What Best in Class Companies Do To Grow Leaders: Part 2
- Author: Eric Jackson
- Posted: September 20, 2007
- Category: Talent Management
- Tags: No Tags
- Comments: 2
[Editor’s Note: In Part One, Eric elaborated on the leadership shortage. In the conclusion, he gives us an Action Plan.]
Part 2
Meet with your boss to discuss the results of the assessment and build an Action Plan.
Leadership Development programs fail if the leader’s boss is not involved. It’s critical to meet with the boss to discuss the strengths and weaknesses that were identified in the assessment. The leader is always interested to have the opportunity to hear how his/her boss sees his/her strengths and weaknesses. This meeting also needs to focus on building a Leadership Development Plan, which the leader and boss buy-in to and endorse.
Track the Leadership Development Action Plan over time.
What good is a plan if you don’t track it and do what you say you will do? The process of setting up and tracking this action plan forms the basis of the “Leadership Development Program” that the best-in-class companies follow. This program is separate from any performance review process. It is a supplement — not a replacement. In our work, we act as external coaches who come in and meet with the leader once a quarter to review progress over time (usually two years). The leader’s boss is kept in the loop by receiving updates of the plan on a quarterly basis and then coming back at the one-year and two-year marks to meet with the leader and external coach. Knowing that you are accountable for progress is a huge stimulant to the leader.
Encourage mentors in your organization - but don’t force them.
Mentors are great. Who hasn’t had someone take an interest in us at one point in our lives and give us some advice which was really valuable? Yet, a lot of organizations have tried to “assign” mentors to “high-potentials,” as part of their leadership development programs. This just doesn’t work. It’s like fixing up two people on a blind date who have nothing in common or are too busy to meet. The best approach we see is to have the leader and boss discuss some possible mentors (a lot of times the boss will have the best ideas because he/she knows a wider universe of people in the organization who might be interested and a good fit with the leader). Then the boss should contact the possible mentor, rather than the leader. We’ve seen successful mentor relationships where the two people meet once a year for dinner, and others where they meet every couple of months. It’s up to the two people. When it works, mentors can have a dramatic impact on “high-potential” leaders.
Discuss career path.
Many bosses don’t make time to sit down and discuss a “high-potential” leader’s future career path at that company. However, the ones who do can create tremendous loyalty. People appreciate it (even highly talented people who you might think get tired of all the acclaim they receive) when their boss closes the door and says “Let’s talk about what you want to accomplish here and how I can help.” Ideally, this career vision gets tied into the Leadership Development Plan.
Leadership Development is tough. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t be having a “crisis.” Recruiting is an answer to a short-term need, but it doesn’t address the underlying problem. The best organizations understand that — buy into it whole-heartedly — and build systematic processes to ensure their best people know where they need to develop and what their future career path looks like at that company.
If you have any questions about how RCI Recruitment Solutions can help your organization grow the leaders of tomorrow, contact us today.
What Best in Class Companies Do To Grow Leaders
- Author: Eric Jackson
- Posted: September 18, 2007
- Category: Talent Management
- Tags: No Tags
- Comments: 0
Part 1
There have been numerous Fortune, Forbes, and BusinessWeek stories in the last year citing the importance of growing leaders within your organization, especially in respect to the demographic shift that will follow the retirement of the baby boomers. Paul Reilly–of the venerable Korn/Ferry–states in the Forbes article (linked above) that over 50% of all C-level execs will retire in the next 5 years.
That begs the question: what are organizations doing to prepare for this difficult challenge? In every crisis lies opportunity. And certainly, this immovable fact is good news for the Korn/Ferrys, Monsters, Jobsters, and Recruiting.coms of the world, as it suggests an increasing need from Corporate America for recruiting top talent.
However, the best organizations do not over-rely on recruiting firms to “fix” their lack-of-leadership problem. They look inside and set up processes and programs which ensure that their “Leadership Funnel” is as full as their “sales funnel.”
Of course, everyone pays homage to GE, when talking about leadership development. Yet, very few actually do a great job to coach, mentor, and develop top talent.
Here are some quick tips, based on our work with different organizations, on what the best companies do to ensure an adequate supply of leaders for years to come:
Leadership Development happens at multiple levels within the organization, not just below the C-Level.
We all like short cuts. Yet, we know that, in important areas, we can’t take short cuts. Developing an adequate supply of leaders is a long-term investment. The best companies understand that and work at bringing their people along no matter the level of the organization — from entry-level to the C-Suite.
Assess where leaders are at today to measure where they will be tomorrow.
You can’t improve something if you don’t measure it. Doing a leadership assessment at the front-end of any development program gives you a baseline to measure someone’s development — and hold them accountable if they don’t develop. 360s are great as a tool, but the most reliable measurement of a leader’s strengths and weaknesses comes from a process called an “Assessment Center” which uses multiple methods (including case studies, work simulations, and behavior-based interviews) to measure someone’s leadership performance and potential.
One thing that surprised me when I started to “coach” “high-potential” leaders is how many of them were hungry to know where they ranked relative to other leaders out there. Most people work for one company for a long time - sometimes 10, 15, or 20 years. They lose sight of their “market value” relative to other execs. Being able to tell them that they are in the top quartile on “strategic orientation” relative to others is very interesting to them, often raising their confidence levels. By contrast, it can be an eye-opener when they are in the bottom quartile on a number of important leadership dimensions.
In Part 2 we will develop an Action Plan, so you won’t want to miss it!
Your Employer Brand: The Bottom Line of Top-of-Mind
Part II
- Author: Anna Kassulke
- Posted: September 14, 2007
- Category: Employment Branding
- Tags: No Tags
- Comments: 0
[Editor’s note: In Part I, Anna explained the bottom-line reasons for developing an Employer Brand. In this conclusion, she’ll explain how to brand your company effectively.]
You already have an employer brand, though it may not be deliberately expressed by management. Those working for your organization and those who have come into contact with it have already formed a specific perception of what your company does and what it values. Your brand exists. The trick is to understand what to do with it.
To develop a strategy that will allow you to take advantage of your existing brand, you need to be rigorous in identifying your strengths and weaknesses, and describing your culture in ways that speak meaningfully to your various audiences. It is a process that demands honest appraisals and the projection of that honesty through your brand. If your branding asserts that your company promotes accessibility, it should be very rare for a manager to slam a door in a new hire’s face.
With effective employer branding, you will be more likely to set-up honest and attractive expectations for your employees, and you’ll be more capable of helping your people actually meet those expectations. This alone will have a significant effect on retention: morale will improve, productivity will increase, and your employees will speak highly of your organizations to others, increasing the quality and quantity of employee referrals.
Your employer brand exists. If you’re not aware of what it actually is, you take the risk of communicating a false, misleading brand, setting your employees and your organization up for failure. And that’s the bottom line.
Ready to get started? Then read about the specific Employment Branding services provided by RCI Recruitment Solutions. You won’t regret it.
Your Employer Brand: The Bottom Line of Top-of-Mind
- Author: Anna Kassulke
- Posted: September 10, 2007
- Category: Recruiting, Employment Branding
- Tags: No Tags
- Comments: 15
According to recent research, employer branding may be more important for your organization than profits. It lowers recruitment costs, shortens time to fill, retains the right people, and provides your company with a long-term competitive edge. As Nicola Hunt, co-founder of Management-Issues.com, writes, “The value of companies…is more than three times the value quoted on balance sheets, and the difference is to do with the reputation, brand and emotional capital of an organization.”
The point cannot be stressed enough. “Chief executives used to be driven by marketing, sales and financial numbers,” says Simon Barrow, author of The Employer Brand, but “the past three years have seen them realize that the attraction, retention and motivation of their best people has become their number one determinant of performance.”
Further research shows that 49% of American workers indicate that their companies’ brand or image played an important role in their decision to apply for a job at their respective workplace.
With such results, organizations have to ask themselves if they can afford not to focus on their employer brands.
We have said this before, and we will say it again: the most important initiative any company can take, regardless of their industry, is learning how to effectively hire and retain quality employees. And this research demonstrates that branding is a key component of that fundamental initiative.
Some organizations may claim that they’ve never needed to develop a strategic employer brand before, but Watson Wyatt research shows that “the very same models of hiring, developing and retiring employees that worked so well over the past decades could backfire if continued into the next.”
It is time to face the facts. Your company needs to begin the strategic development of its unique employer brand and it needs to begin now. A strategically developed employer brand will not only make your job easier, but it’ll make your organization more successful in the pursuit of its mission.
In Part 2, I’ll explain how you can begin the process of effectively branding your company, but if you don’t want to wait, feel free to explore the Employment Branding services provided by RCI Recruitment Solutions.
Top Five Hiring Mistakes Small Businesses Make
- Author: Amitai Givertz
- Posted: September 3, 2007
- Category: Recruiting
- Tags: No Tags
- Comments: 0
Recruiting by Numbers: Monday, September 3rd, 2007
- Offering candidates uncompetitive compensation.
- Relying strictly on traditional recruiting sources. Knowing where
- Failing to market your company.
- Waiting until someone leaves — or is long gone — to fill critical positions.
- Hiring solely based on job fit, not organization fit.
Source: Gevity
That was the week that was…
- Author: Amitai Givertz
- Posted: September 2, 2007
- Category: Recruiting, Blogging
- Tags: No Tags
- Comments: 1
Week ending August 31, 2007
A round-up from the recruiting industry’s group blogs, portals and individual archives:
John Sumser’s “Take Five” on Recruiting.com:
Monday: Five Jobs Shift Happens: A Changing Workforce in a Changing World
Tuesday: Five with Extra Cheese Background Checks and Social Networks
Wednesday: Five Slices CareerBuilder Adds Facebook App
Thursday: Five Environmentals Employees Are Not Assets
Friday: Five Dongles The HR Blog Power Rankings
“News to Peruse” on The Recruiting Network
Monday: Staffing industry sets employment records
Tuesday: Workplace unfairness costs U.S. employers an estimated $64 billion annually in employee turnover
Wednesday: One mortgage lender, at least, is hiring
Thursday: Staffing industry analysts revises growth forecast downward as economy slows
Friday: Recruiting on campus: Top recruiters in B-Schools survey
“Quote for the Day” on RecruitingBlogs.com
Monday: On social networks and the “reverse domino effect”…
Tuesday: On the ethics and semantics of Search…
Wednesday: On hard lessons about changing education…
Thursday: On HR falling of its seat at the table…
Friday: On new metrics for talent management…
