 Leadership
for the New World
It's Time to Nurture New Talent
"Leadership is about change. It's about taking people
from where they are now to where they need to be."
- Noel M. Tichy, American scholar.
These days, leading an organisation through change seems to
be the major concern in almost every leader's mind. In fact,
leaders and HR managers alike are facing plenty of challenges
in these testing times. The question is: how should they behave
in order to get over all these and stay on top of the game?
Think Globally
Even though the employment market doesn't seem to be looking
up, talent is still the No.1 HR challenge. "It's still
a question of talent. Because organisations need to have people
that can deliver their strategy, so the biggest challenge
is making sure you have that talent. Today's ttalent is becoming
very mobile, and they go from country to country very easily.
So you need to have a global mindset and be thinking from
a global perspective,"says Ms. Deirdre Lander, Head of
Human Capital Group, Hong Kong of Watson Wyatt Worldwide.
As the role of HR is seen to be more strategic, HR professionals
should not be parochial. They, together with line leaders
should be thinking globally to ensure that they know what
is going on, and should be stretching themselves as well as
their talent for the winning edge.
Leadership Talent Is Not Enough
A recent survey on talent shortage reveals that the global
talent crunch is still a pressing and pervasive issue for
organisations worldwide, despite the economic downturn and
weak employment outlook.(1)
To many organisations, insufficient talent is now the biggest
barrier to drive business success.
"The worst problem is that there's not enough quality.
Lots of people graduate with degrees every year, but having
people that are talented enough to help the company grow and
be successful is a different matter. Developing countries
like Brazil, China and India have such big talent need that
there's really a problem of having the right quality to support
that growth,"she continues. Not enough talent and the
extreme growth are putting very big pressure on organisations
in newly developing countries.
 According
to Mr. Michael Norman, Senior Vice President of Sibson Consulting,
there is a crisis in the supply of Asian leadership talent
as the positions are outstripping the skills of the entering
workforce. The problem is evident in China where incoming
talent is either too young or not trained well enough for
leadership roles. The lack of leadership talent is not only
a problem in Asia, but also in the United States where 77
million Baby Boomers plan to retire and begin their next stage
of life, with 48 million Generation Xers to follow in their
footsteps.
Grow Your Own Talent
"During an economic downturn, organisations possess lots
of opportunities to build strength and develop exist leaders.
Six to twelve months ago, multinational companies put their
focus on external hiring. But recently, these companies have
experienced an abrupt about-face in their need to acquire
new leadership talent. Many companies are viewing now as the
time to focus on development. Those that take advantage of
the time to get ahead will be in a position of strength when
the economy comes back,"says he.
In Mr. Norman's opinion, given the high demand of leadership
talent, forward-thinking organisations will develop the talent
they already have. By doing so, it enables these organisations
to weather the recession more quickly and also become more
competitive. Ms. Lander agrees and says, "Most best-practice
companies in the world grow their own talent. So it seems
to me that the most successful recipe is growing your own
talent most of the time."
As Ms. Lander points out, sometimes organisations may need
to bring in some additional talent, but they certainly do
not rely on the market. There are a couple of reasons for
that:
- Labour cost will end up very high if you buy people from
the market all the time, because to actually get somebody
out of another good company is very expensive.
- Taking people from the market is very risky because you
do not know those people, and they havenŐt been brought up
in your company culture, so they may not fit.
- These people may not be so loyal to your company because
they prepare to change jobs all the time.
- If you grow your own people, you can make sure that they
are learning and they grow. It is sequential and organised.
People from the outside will have missed out of the foundation
of what you are trying to get them to learn.
 New
Competencies of Future Leaders
A downturn is the ideal time for organisations to invest in
leadership development, giving emerging leaders and exist
leaders alike the opportunities to learn and get ready. Mr.
Norman holds that organisations require a new kind of leaders
and competencies in order to stand out in the new world:
- Opportunity Exploitation - identifying opportunity in
new places and effectively capitalising on it
- Fast Cycle Learning - infinitely accelerating the ability
to learn
- Clear Transparency - having clarity on what needs to
be transparent and what does not in terms of leading others
- Planned Disruption - knowing how to transform an organisation
through planned change efforts that stretch the enterprise
and individuals which results in accelerated growth
- Community Building - recognising the opportunity for
a community and capitalising on it effectively by creating,
building & nurturing social network or community of
individuals with the purpose of achieving a defined goal
"Organisations that can develop the required leadership
capabilities will be best positioned to win in this new environment,
regardless of the economy,"he says.
Programmes Matter, But That't Not All
Learning and leadership are indispensable to each other. When
it comes to learning, we often think of training programmes.
Both Mr. Norman and Ms. Lander recognise the importance of
training programmes. However, what leaders need is far more
than that.
Mr. Norman adds, "Training programmes are necessary,
whilst it is also critical for them to learn new behaviours
from specific projects, and by working on a special assignment,
they can learn how to acquire skills and help their companies
achieve their strategy. Technical grounding is important,
but not everybody can apply all the skills they learnt from
training programme to their jobs."
"Programmes do more good at the first half of a person's
career than the second half. The second half is much more
about rotation and work experience. After building a good
foundation by learning basic skills from programmes, what
they need is the exposure to interesting assignment and projects.
People who get to be more senior need less training and teaching
programmes and more supporting experiences that can be gained
in assignment and projects. Coaching and mentoring is also
needed rather than merely going to classroom programmes,"Ms.
Lander suggests.
Keep Dialogue Going
During turbulent times, besides talent building, another challenge
to organisations is people's fears, doubts and confusion.
Mr. Norman says, "In times of economic uncertainty, confusion
is the natural resort. People look at leaders to see what
they should do. And what leaders need to do is to create a
path for communication and a method to continue education,
to educate the company and to enhance people's concern. Leaders
should always keep dialogue going."
Ms. Lander says, "Yes, confusion comes from not knowing
what's happening, so the main thing is to be able to develop
a communication plan that you can share with employees, so
that everybody hears the same message. It has to be developed
individually for every company."
Both Mr. Norman and Ms. Lander mention a common problem in
organisations that leaders sometimes are not visible and reachable.
Leaders talk to employees, but donŐt often listen to them.
Thus, it is crucial to keep companies accessible, leaders
being present and available to give consistent messages and
keep messages as a part of communication. Moreover, there
should be opportunity for employees to voice their opinions,
which can be done in various ways. Anyway, leaders should
bear in mind that two-side communication is extremely important,
and it is not one and done.
Accept the New Normal
With globalisation, information technology and increasing
competition, the world is getting more complex and uncertain.
HR professionals and leaders in order to stay competitive
in the new business environment should accept the new normal,
adapt and translate the challenges into opportunities and
capitalise them.
With the limited pool of quality leaders, organisations are
going to have a very challenging time ahead and that is something
that organisations really have to invest in.
Those that excel at leadership development will emerge as
winners when the turbulence subsides. In short, readiness
is all. If organisations want to stand on a vantage point,
it's time to be ready for the new normal, the new world.
References:
(1) Talent Shortage Survey 2009, by Manpower Inc.
(2) "How Multinationals Doing Business in Asia Can Develop
Leadership Talent During a Recession", by Michael Norman,
May 2009 workspan.
(3) "HOw to Accelerate Leadership Readiness and Development
During Turbulent Times", presented by Michael Norman
at The Conference Board. |
