Growing Talent as if Your Business Depended on It
In companies where leadership development really works, it is not a stand-alone activity. It is a core process of the business, dyed into its very fabric.
In the thirteenth century, it took the College of Cardinals almost three years to anoint a successor to Pope Clement IV. To break the stalemate, one of history's most bitter organizational deadlocks, church officials began limiting the food and drink they provided the voting cardinals, eventually giving them just bread and water. Fortunately, today's cardinals don't seem to need such harsh incentives: It took them less than a week to choose Benedict.
When it comes to succession planning (and, by extension, leadership development) in the business world, corporate boards could do with a similar sense of urgency - though we wouldn't necessarily advocate starving them into it. Traditionally, boards have left these tasks very much up to their CEOs and human resources departments. There's a simple reason why directors pay so little attention to these activities: They don't perceive that a lack of leadership development in a company poses the same kind of threat that accounting blunders or missed earnings do.
That's a shortsighted view. Companies whose boards and senior executives fail to prioritize succession planning and leadership development end up either experiencing a steady attrition in talent or retaining people with outdated skills. Such firms become extremely vulnerable when they have to cope with inevitable organizational upheavals - integrating an acquired company with a different operating style and culture, for instance, or reexamining basic operating assumptions when a competitor with a leaner cost structure emerges. In situations like these, businesses need to have the right people in the right roles to survive.
But if leadership development has not been a primary focus for CEOs, senior management teams, and boards, their organizations will be more likely to make wrong decisions. Firms may be forced to promote untested, possibly unqualified, junior managers. Or they might have to look outside for executives, who could then find it difficult to adjust to their new companies and cultures.
Some companies, however, have not only recognized the importance of including succession planning and leadership development on the board's agenda but have also taken steps to ensure that those items get on the docket. Over the past three years, we have undertaken extensive fieldwork with many of these companies, conducting multiple interviews and analyzing their varied approaches to successful leadership planning and development. We have found that the best of their programs all share some common attributes. They are not stand-alone, ad hoc activities coordinated by the human resources department; their development initiatives are embedded in the very fabric of the business. From the board of directors on down, senior executives are deeply involved, and line managers are evaluated and promoted expressly for their contributions to the organization-wide effort.
By engaging managers and the board in this way, a company can align its leadership development processes with its strategic priorities. The company can also build a clear and attractive identity; its employees perceive that leadership development processes are what they are declared to be. Such coherence, identity, and authenticity, in turn, make it easier for the company to attract the future leaders it needs. Please click here to continue reading Growing Talent as if Your Business Depended on It.
Reprinted from Harvard Business Review |
 Note from Kevin
Greetings!
All of the latest reports on the workforce suggest that we are now and will continue to face the most significant talent shortage in history. Many experts describe this talent shortage as being historically “unprecedented.” Clearly these are very strong words, yet no matter how deep this challenge becomes, it will at some level change the way all of us do business.
Growing Talent as if Your Business Depended on It will provide serious insights into what is working and, more importantly, what isn't working when it comes to designing systems that will get the right people in the right positions. In addition, you will read about who is responsible for the talent issue, and the impact the right talent has on the organization.
I would encourage you to pay particular attention to how important talent management is when it comes to positioning your organization as “The Employer of Choice.” I have never been more convinced than I am right now that nothing is more important to organizational success than proactively designing yourself to become “The Employer of Choice.” This one factor is the most significant separation between you and your competitors.
Your choices about how you design your response to this challenge will have a major impact on the future of your respective organizations. To that end, I have suggested for quite some time that addressing the challenges you are currently facing in the business world will demand attracting and retaining “superior performers.”
Separating yourself from your competitors cannot and will not happen without your aggressive attention to developing the best in recruiting, hiring, development and retention practices. We all have to “rise up” far enough in our learning to understand that business is not just about people…business is people! Success in this new economy will go to those who are committed to attracting, developing and retaining the best! Life is good!
KW |
