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10.13007/136

Ideas for Leaders #136

When Successful Managers Go off the

Rails

Key Concept

Managers who are solidly established in their organizations and boast

impressive track records can suddenly find their careers ‘derailed.’ They no

longer have the skills, mindset, personality or reputation that made them

effective leaders in the past; eventually they are demoted, fired or asked to

take early retirement. New research from the Center of Creative Leadership

confirms the causes of such derailment and also identifies what managers

and companies can do today to prevent situations that are not only

devastating to the individuals but also costly to their organizations.

Idea Summary

Derailment is the term assigned to the phenomenon of once-successful

managers whose careers have ‘gone off the track.’ They are no longer

effective in their functions or as leaders. They are no longer promotable. They

are no longer contributing to the organization, despite years of experience and

accumulated knowledge. What happened? Through a number of years of

study, researchers from the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro,

NC identified the five causes of derailment:

1. Failure to meet business objectives. Once successful and effective managers become

poor performers because they have become easily overwhelmed, overcommitted and/or

overconfident in their abilities.

2. Problems with relationships. As managers move up, they lose their ability to develop good

relationships with others. Instead, they become insensitive, manipulative, demanding and even

not trustworthy.

3. Difficulty changing and adapting. Some managers are unable to change their management

style or to learn from feedback and mistakes.

4. Difficulty building and leading a team. As managers move up in the organization, more and

more emphasis is placed on the ability to get results by hiring the right people and influencing

them effectively to get results.

5. Too narrow managerial experiences. Some managers are successful when they stay in

their own functions, but are incapable of working across functions or gaining a perspective

beyond their own functional areas – a requirement for individuals in higher-level general

management positions.

A new survey by researchers Jean Brittain Lesly, senior manager of CCL’s

Tools & Instrument Group, and Kelly Hannum, manager of research at CCL,

reveals more details about these five derailment causes and how they impact

careers and organizations today. The survey, conducted in partnership with Yi

Zhang, a former CCL researcher now at the College of Business of Zayed

University, asked more than 2600 managers in five countries to rate the five

causes based on how much each cause was a concern for managers at their

level (mid-manager, executive, etc.).

Authors

Zhang, Yi

Lesly, Jean Brittain

Hannum, Kelly

Institutions

Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®)

Source

Thunderbird International Business Review

Idea Conceived

2012

Idea posted

May 2013

DOI number

Subject

HR Management

Transitioning Leaders

Team Building and Teamwork

Emerging Leaders

Career Development

level (mid-manager, executive, etc.).

Overall, managers rated too narrow managerial experience as the most

important and prevalent reason for derailment. This was especially true,

however, for upper-middle, senior and top-level managers. For middle

managers, difficulty in building and leading a team was nearly as problematic

for career potential.

Middle managers also differed in their perception of the potential for

derailment; specifically middle managers considered the derailment of their

careers less likely than more senior-level managers – especially managers at

the upper-middle levels.

The research also showed that managers in the U.S. are less likely to derail

or to see the potential for derailment than their counterparts in Asia.

Regardless of country, however, the same two suspects consistently emerged

as the cause for derailment too narrow managerial experience and difficulty

in building and leading a team. Based on sectors – the survey focused on the

financial services and IT sectors because of their international growth and

comparability– too narrow managerial experience was again the top reason

for derailment across the board.

Business Application

Derailment is not just an individual success issue. The growing

ineffectiveness of a long-time manager or executive can be costly for

organizations in a number of ways including loss of profitability, turnover of

key personnel, and the loss of strategic company knowledge. The intangible

costs of the departure of a talented individual who has played various key

roles during a long career with the firm is especially difficult to measure.

The CCL researchers offer steps at the individual, managerial and

organizational level to help prevent the potential for derailment.

The focus at the individual level is awareness of weaknesses. Individuals

should:

Take a 360-degree assessment instrument to increase the awareness of potential problems.

Periodically solicit feedback from superiors, peers and direct reports.

Take responsibility for their own development. Learn what skills or abilities are needed for the

positions to which they aspire.

Managers can reduce the derailment potential in others if they:

Are clear about the demands and expectations of the job, both in terms of skills or abilities and

in terms of behaviour (such as the ability to develop relationships with a variety of groups).

Delegate and empower employees so that they have the opportunity to develop.

Hire a diverse group of individuals – if group members have different strengths and

weaknesses, the group as a whole will be more effective.

At the organizational level:

Career paths should be designed to move the manager across different functions and areas

(what the authors call a “zigzag” career path).

Managers need to be supported in new positions – despite training, they will still need some

guidance during the transition.

Offer assessments of potential problems as well as strengths.

Offer training to employees on how to provide feedback.

Derailed managers may go to another company where there is a better fit for

his or her skillset and mindset, but this outcome is costly to the organization.

Better to take steps now to prevent derailment.

Further Reading

‘Trouble Ahead: Derailment Is Alive and Well,’ Yi Zhang, Jean Brittain

Leslie, and Kelly M. Hannum, Thunderbird International Business

Review, 9 December 2012 DOI: 10.1002/tie.21525

Further Relevant Resources

Jean Brittain Leslie’s profile at the Center for Creative Leadership

Kelly M. Hannum’s profile at the Center for Creative Leadership

Center for Creative Leadership Executive Education profile at IEDP

© Copyright IEDP Ideas for Leaders 2013

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