Cookie-Cutter Leadership Development...The Big F...

Recently Deloitte published its Human Capital Trends 2013 report. In the report there are a number of interesting pieces, which I highly recommend you look at, but I was driven to one in particular titled "Leadership.Next: Debunking the superhero myth."

This informative piece discusses what has historically been the focus of leadership development programs...building the same kind of super leaders that organizations think they need based on some kind of leadership competency model that has been identified as the answer to the organization's current problems or future growth. This approach continues to come under attack from a multitude of directions because of the nature of the business environment today.

I originally discussed it in a blog piece last year based on a report from the Center for Creative Leadership titled "Leadership Paradigm Shift Approaching...Rise of Collective Development" where I discussed the context of the report and implications to leadership development (Which has gone largely unchanged since World War I...Yes...World War I). This blog was based on the concept of the VUCA environment...a new normal of constant volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that old ways of developing leaders to deal with is unable to keep pace.

Just as the CCL piece discussed, so does the Deloitte piece...give up on cookie-cutter super leader programs. Look at building collective leadership capabilities through leadership diversity. Why? For starters, there is no way to create the same kind of leaders in organizations because we come from such vastly different backgrounds, experiences, influences of different people and different leadership strengths and weaknesses. This requires taking a different approach to understand these variabilities in leaders and network these vast differences in meaningful ways in organizations. That requires understanding leaders in an organization at a mush different level of depth and breadth...most certainly a big data challenge...With that data...it is about building agile and adaptable networks of leaders that bring to bear their collective knowledge and abilities to bear on the most pressing business challenges within organizations...

So take a step back...and think about breaking that cookie-cutter.

Cheers,
Keith

Dr. J. Keith Dunbar is a Global Talent Management Leader...Creator of Talent, Leadership Capability, and Culture Change...He can be found connecting and sharing knowledge on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Twitter: JKeithDunbar
LinkedIn: J. Keith Dunbar
Google+: J. Keith Dunbar
Blog: DNA of Human Capital

The opinions or views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the views of the SAIC.

The Constant Tension...

If you are like most people in the learning and talent management space...you may have experienced this situation.

You are in an organization with a Corporate (Corp) learning and talent management group, probably responsible for cross-corporate initiatives and a number of Business Unit (BU) learning and talent management groups, probably responsible for being responsive to the business needs of the BU. If you have been in either of these groups within your corporation you notice the constant tension between the two. Let's see if any of these statements apply to your company...

- We have to be faster than Corp, they are too slow and not focused on what the business needs...

- There goes the BU again...off on their own without working with us...

- They are not team players...Yes that is used equally by Corp and BU...

What is even funnier is that these type of reactions are so ingrained in these two organizations...that if you move between them in an organization...you take on that persona. It is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde action...really kind of scary.

Even in my own experience I have reacted the same way I am sad to say. It is ssssoooo easy to fall into that trap and the repercussions are extremely hard to get away from in the long run. The perceptions of you from these kinds of activities are lasting perceptions...

So what do you do to break this vicious cycle? In my current organization, my team has the roles and responsibilities for learning and talent management for our BU, for Corporate and for some of those responsibilities within the other BU. Recently as we had the same discussions internally...one way I addressed it was to have a 3-way discussion and allow my colleagues to share their perceptions about me and not try to defend my actions. We have tried to create a culture of feedback that includes telling people how you feel and being more self-aware about how w. e impact each other. It has been a healthy dialog and while it hasn't created nirvana...it has been a step in the right direction.

I do have to say that this is like walking a tightrope though. To get where we are has involved constant dialog that is honest and a focus on understanding each other's priorities and where necessary...influencing these decisions where I can.

Is there a magic potion and a silver bullet to working this constant tension? Just one...open and honest dialog to understand each other. So put together all of your best relationship management skills and see what happens...

Cheers,
Keith

Dr. J. Keith Dunbar is a Global Talent Management Leader...Creator of Talent, Leadership Capability, and Culture Change...He can be found connecting and sharing knowledge on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Twitter: JKeithDunbar
LinkedIn: J. Keith Dunbar
Google+: J. Keith Dunbar
Blog: DNA of Human Capital

The opinions or views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the views of the SAIC.

Creating the Agile Organization...

Two recent articles piqued my curiosity this past week. One was UNC Keenan-Flagler's ideas@work webizine Volume 5 and one article in particular titled "Developing Leaders in a VUCA Environment." The second was a research report from Saba titled "Carpe Diem: Seizing the Opportunity to Build an Agile Organization."

The UNC Keenan-Flagler piece discussed research from the Center for Creative Leadership indicating that today's Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) business environment requires leaders possess more complex and adaptive thinking skills to work effectively within this environment. It also indicated that for the most part leadership development areas like on-the-job training, mentoring and coaching haven't changed much over the years and therefore leaders are not developing quickly enough. I have written previously about today's leadership development tactics and how they haven't really changed as the business environment as changed. For me...this is critical in organizations. Their ability to be learning agile and adapt quickly will be the hallmark in the very near future of companies that successfully grow and those that become have nots in the world.

So the question is what is inhibiting organizations from becoming more agile and adaptable? Enter the Saba research report. 552 learning executives completed a survey to identify the most common strategies for creating agile organizations, as well as primary obstacles that L&D faces. Key findings from the study are the following

- Knowledge management and leadership development are the most common strategies for increasing organizational agility through learning.

- The obstacles to L&D helping to increase organizational agility are primarily culture issues (organizational silos, resistance to change, conflicting goals of different departments).

- Strategic enablers are more focused on connecting people to people and content through knowledge management and social technologies, while other organizations are catching up in the implementation of knowledge management systems.

- Strategic enablers focus on changing the learning culture through leadership development while cost centers focus on change management. The most dramatic differences between strategic enablers and cost centers involve practices related to learning culture.

While the Saba study doesn't give details on leadership development as one of the catalysts to enable an agile organization and culture, it does present a disconnect with the UNC Keenan-Flagler article on what leadership development is doing today, vice what it will need to do tomorrow. The article references three primary thrusts to enable this:

Thrust 1 - Hire Agile Leaders: In many organizations we hire because an individual appears to have the right set of experiences, customer experience or industry sector experience for example. Very few actually hire for a leader's agility or complex thinking skills because it is sometimes difficult to pull these experiences out from an interview. The article provides examples of the types of behavior based questions that should be asked.

Thrust 2 - Develop Existing Leaders to be Agile Leaders: While on-the-job training, mentoring, and coaching will continue to have their place in leadership development programs. New tools like scenario planning and simulations should play a larger role in developing agile and adaptable leadership skills, as well as innovation, collaboration, communication, openness to change and other high-order thinking skills.

Thrust 3 - Foster an Organizational Culture that Rewards VUCA Prime Behaviors and Retains Agile Employees: Here the Saba and UNC Keenan-Flagler article agree...the importance of the culture piece. It must be a systematic effort to create the right conditions for birth and growth in many respects of a different culture than many organizations are used to operation.

The future will belong to those that can create this new capability within their organizations. As these two articles point to...L&D and talent management have a huge role in creating and enabling this future...

Enable your future...

Cheers,
Keith

Dr. J. Keith Dunbar is a Global Talent Management Leader...Creator of Talent, Leadership Capability, and Culture Change...He can be found connecting and sharing knowledge on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Twitter: JKeithDunbar
LinkedIn: J. Keith Dunbar
Google+: J. Keith Dunbar
Blog: DNA of Human Capital

The opinions or views expressed here are mine alone and do not represent the views of the SAIC.