How to get mentoring right
Unlock the secrets to mentoring excellence by understanding how to match participants, prepare them well, and support ongoing relationship development...
Brain Circuits
CHROs: Think skills, not jobs, to realize radical productivity gains
A skills-powered approach to talent management can boost agility, efficiency, and productivity, but transitioning to it is a complex undertaking. Ravin Jesuthasan explains how to get started and identifies the eight pillars that support a skills-powered organization.
Checklist
- Are our leaders guarding the skills within their teams?
- Do our incentives encourage managers to redirect skills?
- Are people keen to acquire new skills and apply them in different ways?
- Do they know how to do this?
Getting started
Articulate a ‘North Star’
Articulate a North Star to guide the business on its journey. This should explain the productivity, agility, and efficiency benefits of a skills-powered approach and how it will evolve. It must also outline how systems, processes, policies, and culture will change to support the transition and detail how the work experiences of employees, managers, and leaders will change.
Start narrow and shallow
Start small, demonstrate success, then scale. Identify a discrete (narrow) part of the business that is encountering skills-related challenges and focus on that. It could be a product team facing surging demand, or a finance team that needs to rethink job roles in the context of automation.
Implement change enablers
Eight foundational pillars support a skills-powered organization:
I. Incentivize leaders
Managers typically try to keep the skills within their team. Restructure incentives to encourage managers to redirect skills to where they are most needed.
II. Encourage employees
Stimulate employees to engage with new work and learning opportunities.
III. Support managers and leaders
Create a dedicated unit within HR to drive the transition.
IV. Explore AI opportunities
Examine how AI can match the supply and demand of skills. Find the optimal combination of technology platforms to match skills and tasks.
V. Rethink governance
Define accountability for managing skills deployment.
VI. Change the culture
Create a culture in which employees are keen to acquire new skills and apply them to new projects and roles.
VII. Adjust legal and accounting processes
Change finance practices to account for work being undertaken in different teams and regions. Ensure compliance with local employment law.
VIII. Create a skills taxonomy
Ensure that technical and human skills are routinely assessed and captured.
Key takeaway
By recognizing the different skills available and moving them around to fill gaps in business operations, leaders can maximize their teams’ capabilities and revolutionize company operations.
Expert
Related
Are you caught in the insider trap?
Are you caught in the insider trap? Learn to identify signs of leadership stagnation and explore effective ways to reset your approach for sustained success....
Stop developing an obsolete AI strategy. Part 1: Project risk
AI poses dual threats to organizations. Here’s how to manage the negative consequences that can arise from your own implementation of AI....
The neuroscience blueprint for resilient leadership
Use neuroscience and small, measurable actions to build a resilient leadership brain – adaptive, balanced, and primed for peak performance....
Learn Brain Circuits
Join us for daily exercises focusing on issues from team building to developing an actionable sustainability plan to personal development. Go on - they only take five minutes.
Explore Leadership
What makes a great leader? Do you need charisma? How do you inspire your team? Our experts offer actionable insights through first-person narratives, behind-the-scenes interviews and The Help Desk.
Join Membership
Log in here to join in the conversation with the I by IMD community. Your subscription grants you access to the quarterly magazine plus daily articles, videos, podcasts and learning exercises.