Strategic Talent Solutions
Overview
The past few years have seen the business world experience a tumultuous flux in leadership and expectations. While this new terrain calls for rapid, agile responses, many organizations now face the problem of not being able to transition enough role ready leaders from within to essential strategic roles.
Whether it is about facing the challenge of simultaneously optimizing existing business while creating future sources of revenue and profit through new business models or developing a leadership progression program, organizations face a volatile and uncertain path.
Organizations today need a comprehensive set of talent solutions that can help them equip their senior leaders to perform today and transform for tomorrow.
The environment has become a Volatile, Uncertain, Chaotic and Ambiguous (VUCA) realm and the comfortable forms of leadership no longer hold sway. In a connected society where change can be fast-paced, constant and unpredictable, senior teams must be just as quick and agile as they navigate this new environment.
Unfortunately, one of the main problems faced by organizations managing this new terrain is that they are not able to transition enough role-ready leaders from inside the company to take important strategic roles. This is partially because of a lack of accurate assessments followed by targeted development and it results in companies not properly transitioning their functional leaders into enterprise leaders.
The reality is that today’s enterprise leader must be both a transformer and an operator, possessed of the ability to fundamentally rethink and transform how the existing business operates to ensure sustained growth and profitability, while at the same time, transforming the company strategy to grow new revenue sources from new products, often with new business models.
Certainly, transforming your current business to keep it relevant while also developing new revenue streams may seem like an impossible task, but leaders who are able to transform, pivot and innovate at speed, while not completely abandoning their existing or traditional offerings will be the ones to succeed and lead in change.
One of the biggest issues facing CEOs and CXOs today is double-edged and can be inherently problematic. Firstly, organizations need to restructure and optimize their existing business but at the same time, they also need to create future sources of revenue and profit through new business models. This is often referred to as the ‘Dual Transformation’ challenge.
Dual transformation is the process by which a company becomes the next version of itself and, as the name suggests, consists of two separate, but intrinsically linked transformations that are critical to a business. The first transformation is one that creates the future company and it involves creating radically new business models, products, services, and capabilities to win in the future. The second, often overlooked transformation, involves deeply repositioning and changing the core business to ensure sustained growth and profitability.
In the past these companies had the luxury of assigning those leaders seen as more operational to run the core business and assigning those leaders seen as more transformational to lead the creation of the new business. Today these two transformations are compressed in time and space so senior leaders need to own, and deliver results on, both transformations simultaneously.
This double-edged requirement, where organizations must have robust business resilience while also exhibiting future readiness, falls on the shoulders of today’s leaders, who need to own, and deliver results on both transformations simultaneously, performing today and transforming for tomorrow.
Today’s organizations struggle to find enough qualified internal candidates or, at the very least, lack a sustainable pipeline of high potential future leaders. The result is an excess of external hires for leadership roles and while this may seem like an ideal solution, it relies on the unproven, theoretical competency while ignoring the potential leadership talents that exist within the organization
While useful in the past, this over-reliance on linear, prescriptive leadership competency models is outdated. Organizations that want to pivot effectively between repositioning the core while creating new business for the future need more comprehensive assessment models and 360º evaluation to achieve a complete view of a leader’s competencies.
With an integrated and updated leadership progression and succession management strategy, a business can grow its own leadership talent and ensure that these talent carry the best of the organizational culture and strategic vision forward, safeguarding its longevity across senior functions.
“Ready to Lead: The case for integrating leadership development and succession management”
The Leadership Pipeline
The leadership pipeline framework helps companies to identify potential leaders, assess their competencies and subsequently plan for their leadership development. Consisting of three primary progression transitions, the framework seeks to ensure that organizations have strong leadership that stems from within and reduces the need to look outwards to find suitable leaders. The leadership pipeline framework creates an internal stepladder that properly moves eligible candidates from one position to the next, culminating in the smooth transition from Functional to Enterprise Leader.
To succeed in today’s business environment, organizations need to restructure and optimize their existing business while at the same time, create future sources of revenue and profit through new business models. This is often referred to as the ‘Dual Transformation’ challenge.
This transformation is a difficult one because senior leaders in the organization need to engage in very different and frequently opposing behaviours, executing the most efficient routines while at the same time, being very experimental and discovering new solutions. We call this “Ambidextrous Leadership”.
In our research, we have found that leaders who can successfully reposition their core business while creating new business show a level of ambidexterity across five leadership scales. Interestingly, each of these scales require leaders to embrace two very opposing behaviours.
While it is true that a vast majority of leaders can achieve ambidexterity on some of the leadership scales, our research has shown that in a sample of 450 senior executives across various companies and industries globally, only 12% are naturally ambidextrous and able to master all five scales.
This does not mean, however, that ambidextrous leadership is not achievable. While the process of achieving this is difficult and the activities needed are actually quite diverse, ambidextrous leadership is achievable.
First, an organization needs to build the right executive performance model to reflect their strategy. Next, they need to develop the right assessments to capture behaviours in these models. The results of these assessments can then be used to identify detailed individual development plans which would need to be executed with excellence, progressing people into their new roles.
The environment has become a Volatile, Uncertain, Chaotic and Ambiguous (VUCA) realm and the comfortable forms of leadership no longer hold sway. In a connected society where change can be fast-paced, constant and unpredictable, senior teams must be just as quick and agile as they navigate this new environment.
Unfortunately, one of the main problems faced by organizations managing this new terrain is that they are not able to transition enough role-ready leaders from inside the company to take important strategic roles. This is partially because of a lack of accurate assessments followed by targeted development and it results in companies not properly transitioning their functional leaders into enterprise leaders.
The reality is that today’s enterprise leader must be both a transformer and an operator, possessed of the ability to fundamentally rethink and transform how the existing business operates to ensure sustained growth and profitability, while at the same time, transforming the company strategy to grow new revenue sources from new products, often with new business models.
Certainly, transforming your current business to keep it relevant while also developing new revenue streams may seem like an impossible task, but leaders who are able to transform, pivot and innovate at speed, while not completely abandoning their existing or traditional offerings will be the ones to succeed and lead in change.
One of the biggest issues facing CEOs and CXOs today is double-edged and can be inherently problematic. Firstly, organizations need to restructure and optimize their existing business but at the same time, they also need to create future sources of revenue and profit through new business models. This is often referred to as the ‘Dual Transformation’ challenge.
Dual transformation is the process by which a company becomes the next version of itself and, as the name suggests, consists of two separate, but intrinsically linked transformations that are critical to a business. The first transformation is one that creates the future company and it involves creating radically new business models, products, services, and capabilities to win in the future. The second, often overlooked transformation, involves deeply repositioning and changing the core business to ensure sustained growth and profitability.
In the past these companies had the luxury of assigning those leaders seen as more operational to run the core business and assigning those leaders seen as more transformational to lead the creation of the new business. Today these two transformations are compressed in time and space so senior leaders need to own, and deliver results on, both transformations simultaneously.
This double-edged requirement, where organizations must have robust business resilience while also exhibiting future readiness, falls on the shoulders of today’s leaders, who need to own, and deliver results on both transformations simultaneously, performing today and transforming for tomorrow.
Today’s organizations struggle to find enough qualified internal candidates or, at the very least, lack a sustainable pipeline of high potential future leaders. The result is an excess of external hires for leadership roles and while this may seem like an ideal solution, it relies on the unproven, theoretical competency while ignoring the potential leadership talents that exist within the organization
While useful in the past, this over-reliance on linear, prescriptive leadership competency models is outdated. Organizations that want to pivot effectively between repositioning the core while creating new business for the future need more comprehensive assessment models and 360º evaluation to achieve a complete view of a leader’s competencies.
With an integrated and updated leadership progression and succession management strategy, a business can grow its own leadership talent and ensure that these talent carry the best of the organizational culture and strategic vision forward, safeguarding its longevity across senior functions.
“Ready to Lead: The case for integrating leadership development and succession management”
The Leadership Pipeline
The leadership pipeline framework helps companies to identify potential leaders, assess their competencies and subsequently plan for their leadership development. Consisting of three primary progression transitions, the framework seeks to ensure that organizations have strong leadership that stems from within and reduces the need to look outwards to find suitable leaders. The leadership pipeline framework creates an internal stepladder that properly moves eligible candidates from one position to the next, culminating in the smooth transition from Functional to Enterprise Leader.
To succeed in today’s business environment, organizations need to restructure and optimize their existing business while at the same time, create future sources of revenue and profit through new business models. This is often referred to as the ‘Dual Transformation’ challenge.
This transformation is a difficult one because senior leaders in the organization need to engage in very different and frequently opposing behaviours, executing the most efficient routines while at the same time, being very experimental and discovering new solutions. We call this “Ambidextrous Leadership”.
In our research, we have found that leaders who can successfully reposition their core business while creating new business show a level of ambidexterity across five leadership scales. Interestingly, each of these scales require leaders to embrace two very opposing behaviours.
While it is true that a vast majority of leaders can achieve ambidexterity on some of the leadership scales, our research has shown that in a sample of 450 senior executives across various companies and industries globally, only 12% are naturally ambidextrous and able to master all five scales.
This does not mean, however, that ambidextrous leadership is not achievable. While the process of achieving this is difficult and the activities needed are actually quite diverse, ambidextrous leadership is achievable.
First, an organization needs to build the right executive performance model to reflect their strategy. Next, they need to develop the right assessments to capture behaviours in these models. The results of these assessments can then be used to identify detailed individual development plans which would need to be executed with excellence, progressing people into their new roles.
Introducing IMD Voyager: Understanding the present to build the future
Taking 75 years’ worth of experience and aligning it with corresponding detailed research, IMD has created IMD Voyager, a pioneering, comprehensive suite of tools and advisory services for strategic talent management.
With the understanding that leaders need to be far more ambidextrous to succeed across the dual transformation problem, IMD Voyager integrates leadership development and talent management to create a systematic, reliable approach to leadership progression.
Covering the four stages of progression including Talent Strategy, Talent Analytics, Talent Development and Talent Transition, it is designed to help executives grow their leadership ambidexterity and hence succeed in the dual transformation world.
The 5s2 Executive Performance Model
IMD Voyager is powered by IMD’s proprietary 5s2 Model, which assesses leaders on five leadership scales, and each scale has two opposing behaviours.
Effective leaders need to skillfully lead strategy, lead execution, lead stakeholders, lead people and lead themselves.
The underlying leadership behaviors that drive effectiveness across these five scales, however, need to be radically different and non-linear to align to ambidextrous behaviors.
The Transformer & The Operator
Executives must be able to adjust the strategy to short term opportunities in the market while being able to come up with completely novel but viable strategies to create value for the customers and capture some of the value for the company.
The Experimenter & The Implementer
Executives must be able to implement and get others to implement well-established and well-tested procedures but must also be willing to test out new and better ways to deliver value, with the understanding that doing so may lead to failed experiments.
The Networker & The Administrator
Executives must be able to leverage formal structures and processes to achieve organizational success while leveraging on social networks, social influence and informal processes to achieve this goal.
The Galvanizer & The Conductor
Executives must be able to set clear expectations for their teams and hold them accountable for delivering on promises but must also be able to take a step back and know when to use a coaching and empowering style of management to inspire others.
The Explorer & The Regenerator
Leaders must be able to keep themselves balanced and poised in the face of uncertainty while also having the ability, when necessary, to make big and uncertain jumps in their decisions without full information.
The Transformer & The Operator
Executives must be able to adjust the strategy to short term opportunities in the market while being able to come up with completely novel but viable strategies to create value for the customers and capture some of the value for the company.
The Experimenter & The Implementer
Executives must be able to implement and get others to implement well-established and well-tested procedures but must also be willing to test out new and better ways to deliver value, with the understanding that doing so may lead to failed experiments.
The Networker & The Administrator
Executives must be able to leverage formal structures and processes to achieve organizational success while leveraging on social networks, social influence and informal processes to achieve this goal.
The Galvanizer & The Conductor
Executives must be able to set clear expectations for their teams and hold them accountable for delivering on promises but must also be able to take a step back and know when to use a coaching and empowering style of management to inspire others.
The Explorer & The Regenerator
Leaders must be able to keep themselves balanced and poised in the face of uncertainty while also having the ability, when necessary, to make big and uncertain jumps in their decisions without full information.
Meet your Voyager Co-Director: Ric Roi
The IMD Voyager Journey
- This is the starting point that outlines the leadership and organizational capabilities needed
- These are unique to each company, and may range from innovation, digital enablement and customer experience to operational excellence.
- Begin with the company’s strategic goals, confirm the organizational capabilities that will deliver on those goals, and then identify the specific leadership performance behaviours that underpin those organizational capabilities.
- This is also the logical time to establish, or upgrade, the company’s strategic talent committee
- A leadership assessment identifies individuals who have the potential for the leadership pipeline, matching high-potential talent’s capabilities against current and future requirements
- Leadership assessment solutions should be carefully selected, validated for both development and selection purposes and be able to be used for both internal leadership progression and external hiring, assessing both types of candidates with the same measures
- Proper execution will provide candidates with deep insights into their strengths, weaknesses, areas of potential and development priorities
- It also provides the talent committee with valuable insights on each leader so the right development and progression actions can be taken
- Individualized development coaching enables internal candidates to become role ready. As they become more senior, their development becomes increasingly personalized
- Candidates benefit mainly from bespoke development interventions designed to impart key operational and personal levers for them to master before embarking on their new leadership journey
- Monitoring of each leader’s development should occur at annual or bi-annual intervals to ensure that internal succession candidates are on track.
- Ensuring successful leadership role transitions across the organization takes effort
- Investing in personal transition coaching for each candidate offers reassurance to all stakeholders and calibrates new role expectations for the leader and their manager.
- A targeted new leader 360° assessment at the six-month mark, with valuable behavioural feedback from peers, manager and direct reports, allow the leader to take rapid course correction, avoid derailment and sustain motivation.
- This is the starting point that outlines the leadership and organizational capabilities needed
- These are unique to each company, and may range from innovation, digital enablement and customer experience to operational excellence.
- Begin with the company’s strategic goals, confirm the organizational capabilities that will deliver on those goals, and then identify the specific leadership performance behaviours that underpin those organizational capabilities.
- This is also the logical time to establish, or upgrade, the company’s strategic talent committee
- A leadership assessment identifies individuals who have the potential for the leadership pipeline, matching high-potential talent’s capabilities against current and future requirements
- Leadership assessment solutions should be carefully selected, validated for both development and selection purposes and be able to be used for both internal leadership progression and external hiring, assessing both types of candidates with the same measures
- Proper execution will provide candidates with deep insights into their strengths, weaknesses, areas of potential and development priorities
- It also provides the talent committee with valuable insights on each leader so the right development and progression actions can be taken
- Individualized development coaching enables internal candidates to become role ready. As they become more senior, their development becomes increasingly personalized
- Candidates benefit mainly from bespoke development interventions designed to impart key operational and personal levers for them to master before embarking on their new leadership journey
- Monitoring of each leader’s development should occur at annual or bi-annual intervals to ensure that internal succession candidates are on track.
- Ensuring successful leadership role transitions across the organization takes effort
- Investing in personal transition coaching for each candidate offers reassurance to all stakeholders and calibrates new role expectations for the leader and their manager.
- A targeted new leader 360° assessment at the six-month mark, with valuable behavioural feedback from peers, manager and direct reports, allow the leader to take rapid course correction, avoid derailment and sustain motivation.
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