Novation Leadership

Doctors Gene Dalton and Paul H Thompson published Novations Strategies for Career Management in 1993. They originally researched “technical obsolescence” to see why some “information workers” advanced in their careers and why others seemed to stagnate.

Career paths for other occupations solidified during the early 20th century. For example, the trades clearly defined career paths from apprenticeships, to journeymen, to masters. The decrease of manufacturing and trade positions into the 80’s created an increase in jobs dealing with knowledge: programmers, accountants, call centers, customer services, and others. Dalton and Thompson found that, contrary to common belief, similar career paths existed for these information workers.

Four Stages of Career Development.

Dalton and Thompson identified four stages to career development. They labeled the four stages as follows:

1. Apprentices are new to the organization. contribute little on their own because they are learning about the organization. The future success of an apprentice frequently depended on the person who became their coach (stage 3). Novations highlighted that CEO’s brought in from outside the organization went through an apprenticeship period.
2. Independent contributors successfully transitioned from apprentice to independent contributors. Independent contributors worked on a small portion of the overall project. They no longer needed to work under the direction of a coach. They work independently to produce their portion of the project.
3. The Coach or Idea Leader help apprentices transition into the independent contributor stage. Coaches see the overall picture of the organization or project. Coaches help generate ideas to improve the overall performance of the organization. Coaches must be able to contribute through others.
4. The Organizational leaders (also called the directors) influence the direction the organization moves. The research indicated that organizational leaders could influence from both formal and informal channels. In other words, several people in stage 4 had titles of director or vice president. Others in stage 4 lacked the titles, but maintained the influence. Organizational leaders also sponsored others in the organization. They also maintained an extensive network of contacts both inside and outside the organization.

Barriers to Transition

Novations also outlined what you need to do to transition from one stage to another. The book also identified those behaviors that prevented upward movement and could trap you in each stage.

For example, you need to demonstrate the following traits to move from stage 2 to stage 3:

• Obtain greater technical skills and apply the skills in multiple facets of the business
• Build a network of relationships inside the organization, but outside the workgroup, and use the relationships to further the work of the group
• Develop others in the organization

A major skill that you need to develop to move from coach to organizational leader involved contemplating long-term timeframes. The organizational leader considers changes and directions that will last much longer than the leader’s connection to the organization.

Learn More About the Four Stages of Leadership

While Gene Dalton and Paul H. Thompson published Novations a decade ago, it’s principles stand the test of time. I suggest you read the original work by Dalton and Thompson.

Gene died of cancer seven years after publication. Paul was promoted to dean of the Marriott School of Management and later to President of Weber State University. They did not continue their research. Their consulting firm Novations Group merged with Global Leadership to form Global Novations. Global Novations continued some of the research. They renamed the four stages as (1) Contributing Dependently, (2) Contributing Independently, (3) Contributing Through Other, and (4) Contributing Strategically. You may wish to review their white papers and articles.