How companies are training tomorrow’s IT leaders

Companies face demographic change as Baby Boomers continue their steady departure from the workplace. At the same time, recruiting and retaining employees to work in large companies is becoming more difficult as freelance and entrepreneurial ventures become more popular, especially among Millennials. These challenges make attracting and developing talent critical for organizations that seek to keep pace.

In his book “Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt,” Michael Lewis describes how financial firms competed and schemed for an investment advantage measured in fractions of a second. Achieving fast returns on investments may be the name of the game in high-frequency trading, but companies that invest in people need to start from a different premise: They are making a long-term investment. Growing a new generation of leaders that have a company-wide perspective takes years.

U.S. Army

Leadership development programs in large organizations often include traditional classroom education. Apple, General Electric, McDonald’s and the U.S. military’s Defense Acquisition University operate some of the world’s best-known organizational universities. These institutions offer something unique to students: networking and exposure with leaders. Further, these programs help staff to better understand the company’s culture.

Vanguard invests for the long term

Vanguard, an investment firm with $3 trillion dollars in assets under management, takes the long view on investing in developing its staff. “When we hire a new team member, we look for leadership potential. We are also interested in people who want a long-term career at Vanguard,” says Tamara Ganc, chief learning officer at Vanguard.

At Vanguard University, company leaders teach business skills to staff. John Marcante, managing director of Vanguard’s IT division, holds question and answer sessions with each cadre of the company’s Technology Leadership Program (TLP) and regularly attends the program’s events.

Kathy Fuertes, another Vanguard IT leader, provides career discussions with participants. Formal studies in Vanguard’s education program include executive presence, emotional intelligence, leadership skills and technology topics. Developing these skills matters because IT leaders need to be able to sell their ideas to their staff, colleagues and senior leaders. Program participants also have the opportunity to create apps for the company and lead community projects.

How Boeing builds IT leaders

Established in 2004, Boeing’s three-year IT career foundation program offers staff a varied perspective on the storied aerospace firm. “Each participant in the program works with three mentors — a rotation mentor, a program mentor and a career mentor,” explained Matt Cowles, senior manager of IT development and training at Boeing.

The mentorship process provides value for everyone. “Feedback from mentors has been very positive. Mentors enjoy the opportunity to coach new team members and feel they learn just as much from their mentees,” Cowles says. The company’s commitment to the program is reflected in the numbers: in 2004, there were ten participants; today, there are more than 150.

Boeing’s experience shows that these training programs do provide organizations with home-grown management talent — though that process takes time. “Since the program’s establishment, 5 percent to 10 percent of participants have advanced into management roles,” Cowles says. “I expect that percentage to increase as the program participants gain additional experience.”

Specific management roles attained by program participants include senior manager of application development, senior manager of information security and senior manager of IT infrastructure. “While we encourage our graduates to pursue the management path, management is not the only path to leadership. We also provide support for participants pursuing a technical expert career path, who are looking for deep expertise in specific technical disciplines,” Cowles says.

The virtues of variety

Most corporate leadership programs are structured to provide a series of work assignments, and IT programs follow this pattern. General Electric’s program is illustrative: the company’s Early Career Leadership Program offers streams in finance, engineering, technology and sales, among other areas. The IT program runs for two years and includes four six-month work assignments in different departments. “Rotating through different departments is valuable because it gives employees exposure to different ways of thinking,” says Rob Pearson, CEO of the Institute for Performance and Learning, a not-for-profit organization developing workplace learning professionals based in Canada.

Specialized experiences for leadership program participants are another way for organizations to grow their staff. “Participants in Boeing’s IT Career Foundation Program participate in an annual hackathon to develop innovative solutions for the company,” Cowles says. Boeing’s emphasis on developing high performance professionals goes beyond new graduates.

The company also offers an IT functional excellence program aimed at non-managers and new managers. This program delivers training at the company’s leadership center in St. Louis and provides opportunities to network with senior leaders at the company. “Technical education tends to omit leadership skills for the most part, so companies have to step up in this area,” commented Pearson.

Recipe for successful leadership development

Executive involvement and support is the non-negotiable ingredient in a successful leadership development program. “Leadership development programs needed to be supported by a company wide culture that emphasizes leadership if they are to be successful,” Pearson says. In addition to funding and talking up the program, executives may support the initiative by serving as instructors or mentors.

The program should also include a varied program of work assignments that factors in the company’s needs and candidate interests as well as formal education programs covering both leadership and functional (e.g. technology) skills. The final ingredient in a successful program is a capstone project — either internal or community-based — that creates value and gives program participants a chance to shine.