The talent shortage that we all knew was in the offing has arrived, and with it, the need to quickly accelerate promising candidates in the leadership pipeline. With 10,000 baby boomers retiring each day, we know we need to equip the mid-senior talent we have in our firms as quickly as possible. This has led to the need for us to shore up the programs in our firms that lead to accelerated leadership development (High Potential or HiPo systems).
Traditionally, those who have demonstrated that they can lead our teams forward in an accelerated way have had the opportunity to participate in both rotational job assignments and training intensives to prepare them for the challenges that will come to them as their leaders move up and out.
There is one haunting gap in this system, and that is connecting this training and development to real “on the P&L” results. To do that we need to equip our HiPo’s with four key capacities of Growth Leadership.
Why it’s a New Day
In addition to the need for leaders who are ready to step into new positions of responsibility, there are three additional change waves that are crashing down and complicating this acceleration process:
#1: The wholesale reworking of firms around new and stronger digital platforms
Far from being an incremental change, the adoption of machine learning and artificial intelligence are step changes in the way leaders must think and challenge their peers. Being able to see the future clearly and overlay it on their intrinsic business strategy is becoming table stakes for the next generation of leaders.
Making this even more challenging is that the current senior leadership team has a blind spot into just how much the technology changes are going to drive business change. This period feels roughly equivalent to earlier times when hardware-centric firms needed to learn software leadership, or when e-commerce was taking hold. What happens during these times, is that the current management team continues to manage to its old benchmarks and can easily get caught by the change wave.
#2: The need to be sensitive to – and take early action on – shifts in the business model
New leaders need to have some fluency in their current business model and how it will transform with the new demands and opportunity of the digital era. The value in the supply chain is shifting quickly, and firms set up to manage assets in a traditional distribution system are going to struggle to get ahead of the change.
Many of my manufacturing clients have built services into their portfolios, and several have stood up variations of data and internet of things (IOT) offerings as well. These “augmentations” can quickly become the main event in this era of rapidly-shifting needs by the client.
#3: The need to build responsive and agile organizations
Change management is now table stakes. For the new leaders taking the field, they should be very wary of any process or system that has not been updated since the founding of the legacy firm. Planning and leading wave after wave of new and more efficient processes and systems is the new expectation.
Getting a new workforce is not optional – the demographics are clear. We are working with the talent that we’ve got, so harnessing their best efforts in support of our stakeholders is a very important skill.
What About Growth Leadership?
One of the most powerful changes is the need to build powerful lateral cross-functional teams to deliver on plans the firm has for growth. This kind of lateral leadership is absolutely necessary to get the whole firm aligned with delivering new value to our stakeholders. Finding the thru line, and working across organizational boundaries, involves strategic decision making, careful assessments, and collaboration. For more on Growth Leadership, see the links here, here and here.
What Does HiPo 2.0 Look Like?
From my work with clients, I would say it’s still evolving. Principle one is that it needs to be customized to the leader based precisely on where they are in their development, as well as their innate strengths and opportunities.
First, the firm needs to take a fresh look at behaviors and competencies that the new leader needs in a rigorous and prioritized way. Once these are understood, the firm can set up a path for individual leaders.
For an individual baseline, I use a platform and services design borrowed from software architecture. Every new leader in the firm should be equipped with a core “platform” of skills and vocabulary. This includes a really clear understanding of the relevant history of the firm and the non-negotiable frameworks that we will use to run the business. Part of this work is to build “cohorts” of leaders that become close through “boot camp” and are able to support each other’s journeys as they progress through their new assignments.
The “app” layer includes just-in-time modules (competencies) for strategy, technology, program and people leadership that are provided to the leader “just in time” as they are called on to do powerful internal programs. Included in this work is intensive coaching, providing assessments, and the right tools a leader needs for their specific profile.
In working with firms, I’m recommending we include the basics (situation analysis, project design and hypothesis testing) of this discipline in the core. The advanced portions (running projects using the STRIDE technique, future capability strategy process and in depth Growth Leader development) become apps to be completed as needed.
If you’d like to talk more, give us a call at 847-651-1014, or set up a 20-minute call using this link.
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