accelerating leadership development: lessons from … · accelerating leadership development:...

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Accelerating Leadership Development:

Lessons From The Leading Edge

David DeLong & Associates [email protected] (978) 369-5083 www.SmartWorkforceStrategies.com

The MFG Meeting 2014 Arizona Biltmore Phoenix, AZ March 7, 2014

© D.W. DeLong 2014

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Albert Einstein Said:

“The problems that exist in the world today

cannot be solved by the level of thinking

that created them.”

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What’s your legacy of leadership development

for your company?

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Three Views of Leadership Development

•  In Denial

•  Alarmed/Don’t Know Where to Start

•  Overconfident

--Organization lacks talent infrastructure to support rapid growth

--CEO has other priorities --Assume buyers’ market for talent

--Mature talent processes in place, eg. “textbook TM” --Strategy to become integrated global enterprise --Succession pipeline analysis shows shortage of candidates

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Agenda

•  What will you do differently?

•  CEO’s role in leadership development

•  Discussion, reflections

•  5 keys to accelerating leadership development

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Leadership Challenges You’re Facing

•  Creating effective leaders out of technical experts

•  Finding development opportunities for high potentials

•  Succession planning

•  Identifying & recruiting future leaders

•  Developing new leadership skills, e.g. leading in a multi-generational, technology-intensive workplace

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CEO Roles in Leadership Development

CEO As Talent Strategist

CEO As

Inter-Personal Talent Coach

CEO As Talent Mgt Architect

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5 Keys to Accelerating Leadership Development

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1. Connect Value of Leadership Development to Firm’s Performance

•  Hard to make clear ROI connection, but broken leadership pipeline is obviously more costly

•  Can’t sustain attention and effort on development over time unless there is a clear business incentive

•  Must prioritize where investing limited resources

•  Don’t be seduced by “knowing” the company’s strategy.

© D.W. DeLong 2014

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How “Knowing” Strategy Can Undermine Performance

•  Midwest Healthcare System...From 30 page Strategy Doc: “Strategic objective #2: Develop and retain the best

leaders”

•  Memorizing Strategy Does No Good

•  One Midwest Healthcare Tactic: “Reinforce training and provide tools that strengthen

leadership skills”

•  It’s “Strategic Context” – The Big Picture – That Counts!

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Key to Alignment: Providing Strategic Context – “The Big Picture”

•  How do we fit in the larger organization’s mission?

•  Who are our customers or mkt segments in priority order?

•  What is our unit’s mission or purpose?

•  What are our specific products today & which ones need to change to implement our strategy?

•  How is our success measured? How might that change?

•  Where are we in the product or service cycle?

•  Who are our competitors & why, in priority order?

•  How does the work flow? © peermentoring.com, 2008

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How You Can Use “Big Picture” Questions

•  Discuss answers with trusted colleagues

•  Answer questions in writing

•  Meet with your executive team to discuss & clarify their answers

•  Make sure key staff can answer questions

•  Evaluate leadership development investments – how do they support strategic big picture?

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Define Leadership Development Investments By Future Goals

Firm’s Current Capabilities

Future Capabilities

“Planning” for the Future

Leadership Capabilities Needed?

Envisioned Future Performance

Gap in Leadership Capabilities?

Performance Goals drive LD investments

© D.W. DeLong 2014

#2. Use a Framework to Organize & Orient

Leadership Development Planning

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A Framework for Accelerating Leadership Development

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1. Clarify Future Leadership Needs

2. Recruit Potential Leaders

3. Create More Effective Learning Environment

4. Choose & Implement Development Initiatives

5. Evaluate Leaders & Leadership Devel Program

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#3. Clarify Leadership Skills Needed in the Future

•  Keep asking: “Are we identifying & developing the essential leadership capabilities needed in the future?”

•  Does you’re current team have the leadership skills needed to implement your strategy?

•  Challenge assumptions about leadership models

•  Future skills might include:

  Leading More Diverse WF   More Systemic/Integrative Thinking   Managing Change Effectively   More Strategic Perspective   Strong Technology Orientation

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EXERCISE:

What New Skills Are Your Leaders Going to Need in the Future?

•  Given your firm’s strategic direction and the changing business environment, what leadership skills will become much more critical in 3-5 years?

•  To what degree does your current leadership team have these skills?

•  What are you doing to develop them in younger leaders?

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Restructure Your Leadership Team for Future Success

•  What’s Talent Management IQ of Your Top Team? e.g. Innovators, champions, conformers, laggards

•  Different Skills Needed to Grow Operations vs. Innovating, Reinventing Business Services

•  Take a Hard Look: Do Your Leaders Have What it Takes?

•  Insurance CEO Needs to Reinvent Services in Saturated Market; Execs Lack Strategic & Technical Capabilities

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Don’t Be Part of the “Performance Management” Problem

•  Think About Your Worst Hire. How Long Did It Take You to Recognize the Mistake?

•  What’s Your Success Rate in Hiring Your Direct Reports?

•  How Long Was It Before You Dealt With This Mistake?

•  How Much Time Are You Spending on C-Players, Instead of Replacing Them?

•  There is a Financial Risk in Failing to Manage Poor Performance

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1.  Clarify Future Leadership Needs





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4. Identify & Motivate Potential Leaders

•  Everybody recognizes the shortage of leadership candidates!!!

•  What are you doing to do about it?

•  Two immediate steps

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Shortage of “Potential Leaders” is Like a Rorschach Ink Blot

22 •  Everybody recognizes the problem!!!

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What’s Your Evidence of the Problem?

Future CEO

Candidates

VPs of Key Areas “In

formal L

eaders”

Supervisors

Adapted from: Process Visuals, A. Weiss, 2003

Where is Your Shortage, Really?

Sales Leaders

Manufacturing

Managers

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Tactics to Fill a Leadership Shortage

•  Cherry pick candidates from competitors

•  Plan ahead and fill pipeline with extra potential leaders

•  Accelerate development of current “high potentials”

•  Retain older leaders longer or bring back after “retirement”

•  Reorganize or merge so fewer leaders are needed

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Succession Challenges Facing MegaTech?

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“Where do you start? One of their biggest concerns is not having enough talented people who have the ambition and capability to fill their top jobs. So when we created their succession planning charts, there were many places where they were pretty sparse.

“They’re desperate for good people who will stick around to do this. There just aren’t enough who are ambitious enough and talented enough to fill those slots.”

-- Former MegaTech Sr. Exec

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Create Roles Young Leaders Want to Fill

•  What kind of leadership roles would promising candidates want to fill?

•  What specifically makes particular roles unattractive?

•  What are characteristics of people who have been successful recently in key leadership roles?

•  Can strong candidates be hired from outside? Or must they be developed internally?

•  What are you personally doing to model behavior that would make leadership roles more attractive in your organization?

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EXERCISE:

“Be the Change?”

•  Given the leadership roles your organization needs to fill, what are you doing to model behavior that would make these roles more attractive to potential candidates?

For more see Change the World: How Ordinary People Can Accomplish Extraordinary Results by Robert E. Quinn, 2000.

•  What are you doing that might discourage applicants?

•  What does your organization need to change to make hard-to-fill roles more attractive?

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1. Clarify Future Leadership Needs





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5. Create a More Supportive, Effective Learning Environment For Leaders

•  Balance demands of daily operations with needs for individual development

•  What are the costs of failing to effectively support a new manager?

•  What does a supportive, effective leadership development environment look like?

•  Setting new leaders up for success?

•  Hospital director: balancing operational & growth responsibilities...burning bridges to old role

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EXERCISE:

If Your Firm Had an Ideally Effective Environment for Supporting

Leadership Development, What Would Be Happening?

•  Given your organization’s strategic objectives & leadership development needs, what would an ideally supportive environment look like?

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What Role is Your Board Playing in Leadership Development?

•  Leadership development is future-focused, but boards tend to deal with the past

•  Boards are notoriously weak in addressing strategic leadership & talent issues.

•  New York Life CEO updates board on succession plans for top jobs & challenges filling them

•  Utility CEO reports on development plans for execs who might succeed her.

•  Do you have directors who can ask hard questions about succession planning?

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EXERCISE:

What Role Should My Board Play?

•  What question about succession or talent management would I least like to get from my Board?

•  Why would this question make me uncomfortable?

•  Why is it critical for future of the business to answer this?

•  What must I start doing that will put me in a better position to respond?

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Q&A

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Integrating the 3Rs

Retirements

Recruiting Talent

Retention/ Development of

Mid-Career Employees

Need Integrated Solution

Future Leadership &

Workforce Capabilities

Is Your Organization Pursuing an Integrated Approach to Leadership & Workforce Development?

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Summary: 6 Things You Can Do Differently

2. Define & Focus On Future Leadership Behaviors Needed

3. Prioritize Your Leadership Recruiting Problems

4. “Be the Change:” Make Sure You Contribute to Making Leadership Roles Attractive

1. Link Leadership Development to Organization’s Strategic “Big Picture” to its Reinforce Business Value

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Summary: Things You Can Do Differently

6.  Leverage Your Board – Where Practical – to Address Leadership Development Challenges

5. Define What a Supportive Leadership Development Environment Looks & Feels Like

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