Globally organizations are struggling to develop the leaders they need to thrive. In the U.S., between half and three quarters of senior managers are due to retire by 2010. The world watched as analysts, shareholders and employees monitored attentively the succession management at Microsoft earlier this year as Bill Gates stepped out of his long time role in the company he co-founded. It’s not enough to have a replacement plan. To sustain business growth or even just stay competitive, organizations need to closely align talent needs with strategic context.

I had the pleasure of moderating a timely and compelling presentation in which Jeff Shiraki, Vice President at Hay Group and Ron Garonzik, Vice President, Hay Group highlight the impact of succession management of top teams on sustainable business performance. The webcast: Top Teams and Succession Management shows how to align key leadership roles with the strategic context, and the role of a great top team in preparing for the leadership challenges of the future. I find particularly interesting Shiraki and Garonzik requirements necessary to identify and measure the “risk” of talent moves in building bench strength for the future leadership of your company.

Companies known for talent development have CEOs and leadership teams that make talent a top priority. Managers at all levels are accountable for creating a work climate that motivates employees to perform at their best. Leadership teams receive special training to help them work together more effectively. A great leadership team ensures that the investment in development results in the right number of people, of the right quality ready when the organization needs them now and in the future. Share your organizational experience and thoughts!

I caught an interesting BusinessWeek VIDEO: “Being Entrepreneurial in Hard Times- Thinking out of the box isn’t enough”. In it, John Byrne, Executive Editor of BusinessWeek Magazine sat down with executive coaches, Marshall Goldsmith and Steven Berglas to talk about entrepreneurs and how they can make a difference within corporations.

Well worth watching, their discussion got me thinking. As a consultant I have worked with large clients, members of the Fortune 500, on their pain points around creating and/or maintaining an entrepreneurial mind set within a large organization. The idea of creating such a mindset within a giant corporation presents a tremendous challenge- dinosaurs of the industrial era are most often lacking that piece of corporate DNA and the culture to sustain such efforts- at first the very nature and design of each seems at odds with the other.

One way of creating a new entrepreneurial mindset within a storied corporation [dinosaur] can be found in cases of Mergers & Acquisitions. Not a new story to be sure- Large, Old, Industry Standard, [dinosaur] buys Young, Cutting Edge, Entrepreneurial, Start-up and some how they lose the “secret sauce”. The challenge in such cases, as one client put it:

“We acquire smaller, younger companies not only for their talent and technology, but for their entrepreneurship. How do we keep [our company], the 500 Lb. Gorilla from imposing it’s will and wiping out their culture? We would actually like to infuse their entrepreneurial spirit within our larger organization.”

Goldsmith and Berglas point to Silicon Valley as a place bursting with technical talent, much of which is lacking basic leadership skills such as how to communicate and influence people in a larger organization. Dr. Berglas suggests they “accept that often people in leadership aren’t real bright, relative to you, but that is not a factor that should preclude them from being leaders”. Dr. Goldsmith picks up on the point advising that they should “accept it and move forward”.

Great advice for individual executives, but what can an organization do to supplement such executive coaching? I submit the answer may be found in leadership/executive development following comprehensive on-boarding. Dr. Berglas points to Dell Computer as a great example of a company that creates and fosters the entrepreneurial mentality. Dell, he notes, takes people off projects when they succeed- not when they fail- so that they can excel and grow. He believes “They know they have talent that needs preserving, as opposed to, a producer who needs to up his volume or his output. Then you can allow people to be entrepreneurial because then they can show-off in another realm”.

I am truly excited for the Olympic Games that kicked off today in Beijing.  I will be cheering on the athletes from my living room in the coming weeks, but was fortunate to spend time in Beijing last summer as they were ramping up for the games.  While every city and host nation of an Olympics has their shortcomings and challenges, I found Beijing beautiful, buzzing with activity and the people hospitable, talented and looking to the future.

I love the Olympics, because to me, it represents a unique opportunity in which the world is watching, watching the athletes and watching each other. Sure the U.S., China and other large/wealthy nations will be well represented in the “medal count” (a term I hate) but who will emerge the true leaders? We will look to our athletes- will they prove the leaders we hope for? Will teams comprised of arguably the best talent in the world develop that leader-supporter dynamic required to succeed in this venue? —or will the needs of the individual supersede the need of the team… (US Men’s Basketball-?-?)

We also look to the supporters following our teams- televised globally- we get to see how fans, representatives of different cultures, unofficial ambassadors of their nations and sports react to competition.  I love the Olympics because it challenges us to be leaders in our followership. It challenges us to champion talent and applaud a great effort- win or lose – our team or the other. I am hopeful that Bob Costas will present great stories of the athletes overcoming adversity to make it to the games and focus the live event coverage commentary championing the cases of personal bests – even if that personal best didn’t result in Olympic medal.

So let us be leaders in supporting our respective nations of origin or adoption and cheer on all athletes!

The global economy driven by knowledge workers is increasingly reliant on virtual teams collaborating within and across organizations to gain or sustain competitive advantage. Best practices of virtual collaboration are continuously being defined and adapted as new technologies are developed enabling increasing efficiency. Yet, our understanding of virtual team dynamics is in its infancy. Differences in communication and culture- styles and norms greatly impact the efficacy of virtual collaboration. No longer in a conference room group dynamics change as individual participation varies.

Leaders face new challenges in guiding and facilitating virtual teams requiring new skills and techniques. George Bradt of Prime Genesis eloquently sums up the their charge: “Leadership is about inspiring and enabling others to do their absolute best, together, to realize a meaningful and rewarding shared purpose” in his book: The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan (Wiley, 2006, 2009). Virtual teams form differently, influence differently and may require different work flows than on site teams while they are still held similarly accountable. How can we as leaders of these teams best enable our virtual collaborators and position them to realize this meaningful and rewarding shared purpose?

I recently moderated an engaging HCI webcast Leading Virtual Teams in which Dr. Gary Woodill of Brandon Hall Research joined by A.G. Lambert of Saba, identified Twenty Tips for managing and facilitating virtual teams based on his own research and personal experience as a member of such a team. A member of a virtual team myself, I readily identified with each of the tips and the challenges they represented. While technology has enabled us to work in this virtual environment, creating many of these leadership challenges, technology is also providing new tools to help us overcome them. One such example, earlier identified, is that of a shift in or lack of participation on conference calls. I have found it easy to jump on a conference call and hit the “mute” button to prevent the awkward pauses or interruptions in conversation that arise without the benefit of seeing those I am speaking with, only to find that I or someone else has forgotten to un-mute when trying to respond or interject. Dr. Woodill has found that participation greatly increases when the communication is conducted in a text or messaging platform such as Skype. A great start to what I am sure will be a continuing topic and discussion as new technologies are leveraged, more research is done and next practices developed from telecommuting to avatars.

Leadership Guru and Talent Champion Tom Peters takes on Healthcare in his latest blog: Dispatches from the NEW WORLD of WORK. With all the passion and fortitude for which he has come to be known, after a couple of rants- Tom provides us another of his signature lists of facts/thoughts this time giving us: Tom Peters/The U.S. Healthcare14.

I had the pleasure of meeting Tom several years ago through a former Russell Reynolds colleague, Juli Ann Reynolds, now President & CEO of TomPetersCompany! , I’m sure he wouldn’t remember, at their offices in Charlestown, MA. Tom’s writing (I was reading Re-Imagine! at the time) and the energy and ideas of Juli Ann and her team got me truly geeked about talent and leadership specifically. I am lucky to be writing, researching and in some small way forwarding thought leadership around talent management and leadership. Thanks Tom and all who have similarly championed talent for changing the management mindset and leadership vernacular!

I find Tom’s new charge well aligned with his previous work. It seems a natural extension of leadership- as healthcare impacts us all, individually, collectively, personally and professionally. Healthcare benefits, expenses, administration and availability are a huge part of talent management. It is time to shift our thinking on healthcare and who better to shift our mindset on this prickly subject than Tom Peters?

“Welcome NEW LEADER! Here’s your office- I’ll let you get settled in and come back to take you to lunch to talk about how you’re going to take us to the next level in the marketplace and what you had done with the rest of this morning to get us there.”

If you haven’t experienced this sentiment yet- brace yourself! Our global knowledge economy demands leaders who hit the ground running- at a full sprint. Wall Street analysts’ seem to expect the mere announcement of new leadership to have a direct impact on a company’s stock valuation. This expectation of superhuman productivity is not only myopic it can set a new leader up for failure.

Too many companies who bring leaders in from the outside or even promote from within seem to seek measurable results within an increasingly shrinking timeline. Often to ensure successful leadership transitions executive or leadership coaches are engaged to support the newly appointed. While such coaching is a powerful and effective tool (more in future posts) it is one of many tools that can facilitate success in assuming a new leadership role. In his most recent blog posting, Marshall Goldsmith, identifies three factors that have the greatest impact on the efficacy of leadership coaching. One of the factors Dr. Goldsmith identifies resonates to leadership transitions in general – Is this leader going to be given a fair chance?

An excellent question to be sure.  In a world of global organizations and virtual teams with work flows that never stop, thanks to new and collaborative technology- how can we ensure that we are giving our leaders a fair chance ? New leaders weather they are new to the organization or just the role, require the proper On-boarding or In-boarding to set the stage for sustained success.

I recently moderated an intriguing HCI Leadership Community Webcast: Gaming: The On-boarding System in which Sun Microsystems CTO- Charles Beckham and Senior Director, Partner & Employee Learning- George Selix, Ph.D. shared with us the innovative ways they are leveraging technology to ensure such success. The Comprehensive On-boarding Track presentation described how Sun uses their on-boarding process to aid enculturation and assimilation of new and prospective employees, including their most senior leaders, using a highly collaborative video game which engages and informs candidates and new hires about corporate culture, organizational structure and work flow.

Sun’s is among the most innovative, comprehensive and integrated initiatives I have seen an organization employing to ensure success of new leaders! Truly COOL!

We are told at an early age to “follow the leader”, I recall playing a game by the same name as a child. Now when I hear this refrain I get an image in my head- the scene from Mel Brooks classic film: History of the World: Part I. The toga clad scene in which Comicus (Mel Brooks) tells Josephus (Gregory Hines) to “walk this way” turning with an absurd toss of the sash and exaggerated walk which Hines’ character emulates with comedic genius. While this leader-follower dynamic worked to get a laugh in the movie do leaders want their followers to emulate their behavior?

A recent article on Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge web site titled: Are Followers About to Get Their Due? by Emeritus Professor James Haskett brings attention to a greatly overlooked and unexplored aspect of leadership- the FOLLOWER. In the article, Dr. Haskett introduces us to  Barbara Kellerman’s new book, Followership: How Followers Are Creating Change and Changing Leaders (Harvard Business Press, 2008), in which she states: “The fact is that followers are gaining power and influence while leaders are losing power and influence.”

Both interesting reads got me thinking: what as leaders, are we doing to develop not only our future leaders but also our followers to keep them engaged? What can we do to develop our followers to be better followers?

Welcome!

This is the first of many posts to the little piece of the web we have carved out to further the discussion and thought leadership around everything involving Talent Leadership.

Distinguishing Degrees of Leadership:

Traditionally business schools, driven by the MBA degree, have created a concept of business leadership stemming from training and mastery of business administration skills. HCI’s Talent Leadership Community believes that leaders are responsible for designing, developing, and championing- not just administrating- great business, talent, and innovation!

Weigh in as we explore and discuss how to align business objectives with an organizations key strategic resource (talent), to support leaders of today while ensuring the leaders of tomorrow will be ready for the changing horizon. We will draw from over a dozen different areas of focus, topics that are widely discussed across the Talent Leadership Community’s Live Webcasts, Interviews and Expert Advisory Panels. We will further draw from and respond to thought leaders, subject matter experts and organizational leaders.

So I put it to you: How do you distinguish degrees of leadership?