Yes, it is true that results are only achieved through people, and the path to high performance is having the right people in the right place doing the right things. However, if you put talent into an environment that undermines their potential, you are squandering your investment. Does your culture allow talent to thrive?

There is a lot of hype out there about being authentic, particularly as a leader. If you think about it though, as soon as you start "trying to be" authentic, you aren't. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying you should not be authentic, it is more about how you get there. Authenticity means you are clear about what you stand for; the principles you will uphold no matter what, and living by those principles. It is also about understanding what your purpose is; the impact you want to have on the world/in your work, and using this to guide your actions and decisions. Finally, it is about sharing your principles and your purpose with others honestly, so they know what you stand for and what to expect in their interactions with you. I encourage us all to spend some reflection time on purpose and principles. If you think about it, it is our own personal "Vision,Mission, Values" statement that lives in our actions.

There are many definitions of leadership. Some focus on the people side. Some focus on the operational side. Some focus on the strategic side. Ram Charan put an interesting spin on it when he described that one capability of a leader is to look from "Multiple altitudes". This implies that the leader can look above the trees and then dig into the forest to get things done. What this implies is the need to balance the focus, without losing sight of the need to get others within the organization to do the same thing. As you look at your role as a leader, this framework might help in thinking through what you do and where you focus;

1. What is your role in setting direction? This includes vision, mission, strategy, and making sure it is clear to others in your organization.
2. What is your role in leading for results? This is linked to getting things done. This is the operational aspects of the role. This can include making sure others are focused on the right things, monitoring progress toward the strategy, and making adjustments along the way. 
3. What is your role in leading people? This focuses on alignment and leading change. This focus enables the previous two. Are you coaching and developing the people that help you achieve the mission and strategy?
4. What is your role in building organizational capability? This aspect looks at the idea of "sharpening the saw". This means taking action to ensure the organization and its people are constantly getting better at what they do.
5. What is your role in building relationships? These can be internal and external relationships. Think about what you are doing to build the "brand" of your organization, department, team. What is your role in building critical relationships inside or outside the organization to enable success.

These five are not mutually exclusive, but consider them the "balanced scorecard" of leadership as you think through where you are investing your leadership energy.

Many years ago I participated in a conference with Manpower Inc, where the keynote declared that 80 percent of the jobs of the future do not exist today (then). This has proven true. Who would have thought that someone could have a career of mapping businesses on online map tools (Apple Maps or Google Maps). Who would have thought it would be a full time job to ensure your company has sufficient visibility on social media. I recently stayed at an AirBNB apartment in Paris, where the woman revealed to me that acquiring properties and renting them out on AirBNB was her full time job!! I was recently in Chicago, where posted in the L train was what seemed to be an advertisement for people who would rent their idle cars out to people looking for short-term rentals. 

There are many examples out there of how the world of work is changing based on people seeing a need and turning it into a profitable business model. The message? No matter what your role, no matter what your industry, it is important to keep an eye out for disruptive ideas, disruptive technologies and other opportunities that might change the way you work or who you are
competing with.

Finally, organizations — or at least a growing number of them — are realizing that “training” doesn’t work. There has been a dramatic shift. Now, organizations are focusing on “development” to build capability — both individual and organizational.

What’s more, firms are concentrating this development on the real work of the business. They’re also eschewing return-on-investment measures for what’s called return on strategy — an assessment of the organization’s capability to implement strategy as a return to the investment in leadership development.

This doesn’t mean training isn’t part of the development package. It’s just not the answer all the time, and it’s never the answer in isolation.

The factors making an impact on learning and leadership development in organizations aren’t new: increased pressure to demonstrate a return on investment, the competition for limited resources like money and time, and changes in global markets and technology. What is new, however, is how these drivers are changing the development of leaders.

In 2003 leadership development ranked in the top five areas of strategic focus for 65 per cent of the surveyed organizations. This represents a 20 per-cent increase over a similar study conducted eight years ago. Unfortunately, the investment in leadership development has in no way kept pace with its increased level of importance — primarily because of dissatisfaction with the minimal impact that development initiatives have had on the bottom line.

However, low satisfaction levels, combined with the increasing pressure to develop leadership capability, have led to some interesting trends and creativity related to the development of leaders.

During the last five years, there has been a shift away from training in the traditional sense to a more action-focused approach. In a 1998 study conducted for their book, Leadership by Design, Albert Vicere and Robert Fulmer found organizations have been making the following shifts in leadership development:

Format: from theoretical or standard, prescribed coursework to customized study programs based on real issues;

Time frame: from one-off events to a learning journey with ongoing support;

Methodology: from lectures and workshops to participatory, interactive learning sessions;

Focus: from individual learning to team-based learning; and

Supplier: from training vendors to partners, co-designers, facilitators and coaches.

These trends continue at an ever-increasing rate.

A key component of the shift identified by Vicere and Fulmer is the need to link learning and development to the organization’s business strategy. Organizations are moving away from individual-based learning to team-based learning, where teams of leaders learn together using the real work of the business. As a result, action learning, learning communities and longer-term, curricula-based learning teams are increasing in popularity.

A team that develops together…

One transnational energy company based in the United States created an 18-month corporate MBA-like program for leaders on the track to the executive suite. This program brings those leaders together from across the globe for four days every quarter. During that time the learning team learns key business concepts specific to their organization, draws upon the best practices in leadership development and works on actual projects and case studies based on the organization’s real challenges. In between sessions, teams are assigned work on action-learning projects and other learning assignments.

The return on strategy of this has been three-fold for the organization and the individuals. First, the individuals are learning processes and approaches that are specific to the organization and driven by the strategy. Second, the learning teams are solving real business problems and building skills to solve similar problems in the future. And finally, the individual participants are learning about cultural differences and building cross-functional relationships and networks that will serve them well as they take on more strategic roles within the organization.

Similar types of processes are cropping up all over the world, many of which are building in computer chat rooms, called learner space, to maintain connections between the formal sessions.

Enter technology

In some high-tech organizations, learning for high-potential leaders has gone completely virtual.

Leveraging the processes and technology that have given rise to the growth of online college and university programs, one organization has developed a program similar to the corporate MBA described earlier, but facilitates it almost completely via online media, course-specific chat rooms and occasional webinars. Some might rue the impersonal nature of this process, but participants and the managers of the participants are citing great success after the first pilot program.

Coaching, mentoring ups commitment

Obviously, not all development must be team-based. There is still room to focus on personalized and specific learning that is targeted to individuals and their very specific needs. Growing in popularity in this arena are mentoring and coaching. Mentoring programs can range from highly structured to very open, learner led mentoring relationships.

The Canadian division of a U.S.-based consumer goods company launched a mentoring program in early 2003 that matched new “high-potential” leaders with more seasoned and experienced leaders.

The program contained two structured sessions: one to cover some recent leadership trends and provide some external focus, and the second to investigate the key strategic choice made by the organization. While less structured than many formal mentoring programs, leaders in this organization appreciated the format. The return on investment was measured in increased commitment to the organization and increased readiness to take on new roles.

Putting succession planning into practice

At IFDS, a mutual fund service provider located in Toronto, coaching, mentoring and action learning are being combined to provide targeted learning and development for newly promoted managers or candidates for promotion.

In its executive succession process, the firm identifies potential successors for each of the key executives in the organization. To be accepted into the development program, participants are sponsored by an executive. They are given a business case based on the real work of the company and asked to present a recommendation to the executive advisory board.

Based on the result of that presentation, the selected individuals undergo an in-depth assessment to identify key development areas. The sponsoring executive is responsible for mentoring the individual and monitoring the development plan. The entire executive team, however, is accountable for overall development.

In addition to the sponsor, many participants are provided with a coach who is an executive within the organization possessing the specific skills and capabilities requiring development in the up-and-comer.

Assessment clinics

Another trend that is worthy of note is the resurgence of what’s sometimes called the assessment and development centre methodology. This is an approach where leaders or potential leaders are assessed on their performance in a series of case studies delivered through role-playing or computer simulations, designed to assess particular leadership competencies.

A recent example of this is a pharmaceutical company seeking to develop leadership and coaching skills in its sales leaders. Prior to coming to the training clinic, participants completed two online assessments designed to measure interest and aptitude related to coaching skills. They also participated in a 360-feedback process specifically on coaching and leadership. Clinics were scheduled to bring the sales leaders into a learning and simulation centre where they learned coaching skills and participated in live simulations evaluated by trained assessors. The participants were videotaped and given immediate feedback; they then used this feedback to re-do the simulation. At the end of the session, each participant was provided with a consolidated development report based on both the online and clinic assessments.

The important trend seen in the above examples is that leadership learning and development is getting out of the classroom. This trend is validated by increased satisfaction on the part of the leader, real behaviour change in the organization and a notable return on strategy that is making the development of leaders an easier sell.

A new generation: Leadership development trends

Click here to listen to the CUTV News Radio Interview with Mary Marcus

This program combines the ground breaking team effectiveness concepts introduced in Patrick Lencioni’s best selling book 5 Dysfunctions of a Team with the leading edge Everything DiSC published by Wiley into a team changing, team aligning and team optimizing session. Contact us to learn more.

OrganizationDynamic is launching its new website.

Since the mid 90’s the issue of generational diversity in the workplace has grown in interest, particularly in the work setting. In 1996, Tulgan published the first edition of “Managing Generation X.” This was not the first to be written about generational differences (at least with current generations), but likely the first “how to” book on the topic. In the forward to the second edition of this book, Tulgan highlighted how when the first book came out that managers were in the “who cares” mindset. Since then, however, understanding the generations in the workplace today and how to manage, motivate, retain, and simply understand them has become big business, with new books being published regularly and new consultants sprouting up with the “answer.” Unfortunately, however, much of what is being published is andecdotal, or based on one individuals exposure to others within that generational cohort, rather than scientific research from which to base solutions. Granted, Tulgan has based much of his writing on years of experience in the talent world and interviews with a large sampling of the various generations. However researchers have struggled to validate or refute the reputations the various generations are getting from such books and media publications.

Whether these documented profiles are based in fact or not is one question. The challenge is that the profiles featured in books and popular media are creating stereotypes and prejudices in the workplace that are potentially informative and potentially harmful (Tulgan, 2000). However, the amount of noise within the workplace about differences would lead one to believe there should be some truth somewhere, but there is a gap in scientifically based research on the topic.

It is interesting to see the two directions customer service is going in these days. The ying and the yang is servicing customers to death vs forgetting that customers exist at all.

To provide an example, I recently invested in an Iphone. This has been an eye opener to me who has thought the days of servicing the customer have died.

If you have a problem with your Iphone, you can log into the Apple site and choose from many options: Frequently asked questions, live I-chatt, and even dialing a telephone number and speaking to a human being!! Not only that, you can go into an Apple store and speak to a human being who is happy to help you, even if you bought your product somewhere else. Just to add to the level of service, you can even go onto the Apple site and book an appointment with a technician in the store and then physically show up at the store at the scheduled time and avoid any line that may have accumulated in the store! Finally, to add to this, shortly after your Apple service experience you will receive an email asking about your feedback on it.

Let’s now compare this to a recent experience I had with an Iphone application, Sirius Radio. This is an applications promoted for the Iphone (an option and an additional charge) that provides satelite radio. The application you purchase works for both the Iphone and any computers you might want to run it on. The application was not seamless to set up, so it required a call to their support line. The woman on the line did not sound like she knew anything about the application. She then sent me to the media player supplier (a completely separate comany). The media player company advised me that they only handled the Iphone and that if my problem was with the computer, I should go to Sirius. When I called Sirius again, they referred me back to the media player supplier. In otherwords, I was caught in a service cycle focused on placing blame on the other party and not on how to make it work for me.

The problem today, in my eyes, is that the service game is not dependable. Go into Apple, or Bath and Body Works, and you get personalized attention that makes you feel like your business matters. Go to Sirius, or Rogers Cable (a Canadian supplier who doesn’t even have a number you can call on its website) and there seems to be an absence of concern about convenience to the customer.

With Rogers, I simply wanted to change credit card information on the Rogers site, who had “conveniently” gone completely online based. While this is conceptually convenient, if the technology is not working there is no way to get service. Guess what? If they don’t figure it out, they are not going to be paid!

While it is easy to understand that technology is the way of the future, organizations seem to be forgetting that in the end, it is service that counts and without service, customers and potential customers can quickly and easily jump ship.