Mpower: An action-learning approach to leadership development in SMB companies

Browne & Mohan
Board & CEO Advisors, Management Consultants

Mpower: An action-learning approach to leadership
development in SMB companies

With significant inputs from V Sheethal, Junior consultant and Usha Murthy, Asst Consultant (Strategy & Marketing).

Browne & Mohan

Introduction have formal authority, and initiate and sustain
leadership process that allow group of people to
Small and medium businesses are backbone of work effectively. In that essence the focus here is
many economies. In India, SMB companies, about not on management development, but leadership
30 Million in number contribute to 45% of the development of people make them own and take
industrial output, and 40% of India’s exports. responsibilities for actions, decisions and direct a
These companies employ 1.2 million jobs each sense of urgency and directions. The expected
year and employ about 60 Million people (MSME, outcome is to create leaders who take up the task
2012). Access to limited resources including
of bringing together a group of people to achieve
capital, elementary investments into training and
a common goal.
development and lack of managerial bandwidth
limit many of the SMB in realizing their growth Many leadership development programs exist,
potential. With increasing global competition, traditional classroom training based or other
economic slow-down and low consumer intervention based (Day, 2001). Some are
confidence, many owner managers of these intended to improve performance management,
companies are realizing a need to quickly develop some networking, facilitate corporate bonding
competent leaders to increase ownership, and knowledge transfer (internal coaching and
responsibility and sense of urgency amongst their mentoring) or enhance learning by doing. SMB
employees. One of the major organizational organizations realize that class room based
challenge SMB face is on leadership development training is at best partially effective at building
and succession management. Many companies leaders for the emerging business environment.
are single-owner driven and have major While class room teaching is useful to learn newer
challenges in attracting and retaining high quality approaches or knowledge, sustained changes or
talent. Many of the employees grow with the development may not be guaranteed. Many
organization from ranks and may lack participants may forget the learning and fall back
comprehensive understanding of the business like to older practices. Executive coaching is another
the owner manager. While there are several approach some SMB try to foster one-on-one
leadership training and development programs learning and bring out sustainable changes (Hall,
available in market, they may be hard pressed to et al, 1999). Organizations also try out formal
spare their resources because of limited mentoring programs to transfer the business
manpower availability. Some SMB may not also knowledge, networks and other skills from the
afford the cost of training and development senior managers to juniors (Kram and Isabella,
programs offered by academic and private 1985). While both executive coaching and
organizations. Hence, they seek to invest in mentoring have their advantages over the class
context relevant leadership development room training, prohibitive cost (executive coaches
programs that facilitate expansion of collective may cost $500/hour or $100,000 per year) and
capacity of organization members to engage time dissuade many SMB organizations to try
effectively in leadership roles and process these approaches. SMB owners realize people
(McCauley et al., 1998). What the owner learn effectively when working on real-life
managers want is to ensure all people embrace business challenges. Action learning approach
leadership roles even if they may nor may not enriches job experiences, responsibilities, tasks

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and team management (McCauley and Brutus, transfer leader’s activities to the juniors so that a
1998). Action learning through job assignments is platform to learn is created. It will also allow all
useful to embarking team building skills, hone second level leaders to learn on job all the
strategic thinking, persuasion and negotiation administration, management, policy control
skills (McCall, et al., 1988). Action learning has where they could relate themselves and apply the
been adopted by many MNC to develop their learning. Leadership development program is to
leadership teams and prepare them for growth. create second line of managers where in
Coca-Cola runs a program where more than 300 organization will have the teams who are enabled,
professionals spend about a year in new markets self- driven, self - managed. The Mpower program
and learn cultural, organizational and marketing is designed in such a way that it is action oriented,
challenges and solutions that work. Gillette sends practical and executable. It involves participation
its U.S managers to overseas markets to benefit by the junior, senior and the HR of the
from broader experience and exposure to organization. Each has their own role to play. The
decision making in different countries and junior is in the learning and imbibing stage. The
operational contexts. (Laabs, 1991). Citibank has senior imparts his knowledge, mentors his
a unique program where it places high potential behavior and empowers the junior to learn on job.
managers into new assignments for which they The HR acts as a facilitator, external reviewer and
are no more than 60% prepared. The managers process managers to ensure consistency of the
learn and hone the skills required for the new program.
assignments under the tutelage of senior
professional (Clark and Lyness, 1991). GE runs an Mpower program has six steps as shown in
action learning initiative called “Work-out” to Fig1:
develop leadership across their managerial and
technical staff (Vicere and Fulmer, 1998). The
underlying tenet of all these programs is that
action learning programs allow people to try out
new things, trust themselves and others as they
learn to master the skills and helps to make them
think in uncertain dynamic environments. In this
paper, Browne & Mohan consultants share their
experience of designing and implementing an
action learning oriented leadership development
program specifically aimed at SMB’s.

Mpower Program

Mpower program is designed keeping in mind
that leadership is relational and domain specific.
Followers learn from their leaders, manage the Step 1: Identification, Alignment of personal
next level of complex business activities and mission statement: Identification of the junior
extend themselves to emerge in newer roles and employees and aligning them with senior level
process. Mpower has been designed to formally

Browne & Mohan

employees. The junior employee is asked to come working as a team and reduction in errors and re-
up with the personal mission statement which work.
comprises of personal goals, professional goals
and organizational goals for the quarter. Junior Personal Goals: Personal goals for the junior
discusses the personal mission statement with the would be to identify the current weak
senior and the HR where they understand the areas/obstacles as an individual or in his
goals, capabilities and challenges (improvement profession that are hindering his ability to put
areas or focus areas) of the junior. Identification forth his best in his work and team and methods
to overcome the same by bringing in
of employees for the program based on
willingness to learn, work and their skill sets to improvements within the process and self.
carry on. Step 2:Superior Delegation Statement and Plan B
The employees have to be chosen who are: It is a list of tasks identified by the seniors who
1. Willing and capable: An employee who is both have to come up with Superior delegation
statement where he discusses with the junior on
willing to learn and capable to carry out the work
is chosen. the tasks that he could delegate and the tasks the
junior could own. Senior identifies the task/
2. Willing but not capable: those who are willing to activities to be delegated. The tasks are identified
learn and ready to work but are not equipped based on complexities, uncertainties, skill and
with the required knowledge or training can be capabilities of the teams and individuals involved
chosen in the process. This meeting is a mutual
agreement between the Superior and his junior
3. Personal Mission Statement: it is a document where the senior agrees to delegate certain tasks
prepared by the juniors selected for the program and the junior agrees to take up those tasks. The
in the organization where they list out the goals Senior has to also come up with a “Plan B” in the
that they would want to achieve within that case the junior fails to complete the task assigned
quarter .This helps the Junior, senior and the HR
where in the Senior would have an alternate
to come up with a plan to achieve the set goals. It solution (he might be required to complete the
provides clarity and a sense of purpose. task himself or assign it to other employees)
Professional Goals: The juniors have to prepare a Step 3: Training and Development
list of activities which are related to their career
which can be trainings or learning programs, and The superior provides process, technical and
explore opportunities to network in their industry technological knowledge to junior. The Superior
which can be seminars, conferences, writing provides adequate information on process
articles for journals and giving talks/ standards, process adherence, and time frame to
presentations pertaining to their domain. the juniors. It is an organizational activity aimed at
bettering the performance of the individual and
Organizational Goals: - The Juniors are asked to groups. The junior is hand held by the senior
prepare a list of activities to be carried out which during this process where the senior owns the
would lead to quality work to the clients, meeting outputs of the junior.
client needs, optimal utilization of resources,

Browne & Mohan

The knowledge transfer is continuous till the junior junior has gained a thorough knowledge about
is confident of carrying out the task himself. the task, he/she is assigned the next task or new
task. If the junior is unable to perform, the
Step 4: Identification of Gaps program gets extended till the junior improves.
During the training period, the junior and senior Step 6: Quarterly review and plan for the next
understand the gaps/challenges that arises while quarter:
the task is being carried out, analysing which they
come up with corrective measures to overcome the At the end of the quarter, HR would have a
same. The reasons for the gaps are identified and feedback meeting with the senior and the junior
relevant steps are taken to fill the gaps. Below are on the status of the task delegated,
corrective steps that could be taken. improvements and the challenges in the tasks, if
any. HR acts as the facilitator to reduce the
 Functional training: The senior has to identify friction between the senior and the junior and
if the junior needs any specific functional training or motivate the junior to perform better. The
process training. The junior has to come up with
objective behind the feedback meeting is to
areas where he/she needs guidance on to better increase the trust and performance by
the performance. independently discussing with the senior and the
 On the job training/Assistance: This junior. During the feedback meeting, the senior
requirement is identified when the juniors need to and the junior along the HR discuss the next
see, do and learn which helps them grasp better quarter plan.
rather than polish them on theoretical aspects. This Conclusion: Mpower program helps to create the
can be identified once the learning styles of the next level leadership in the organisation. To
junior are clear. create a culture where junior are less dependent
 Generic training: which are generic in nature on their superior, who can learn to manage things
and which can be applicable to all the departments on their own and to create their own thought
such as how to improve communication skills, process of simplified way of working styles and
enhancing inter-personal relationship, working in a coming up with their innovative thoughts and
team etc. This need is communicated to the HR ideas on process . It is a formal transfer of non-
who can facilitate to satisfy the requirement. critical and non-value added activities of the
leader to the next level so that he empowers the
 One-one with junior and senior: The Senior will team to take care of these activities. He gives
have one-one discussion with the junior to identify them a platform to learn and emerge in various
the previously agreed goals, challenges, and fields.
provide them suggestions for improvement and re- The advantage of the Mpower program is that it
look at the goals. This is an on-going process and will help the leaders to concentrate of more
can be done informally too. critical strategic activities while the non-critical
part can be hived off to the juniors. It relieves the
 Step 5: Program extension/Assign a new task
stress on the superiors and paves way a sense of
If the junior is able to perform the task assigned
opportunity to the juniors.
successfully and if the senior is convinced that the

Browne & Mohan

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Browne & Mohan insight are general in nature and does not
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Mpower: An action-learning approach to leadership development in SMB companies

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