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Personal Business Coach
Inspired Development and Coaching |
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Strategic Development: Thriving in challenging times
The efficacy of a planned approach to the development of key populations is recognised by almost all high performing businesses, especially when that is explicitly linked to the stated strategic objectives of the organisation.
In the current climate, where organisations are increasingly looking to key individuals and teams to navigate them successfully through uncertain times, investment in the capabilities of these people, and, indeed, the ability to identify who they are in the first place, can be the difference between business success and failure.
Strategic development is about enabling the delivery of superior long term business results through targeted investment in the organisations key resource, its people. It is a process that must always be owned and directed by the senior executive team, not by HR. The role of HR is to act as a business partner in offering strategic level consulting to the senior team and coaching to line managers.
Value creation through strategic people development starts with ensuring that the organisation has the right people in place, now and in the future, to deliver the businesses ambitions for profit, growth and competitive advantage. It is a means of retaining and pulling talented people through the organisation and of building populations of motivated people who are endowed with the required knowledge, skills, experience, attitudes and beliefs.
Whatever the nature of the business, the purpose of the senior executive team is to deliver long term competitive advantage and profitable growth. They achieve this through fully understanding the complexities of the current business situation, having a shared and compelling vision of the future, and a growth strategy to get the business there.
To successfully deliver this strategy, they need to answer the following questions
o Who is going to take us there?
o Who, besides us, is going to provide the energy, engine and direction for growth?
o Who will provide the leverage?
o What are the consequences of them continuing to behave as they always have?
o What do they, and we, need to do differently in terms of knowledge, skills, experience, attitudes and beliefs?
In answering these questions, the senior team start to move the organisation towards a strategic people development mindset.
By looking at marketing strategy we learn early on to segment our customers on the basis of shared needs. Strategic development is no different, we need to start by thinking about how we address the development needs of various key populations. These populations will vary from business to business, but are likely to include the following:
o The senior executive team – the top team needs to be seen to take the lead or others will be reluctant to follow.
o High potentials – this is the group that are most likely to leave and that the business can least afford to lose.
o Identified successors – once individuals are identified on succession plans, it is important to invest in their development.
o Talent pools – many leading companies now use the concept of talent pools rather than, or in addition to, traditional organigram based succession plans.
o Strategic skills – most organisations have a number of key specialists, the loss of whose skills would have a substantial negative effect on the future profitability of the business. All these individuals need to be identified, appreciated and developed. This should be especially the case where they are difficult to replace on the open job market.
o Graduates – successful businesses need to recruit and retain the best graduates that our education system can offer.
o Poor performers and blockers – these are the people that organisations tend to ignore and they do so at their cost.
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