From a Second Lieutenant to a Submarine Driver..

Me.. 33 years ago, INS Tanin.

Yesterday a colleague at work sent me a picture. Her husband, who was a crew member on the submarine I have served on 33 years ago, found it in a shoe-box full of photos dated to 1986. I saw myself in the picture - a young very junior naval officer having fun on board our submarine - Israeli Navy Ship "Tanin." It made me think about past and future, and about the ability to predict one's self future as well as the ability of the "system" to recognise years ahead of time who are the HiPo's (the high potential) young employees, those who will one day lead the organisation.

Was there a way in 1986, for the submarine flotilla leaders or me, to predict that the young junior officer, me, will one day become a highly respected successful submarine driver? Could I think of myself through these lenses?

Think of it - Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, joined MS in 1992 - he just finished his master's degree CS, have only been in the US 3 years and was a young newlywed 25 years old immigrant from India. So, did anyone in the very young successful company back then, think of the potential in the new employee that they just hired. Did Satya think of himself as capable of being an executive in his new company 32 years later?

Most companies that have aspirations to become leaders in their fields understand that finding the HiPo's is essential. The challenges these companies see are a few:

• How can you spot the ones with the highest potential early in their careers, and invest "early"? - Early investments almost always yield better results.

• How do you make sure that the investment is not lost - with the levels of attrition today, the risk of investing in an employee at an early stage, is high because you have a potential big chance of losing that employee.

• How do you make sure that the rest of the people do not feel "neglected"? When you invest in a few very junior high potential employees, you have many others who feel they do not have a destiny in the company. This is not the case when you invest in an employee at a "late stage" because of the smaller number of colleagues at this level.

For me, the first question is the most important one - if you find a good way to identify the future leaders of the company at an early stage, the other two questions become tactical (I'll address the other two dilemmas as well).

I believe that each organisation must understand the core leadership values it carries. The leaders must be able to define a set of behaviours and competencies that supposedly will never change, that a leader in this organisation must take with him. 

In a submarine, I can name a few:

• A submarine captain is a people's person. He/she (yes... some women command warships in some advanced countries) must care for his or her teammates, and must always see their good as the essential part of his decisions.

• A submarine captain should also be a super professional leader. The submarine is a very complex system, and you can't be the captain if you do not master the vessel. 

• And then there is a unique decision-making pattern that is the essence of being a "master and commander" - you have to be able to decide in two different extreme scenarios - sometimes a decision is built on the foundations of the teamwork- your crew and you officers build the "picture" and recommend the decision. All you need to say is "Fire the torpedo". Yet, sometimes you need to decide in a split of a second and listen only to yourself, your intuitions and your experience. There is simply no time.

 Interesting reading on that is David Marquet's book "Turn the Ship Around" - check it out!

So, when you build your company, you have to define the essential leadership competencies that are the foundations of the company culture and start looking for the ones who even though they are "young" and "junior" already show that they carry these personality traits, and these are the one to invest in "early stage".

And the answers to the two other questions - how do I make sure my investment is not going to walk out of the door after I invested in it? And how do I make sure everyone else feels motivated even after they see that some people are treated differently?

My answer: "be open and transparent" - make sure the HiPo's understand that you see them as the long term leaders of the company and that everyone else understand what does it take to become future leaders. After all, you do not need too many submarine captains.