instead of taking responsibility for making it work.

The ingredients are not going to cook themselves

In the world of start-ups, hiring top-tier talent without nurturing managerial skills is like entrusting expensive ingredients to someone who's just learning to cook. While these talented individuals may succeed ‘individually,’ they will never come together to achieve more than the sum of their parts.  

Now, you might be thinking, "I get that and I agree. But we lack the time, the budget..." Ultimately, the decision is dictated by your business's needs, resources and desire for exceptional managers. To balance the constraints, I’m pleased to introduce the Iron Triangle framework, where every solution possesses 3 key attributes: fast, good and cheap - you can have 2, but never all 3. 

Balance the Iron Triangle to develop your managers into master chefs 

💸 Good + Fast = Won’t be Cheap

When you want to quickly raise the bar for management capabilities across your organisation, the trick is to leverage experience and expertise. For example, you can bring in experienced peers to work alongside your inexperienced managers. Surrounding your team with high achievers can boost performance by 15%, allowing your managers to learn from them through spillover effect. 

Alternatively, you may tap into external expertise such as targeted leadership bootcamps, where learning is curated and practised in simulated environments to accelerate skill development. Leadership coaching is another effective way to leverage external expertise. 

Hidden cost: The literal cost is hardly hidden here 😅

🐢 Good + Cheap = Won’t be Fast

If you have time to invest, you may choose to create leadership programs internally, implementing scalable AI coaches for managers or fostering self-directed learning through activities like "lunch and learn" sessions or dedicated training days. These initiatives not only benefit your HR team's experience and motivation, but also leverage technology for behavioural change and enable employees to develop skills and build relationships with peers.

Hidden cost: The opportunity cost involves diverting resources from other projects, time spent figuring out what to learn and making avoidable mistakes.

🍔 Fast + Cheap = Won’t be Good

If something doesn’t quite hit the mark, why bother with it at all? But as I'm reflecting on this, I remember that sometimes we feel the need to show we're taking action or just buy a bit of time when other things are really pressing. For the short term, I get it. 

But if this is a long-term approach, it signals to your leaders that the organisation doesn't really value growth; it's seen as a mere "nice to do" activity, while short-term tasks take precedence over investing in long-term performance. Here's the thing: just like fast food, it’s quick and cheap, but not good for you in the long run.

Hidden cost: Losing trust in the company's ability to deliver impactful development and fixing the repercussions of shortcuts down the road take further time and effort.

In summary, each strategy for developing managers has its trade-offs. Understanding the Iron Triangle helps navigate these trade-offs and choose the most suitable path based on your business's needs and constraints.

I'm an L&D expert. Here's why I don't build leadership programs internally

Let's take off our HR expert hat and put on our strategic thinking cap. When a business wants to grow rapidly, they face a crucial decision: should they build from scratch or buy an existing solution? Think about examples like Salesforce acquiring Slack, Facebook nabbing WhatsApp, or eBay acquiring PayPal.

There are several advantages for businesses in choosing to buy rather than build:

🏃🏻‍♀️Speed: Buying means you can get the product to market quickly without spending time building it from scratch.

💰Predictable costs: You have a clear idea of the time and money investment required, unlike the uncertainties that come with building something new.

📉Reduced risk: By purchasing an existing solution, you already know it works, minimising the risk of failure.

How do we apply the same buy or build decisions as HR leaders?

It's easier for obvious things like HRIS or Performance Management systems; there's no way we have the skills to build them!😅 But where we often miss applying this strategic thinking is with initiatives we could potentially develop in-house (or have a strong personal interest in), such as DEI initiatives, Career Frameworks or Leadership Development.

Let's dive deeper into Leadership Development as an example:

🏃🏻‍♀️Speed: If you’re already grappling with leadership challenges, the time it takes to build a solution internally only prolongs the pain for your managers. Buying a solution means you can address their needs swiftly.

💰Predictable costs: Building internally may encounter scope creep or other priorities that take precedence, resulting in even longer lead times to provide solutions for your managers. Buying ensures a clear understanding of costs and timelines.

📉Reduced risk: If you've never built it or lack in-house expertise, you'll be learning as you go, which can both prolong the building process and raise the risk of creating a quality product. Buying a solution reduces this risk since vendors have refined their products through experience with many similar customers.

For me, bringing help in for DEI initiatives was straightforward since I lack expertise in that area, making it easier to be strategic. However, with Leadership Development, where I am a domain expert and have a passion for the field, it was the most challenging decision I faced when stepping into an HR leadership role. 

But I have to prioritise the needs of our managers - putting their challenges first, not my personal interest. So, I leverage my L&D expertise to ensure we select the right leadership development vendor. 

3 things I consider when selecting a Leadership Development vendor

1️⃣ Developing thinking, not sheep

When it comes to management development, I steer clear of anything too prescriptive - for example "You must do quarterly OKRs" or "You must do weekly 30-minute 121s." These tactics might have their place, but without understanding the 'why', they just turn managers into mindless followers. Instead, I seek partners who can enhance managers' critical thinking to know how to make informed judgement calls and adapt to diverse contexts.

Now, when I'm running my leadership bootcamps, HR leaders often come at me with checklists a mile long: "How do I run a killer 1:1?" "How do I give feedback like a pro?" "How do I ace interviews?" My response? Forget the step-by-step guides, you can find those on YouTube and TikTok for free (and at high quality!). What I focus on is teaching them how to recognise their own biases, think strategically about the result they are trying to achieve and adapt their approach to different situations or people. That's where the real magic happens.

⚠️Avoid this mistake: Focusing solely on prescriptive type of development when evaluating vendors.

2️⃣ Being in tune with the New World

With the shift to hybrid and remote work, leadership skills must also evolve. So, when I'm scouting out vendors, I'm looking for folks who understand that. Why invest in leadership training that's all about face-to-face interaction when that's not the reality anymore? If development does not mirror the world we're actually working in, it hinders effective knowledge transfer and undermines hybrid work success.

⚠️Avoid this mistake: Asking for in-person training despite the shift towards remote work. It's like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

3️⃣ Specialising in context 

While management challenges may not be unique, the environment we're operating in sure is. That's why I'm picky about selecting vendors who really get where we're coming from. If I'm in the start-up world, I'm not gonna waste my time with some big-name enterprise vendor who has never walked a mile in a start-up's shoes. And if I'm in Fintech, I’ll lean towards a vendor who knows their way around the Fintech block. This contextual expertise enriches the development experience and ensures relevance to our specific challenges and goals.

⚠️Avoid this mistake: Selecting a vendor based on their use by other big names or recommendations from friends who may not operate in the same context as us.

When you urgently need to deliver a product to your managers or employees, consider whether to build from scratch or purchase a solution, just as a business would. It's not easy letting go of a passion project, but sometimes it's about seeing the bigger picture. Ask yourself: Is it more important to deliver impact or indulge in your passion project?

Choose wisely: your manager can make or break your career

The mistake I made

Early in my career at a scale-up, I developed and analysed big data for our first machine-learning solution, leading to the formation of a three-person team. Despite expecting to be the Tech Lead, a colleague from another area was appointed instead. My manager also considered a newer, more junior teammate for the role.

Since my manager took on a management role, I've observed a tendency to make inaccurate evaluations of individuals' performance and capabilities. Before my situation, I witnessed another colleague receiving an unjustifiably poor performance review from my manager. My mistake was assuming it would not happen to me - that my manager just needed time to grow into their role.

I raised my concerns with our Director, and s/he moved me to under an experienced engineering manager who recognised my potential, provided growth opportunities, and supported my advancement, including as a Tech Lead of another team.

The one thing I wish I knew to avoid that mistake

In practice, I noticed a recurring pattern in start-ups: they frequently promote top individual contributors to managerial roles. It typically takes 1-3 years for these individuals to realise the need for a new skill set and a shift in priorities. While some excel in this transition, others find that people management isn't for them. Even the best can struggle during this transformation, often at the expense of their direct reports who become unintentional "guinea pigs." And nobody wants to be a guinea pig.

One tip to hack your career in start-ups

To grow your career successfully, having the right manager can either accelerate or hinder your progress. According to a Gallup study (“First, Break All the Rules”), managers are one of the strongest predictors of how happy someone is with their work. When considering a new team, ask questions to identify the good ones (join!), bad ones (avoid!), “meh” managers (consider together with other factors) and new managers (avoid if you’re junior, but consider otherwise, as long as they – and you -- are well supported within the organisation with learning and mentoring). Recognise that the “individual contributor mode” manager can be well-meaning, but their inexperience can still slow down or derail your career.

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