Leadership and Talent Bench-Strength

“The key to sustained competitive advantage in any industry is not size, image, or technology. It’s talent, particularly at the leadership level. Your organization’s future depends on its ability to identify, retain, and prepare a dependable “bench” — its next generation of leaders – continuously.”
– Dr. Robert W. Barner

Dear Leaders,

Did you know that there were 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964? As more and more “baby boomers” retire or change jobs, is your organization prepared to lose their tenured, mature, and knowledgeable workforce? Are you?

The exodus of “baby boomers” has begun and plans are needed to maintain leadership bench strength. Think about your current talent pool. Are they prepared to replace those that are leaving?

Develop Future Leaders

In order to have continued success, you need to identify and develop future leaders.

The best way to begin the development process is by having regular discussions with each employee about their successes, strengths, needs, and aspirations. The Gallup Organization recommends a 3 step process:

  • Start with individual career planning development
  • Next is succession planning analysis
  • Last is group discussion and review

Ensure each employee has a written development plan and meet regularly (we suggest monthly) with each team member to review the progress against the plan. If you have identified an individual as a future member of your leadership team, verify they have the interest in that position.

Assuming you are aligned, assess the unique talents of that individual and update their development plan with actions that include maintaining their strengths and closing the gaps.  Next, begin to identify key positions and match the talents of suitable candidates with those positions and determine any further areas to be developed.

Is cross training required?

Would having a mentor help?

Could having a coach speed up the development process?

You may also want to delegate additional responsibilities.

Lastly, meet with your organization’s leadership team and review one another’s succession planning analyses.  Agree on business strategies, directions, and critical positions, and identify actual names for those positions.  The positions may not need to be filled now, but you will be building your bench strength and be positioned to act quickly should you find the need.

Leadership talent is one of the most critical needs of any organization. Development must be ongoing with progress occurring over time. As a leader, commit to employee development, become a mentor, provide ongoing and timely feedback, and consider engaging a coach to ensure the success (and survival) of your organization. Are you ready?

Respect and Leadership

Respect is the key determinant of high-performance leadership. How much people respect you determines how well they perform.
–Brian Tracey

Dear Leaders,

Would you consider yourself to be a respectful person and a respectful leader? Do you consider your co-workers, customers, and business partners respectful? There are arguments that levels of respect are diminishing; that we care less about others, and that we may even care less about ourselves.

Let’s define RESPECT. Wikipedia says: “Respect denotes a positive feeling of esteem . . . and it can be a specific feeling of regard for the actual qualities of the one respected (e.g., “I have great respect for her judgment”). . .”

It also says “Respect should not be confused with tolerance, since tolerance doesn’t necessarily imply any positive feeling, and is compatible with contempt, which is the opposite of respect”. Interesting distinction; respect MUST include positive feelings.

Some say respect must be earned; does this really serve us well? What if we begin all relationships on a basis of respect, where we look for desirable qualities and seek positive feelings? Let’s at least start on a level playing field and give others the benefit of the doubt that they are indeed respectful with a need to be respected.

Ways to Build Respect With Your Team

  • We need to be authentic, walk the talk, follow through with what we commit to, and support and reward the attainment of our goals.
  • We need to take time to build relationships with everyone we interact with.
  • We need to give (and receive) feedback in a constructive and honoring way.
  • We need to address unproductive behaviors and hold others accountable.
  • We need to expect that conflict will occur and realize that it is healthy and promotes growth. (Remember, conflict is a difference of desires or opinions, where your concerns or the concerns of someone else are not shared).
  • We need to respect and admire who we are and what we have achieved and ensure team members to do the same.

Increasing levels of respect not only fosters success but also improves morale, decreases attrition, and enhances job satisfaction. As a leader do you inspire respect?

Great Leaders Leave A Legacy

“Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”
–Harry Truman

Dear Leaders,

We’ve all read and heard about great leaders of the world. We may have even studied some in great detail.  Some of the famous include: Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Abraham Lincoln, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, John F. Kennedy, and Nelson Mandela.

What was their legacy? Why were they so popular, or in some cases notorious?

The great leaders listed above created dramatic change and altered the face of society; most are held in high regard and are known for how they inspired others.

Let’s bring it down a notch. Which leaders in current times would you consider popular, notorious, or inspirational? What about within your own organization?

Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner conducted research and identified these to be the top 5 leadership traits/qualities that successful leaders possess:

Honest
Forward-Looking
Competent
Inspiring
Intelligent

This is a great place to start with a self assessment.  Rate yourself between 1 and 5 for each element. Which trait did you rate highest? Which is your lowest?

Here are some other top rated leadership traits:

Integrity
Great communication skills
Wisdom
Empathy and compassion
Commitment and confidence
Strategic thinking
Focus and attention to details

Rate these as well.  What measures can you take to increase your scores? As a leader what can you change for the better?

Strong Leaders Build Strong Teams

TEAMWORK = The state achieved by a group of people working together who trust one another, engage in healthy conflict, commit to decisions, hold one another accountable, and focus on collective results.
–Patrick Lencioni

Dear Leaders,

Have you had the opportunity to gather a group of individual contributors and create a high performing team? Did you look for similarities for the team members or did you look for individual strengths and differing skills?

A critical step for building a team is that the leader and each team member to understand and appreciate the strengths of the other team members. Maximizing collective strengths provides greater results, fosters creativity, and increases inspiration, motivation and satisfaction levels.

As individuals, we don’t always want to invest the time required to build relationships within the team.  As leaders, building team dynamics will serve us, and the team well, and enable the team to build trust and hold one another accountable.

Strong teams:

  • Share their successes and failures.
  • Address conflict in a healthy, honoring manner.
  • Speak up when they feel other team members are out of line.
  • Support the common goal.
  • Replace individual needs and focuses on what is best for the team as a whole.
  • Use “we”, “us” and “the team” instead of “I”.
  • Readily share information and knowledge.

There are many tools available to help teams and individuals better understand their strengths, appreciate differences, and build trust. Examples include MBTI, DiSC, Listening, Conflict, and 360’ feedback.

Are you enabling your team to thrive and leverage their collective skills?

The priSM Institute® Offers PeopleTek Workshops

Contact: Suzanne D. Van Hove, Ed.D., FSM
Email: [email protected]

The priSM Institute® adds new courses
Welcome PeopleTek Coaching!

The priSM Institute® is pleased to announce the addition of several new courses to the certification scheme. The courses from PeopleTek Coaching include:
• The Leadership Journey
• Transforming Leadership Skills Workshop for IT Professionals
• Communication and Listening Workshop
• Journey through Change Workshop (simulation)

These courses directly support and enhance the ‘people’ emphasis within the design aspects of Service Management delivery – an area that is crucial to the success of any Service Management initiative.

“It is exciting and gratifying to see the industry embrace and get involved with the priSM® credential” says Jay Stuart, president of the Global priSM Institute. “The mission of The priSM® Institute is to promote professional recognition of Service Management professionals based on their experience, educational achievements and professional activities. The goal of priSM® is to support and guide the Service Management professional to continually strengthen each Service Management element – people, process, products, and partners. The PeopleTek portfolio is a welcome addition.”

“PeopleTek Coaching is delighted that priSM has recognized the quality and value of PeopleTek Coaching workshops for its members,” said Michael Kublin, president of PeopleTek Coaching. “Our workshops will provide priSM members with the ability to increase their individual and team performance, communication skills, and flexibility and resiliency in a changing market. These workshops represent some of the top programs utilized by many global leaders.”

Since its launch as a pilot program in February of 2010, the value of the priSM® credential has consistently increased in the United States and, with the continued rollout, across the globe. As the program operationalizes across the world, increasing numbers of practitioners and organizations are embracing the program. As our program continues to expand, we continue to look for benefits for our credential holders and support the ongoing maturity of IT Service Management.

About The priSM Institute®

The priSM Institute® owns and manages the professional credentialing program for IT Service Management (ITSM) professionals. The program defines a measurable framework based on one’s achievements in practical application, professional contributions, and education. priSM® defines a structured path for continuing professional growth while maintaining a registry for professionals to track and reference their continued good standing.

About PeopleTek Coaching

PeopleTek Coaching provides leadership training to organizations, teams and individuals to help them uncover hidden opportunities and to remove the invisible barriers holding them back from peak performance. Since 1992, PeopleTek has worked with enterprises as well as mid-sized companies to provide them with the insights and realizations that their people leverage their entire career.