Are your leaders ambidextrous?

Checklist: How ambidextrous are we?

• Is advancement within the organization exclusively based on linear progression through the ranks?
• Are leadership positions occupied by specialists (versus generalists)?
• Do we encourage the development of transferable skills across roles?
• Are we educating line managers on the potential value of career switches?
• Do we accept responsibility if they fail?

How to develop ambidexterity

Build the process

If you don’t already drive job rotation or mobility, create opportunities that mirror the gig economy. Make it possible for people to work in parallel experiences on top of their normal jobs and ensure that such opportunities are broadcast to talented leaders.

Build the culture

Promote the idea that people can have careers in the organization that take them from marketing to HR to finance to sales, etc, and give public recognition to this kind of career transition so that the workforce sees and understands its value.

Create role models

Ensure that your non-linear talent is visible within the company – otherwise, people will think there’s only one way to progress and assume that functional progression is the only opportunity they have.

Educate

Accelerate understanding across the organization, whether you are a single leader making the case to your manager or building systemic change by creating flexibility and space. Celebrate, explain, and educate your people.

Focus on the long term

Training and developing specialists alone limit the organisation to short-term objectives. As the environment changes and your culture shifts in response, you will have to look outside the organization for the talent to compensate for any shortcomings. Cultivating ambidextrous leaders will equip the organization with people who can shift more organically towards long-term goals and strategy.