Page 188 - Just Promoted A 12 Month Road Map for Success in Your New Leadership Role

Assessing Your Organization’s Health 173

TARGET 6. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND
TALENT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
An organization’s human resources and talent management practices entail a
wide range of processes, including leadership development, talent acquisition,
retention of key staff and maintenance of staffing levels, learning and develop-
ment, competency assessment, and employee relations. A task force can make
an excellent appraisal of the effectiveness of an organization’s strengths and
weaknesses in these, and other, important business-related people issues. In
addition, your personal observations and interviews of staff, individuals outside
of your function, and customers and clients will provide valuable information.

Leadership Development
IBM, General Mills, McDonald’s, and GE are four examples of companies
viewed as models for developing leaders. In these and other companies that
are respected for their leadership development practices, leaders regularly
model the behavior that they expect from others. They are personally involved
in the development of other leaders. There is regular attention at all levels of
leadership to the development of a pipeline of emerging leaders. Leadership
development programs and processes support the business strategy. Business
strategy and leadership development are highly aligned. These companies have
the development of leaders as part of their genetic material, and it is very much
part of the way they think, act, and invest. Leaders teach, coach, and mentor
other leaders and those who show promise as leaders.
To what extent do these practices take place in your organization and the
function or functions you lead?

Competency of Your Managers and Workforce
The competency of managers, leaders, and the workforce is one of the
strongest single determinants of your ultimate success as a leader. The extent
to which you and your direct reports successfully lead and create the condi-
tions for high engagement and motivation of your human resources will influ-
ence how well you achieve your goals. Your most important job is to lead and
manage to ensure that your organization’s goals and objectives are achieved.
This begins with assessing your immediate staff and the overall competency
of your workforce. Whenever possible, use the insights and experience of a
task force to provide input, compare approaches to building competence with
functions and competitors, and recommend new programs and services. Are