So
last time we talked about the critical importance of your executives staying
engaged in order to effect leadership development that drives business impact
at your organizations. Even the big dogs can't effectively engage without a business-driven set of leadership competencies around which
they are driving leadership development program content and holding leaders
accountable for performance.
Recall
that mature leadership development is based on an assessment of our six best
practices of leadership development (and implementation of these 6 promote
mature leadership development that drives business impact as defined in the Bersin & Associates Leadership Development
Maturity Model®):
1.
Maintain strong executive engagement;
2.
Define tailored leadership competencies;
3.
Align with business strategy;
4.
Target all levels of leadership;
5.
Integrate with talent management; and,
6. Apply a targeted solution.
Successful leadership
development programs are based on leadership competencies that drive an
organization’s business goals. By isolating and agreeing upon leadership
competencies most important to your business, you will have the foundation for
leadership development, as well as succession planning, career development and
other talent processes.
All high-impact programs
we’ve studied are built on well-established, business-driven leadership
competency models. Understanding this, it is not surprising to find that during
our 2010-2011 leadership development research study (the full study will be
published in our library in June 2011), 100% of mature (level 4 in our maturity
model) organizations surveyed have defined tailored leadership competencies
(while 30% of the least mature organizations surveyed have not yet defined a
business-driven leadership competency model).
But Aren’t Competencies Just For HR?
No! Business-driven
leadership competencies need to be defined and owned by executive and business
unit leaders; HR leaders should only be the stewards helping to facilitate
conversations and lead discussions about which competencies are most critical
for driving an organization's business goals.
A strong advantage for organizations that utilize
business-driven competencies owned by the BUs is that leaders learn what
behaviors are effective for driving performance and business goals in their
respective units and at the enterprise-level.
So, while organizations may have very similar leadership competency models,
no two organizations’ models will look identical unless their annual business
goals mimic each other.
High-Impact 21st
Century Competencies
With that said, there is a short-list of leader competencies
that many of our clients prioritize for their leadership development.
Furthermore, our 2010 – 2011 high-impact leadership development research
revealed a handful more of leader capabilities that are essential for
organizations to thrive in the 21st century. Here’s the hit list:
|
Core Leadership Competencies
|
21st Century Leadership Competencies
|
|
• Integrity/Ethics
– this is the foundation; you must tell the truth and do the right thing
• Visioning/Strategy
– leaders need to point the way and develop compelling plans
• Results
Focus – leaders must have a bias for action and be relentless about
getting things done
• Judgment -
a great differentiator – it seems you either have it or you don’t
• Passion/Optimism
– who doesn’t want to work for someone who exudes positive energy?
• Building
the Team – great leaders hire and surround themselves with great talent
• People
Development– people flock to leaders who have a reputation for growing
talent
• Accountability
- leaders have to accept and create a culture of accountability
|
• Innovation
-- to think creatively while taking initiative and calculated risks;
having vision beyond the immediate situation; exploring and integrating
diverse perspectives and recognizing unexpected opportunities
• Agility
-- visionary, collaborative, creative , and proactive learning from prior
experiences that enable leaders to direct sustained success
• Global
acumen --global business
acumen, worldviews and perspectives, global people leadership and global
business knowledge
• Emotional
intelligence -- recognizes and understand emotions, manages personal,
individual and team performance using such awareness
• Management
of diverse (women and multi-generational) workforces -- how leaders
perceive others and how those perceptions affect their interactions,
communication, adaptability and change management
|
Competencies provide directional guidance to executives who
are looking for signposts that explain what they are expected to do. When
competencies are static and individually oriented, they are less useful in
dynamic environments where collective actions are required to adapt to change.
In today’s changing business climate, organizations will serve themselves well
to tailor their 21st century leadership competency model to the
business needs of the organization.
A Best in Class
Example
Our research uncovered many examples of organizations that
are evolving their leadership competency models to reflect 21st
century leader capabilities. One such example is Cisco.
At our IMPACT Conference last month in Florida, Cisco’s AnnMarie Neal and
Robert Kovach discussed a high-impact approach to leadership development at
Cisco. Within that approach, they reviewed their commitment to building the
approach from the input and ownership of business leaders, not HR, and how
their leadership development program content is aligned with leadership
competencies that drive their business goals, including 21st century
leader capabilities of innovation and globalization.
I bet you, too, have a high-impact approach to business-driven
leadership competencies for your organization. What is your example of a business-driven leadership competency model?
Please write to me at barb.arth@bersin.com. I’m eager to see your model and how it
enables individual competence and organizational capability for your company.
Next time, best practice #3: align with business strategy –
cool new stuff on leadership development strategy that we are releasing soon!
Tune in for this next one, too.