strategic and conceptual skills in addition to tactical skills, task
force assignments to review and revise old policy or make new
policy, troubleshooting, and overseas posts.
Special projects are also an excellent proving ground. For
example, in the 1980s, PacBell sent teams to set up temporary
communications systems at both the Democratic National
Convention and the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. In each
case, the teams had to invent, improvise, and devise ways to
make these temporary systems work efficiently, and they had
to do it under severe time constraints. Above all, they had to
do it so that PacBell made a profit.
It was a revelatory experience for everyone involved. In ef-
fect, what the teams were asked to do was to design, build, and
operate a highly sophisticated phone system, sufficient to
serve a small town, starting from scratch, in a very short time.
They then had to dismantle it with equal speed and efficiency.
Having done it successfully, the teams were changed in some
basic way. They had been given an extraordinary test, and
they had passed with flying colors. According to PacBell, team
members were transformed by this experience into potential
leaders.
Other corporations have devised ingenious ways to test and
season aspiring leaders, according to McCall et al. Among
them are
- Establishing venture capital pools to enable potential
leaders to start new entities. - Turning small low-margin businesses over to young
managers. - Hanging on to troubled businesses and giving would-be
leaders a shot at turning them around.
On Becoming a Leader