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Creating a leadership bench takes the skill of a coach and the precision of an engineer. But there are five distinct steps you can take to build your leadership bench – and keep it moving.

First, and most obvious, you must create and maintain a leadership development program. This isn’t simply an order to the training department to create leadership courses. You must obtain buy-in from your management team by showing the benefits: the leadership bench, succession planning, talent management, and career pathing. Your program should begin with classroom training -at all levels, if possible. Everyone in your organization should know what your definition of a leader is – and how to get there. But as you move up the ranks, leadership development should be ongoing, challenging, and not necessarily a sure thing. The program should include real-time projects, seminars, assessment, and evaluation. Program participants who slip should be coached back up – or out. Once someone is in the leadership program, he or she should continue to improve in all aspects. (more…)

In today’s environment, technology is king. We know this because first of all because technology is cost effective and efficient, but also because, let’s face it, technology is popular. Smart phones, MP3 players, and social media almost make it a necessity to include a technology plan in the roll-out of the corporate university. Obviously this use of technology will help the university to stay fresh and cutting edge, but what’s better is that effective use of technology will save money and help you show more ROI.

The first step is to examine the organization’s existing technology infrastructure. To put it plainly, some organizations may not have the technology to offer the most advanced technology. You may know what your organization is capable of, but even if this is the case you should get your IT department involved in the planning stages. Use some of the examples we are about to discuss in order to begin a dialogue – and find out what you can and cannot do. Keep in mind that the “cannots” may turn into “cans” in the future – and the speed at which technology moves usually means that the future is closer than we think. (more…)

You’ve planned, analyzed, obtained buy in, and even wrestled with a budget for your global leadership development program. But before you move forward with implementation, you need to determine how the program will be managed effectively. As you have moved through the challenges to global leadership development, you’ve probably realized that with each challenge comes a separate program component. Each component will need to be managed, and managed closely in the first stages of the implementation of the program. Let’s look at this challenge from the process standpoint and discuss some best practices for managing the global leadership development program.

First, take a good look at all of the components for your program. At the high level you’ll probably have separate components for training, coaching, succession planning, and operations. Is there a person or group who will naturally manage each one of these components already? If not, decide how each component will be managed. For example, training and coaching most naturally fall to the training organization. Will you outsource the training function or keep it within your organization? What about succession planning? Do you have a talent manager within the training or organizational development functions, or is the talent manager part of human resources? Or are you the de facto talent manager because of your sponsorship and management of the leadership development program? Operational components, such as scheduling and travel, are also a factor. Do you have an admin staff that can handle the added responsibility? (more…)

All of your best plans for the creation of a global leadership development program may be meaningless if you do not obtain the buy in of key individuals or groups. Any organizational development program needs this buy in and approval, but a truly global program is probably going to require more work on your part; after all, your key individuals and groups are probably just as diverse as your program itself. Let’s look at the best process to use when looking for buy in from those key groups.

First, it is absolutely necessary to define the individuals and groups from whom you need to obtain buy in or approval. Before we move on, let’s look at the difference between buy in and approval. You’ll need to obtain buy in from any individual or group who can push your global leadership development program forward. This could include line managers, key organizational leaders, executives, and even various work groups. The concept of buy in also includes approval, but try not to forget the people who need to approve the program before it can move forward. Divide the key people and groups within your organization and determine which ones should “buy in” and which ones should “approve”. Tailor your presentation to each group, keeping in mind the cultural differences you may encounter within the organization and its regions. Most likely, you’ll come up with an executive group, a stakeholder group, managers and front line supervisors, and key business leaders throughout your system. And each group will require you to “sell” the global leadership program from a different perspective. (more…)

Even if the recession is beginning to back off, it may take some time to build budgets and training staffs back to a serviceable level. Plus, one of the hard facts of the ongoing financial crisis is that organizations will have to emerge with much more lean and efficient training staffs and programs. Coaching in the field is a very effective and cost efficient method of keeping training going – and making sure that an organization’s associates are not left in the dark.<

The first question that may come up is, “how do I create a coaching program when things are such a mess?” Hopefully your organization still has some of its high performing, high potential leaders out in the field. Plus, your organization may still have its leadership pool, whose members are probably “chomping at the bit” to increase their skills. These are the groups to turn to when you need coaches. And most likely the members of these groups will be more than happy to help out. (more…)

It’s easy to say that a great salesperson is that person who continually closes, and this is true to a great extent. But in a new economic environment, a closed sale is not necessarily the sole measure for effectiveness of the salesperson and the sales presentation. There are several ways to measure sales and all of them can be used together to get a good picture. In addition, you can use a combination of metrics to determine how to set goals – and how to coach salespeople in the meantime.

One of the most common sales analytics is revenue. For a business with only a few products and a few salespeople, it’s also a relatively simple leap to determine how much of the revenue was brought in through the sales force. But as products become more complicated and as the sales force spreads geographically, this determination is harder to make. The idea of using revenue as a sales metric is to take the total revenue and then break it down to relevant units, such as division, product, region, or salesperson. Once you have a hold on the numbers, you can determine how much revenue is generated by each product – and by each salesperson. (more…)

As we close our discussion on creating a coaching or mentoring program, you must take the time to make the program permanent. You’ve measured the success of the program in both human capital and otherwise. You’ve shown that success to the decision makers and stakeholders and they are “on board”. Let’s look at some ways that you can make the program a permanent part of the organization.

First, the key part of permanence is to always be a step ahead of the organization. If things are going to change, you need to be aware of the coming changes. To do this, you should keep in contact with your executive sponsors or stakeholders. Set regular meetings with them using the coaching program as a meeting subject in order to keep the program in their minds. Be prepared to show how you’re evaluating and making changes along the way, both the good and the difficult changes. Once you’ve got this “window” into the future of the organization, you can always be on the lookout for ways to change the program with the organization. And when you do this, your executive sponsorship and buy-in will continue. (more…)

The coaching or mentoring program you’ve created is up and running, you’ve evaluated, and you’ve made changes. At this point, you’re probably seeing the successes of the program and would like to help others in the organization achieve those successes. Don’t be afraid to look for ways to expand your coaching or mentoring program. Here are some ways to get more people interested and to expand the reach of your successful program.

First, consider incentive for coaches. If you’ve already implemented incentives for coaches or mentors, look at what incentives you are offering and determine if those are going to be sustainable. If so, offer those incentives to new coaches and mentors in order to get the program into an expansion. If the incentives were experimental, think about expanding them and making them permanent. Under these conditions, think about moving to more valuable incentives. When you find that coaches and mentors are performing well in an incentive environment, this is a sign that you’ve hit the mark. And let’s face it: one of the best ways to get people’s attention these days is to offer value. Another way to expand incentive is to offer “better” incentives for proteges who want to become coaches, or coaches who want to take on additional proteges. There are many ways to get creative with incentive, especially if the program has led to higher productivity or decreased costs. (more…)

Most organizational development professionals know that evaluation of any program can lead to changes. And most of us know that change can be good and also that change can be rather difficult. When it comes to your coaching or mentoring program, you must move forward with the changes you’ve discovered in your evaluation, regardless of whether they are great changes or rather difficult changes. The best way to maintain a good perception, or build one, within the organization is to show that the program can be tailored to fit the current situation. Now is the time to take a close look at your evaluation and determine the changes that need to be made.

First, take a look at the kind of program you have in place. In our first discussion, we talked about the differences between coaching and mentoring programs, as well as the differences between formal and informal programs. Have you discovered that an informal mentoring program just didn’t come together like you thought it would? If so, consider moving to a more formal arrangement. What if your program has achieved results but only on a small scale? This is another reason to consider going from formal to informal. Did mentoring miss the mark, that is, did informal mentoring have a less-than-adequate impact on the organization as far as productivity, management style, or other numbers? If so, think about going to a coaching program that has goals centered on the organization. (more…)

You’ve spent time and effort on creating and designing your mentoring or coaching program. You’ve also got the “buy-in” of key stakeholders within the organization. Although these are important steps, it is equally important to ensure that the program is effective – and that it maintains its effectiveness. As we will discuss in the future, your ultimate goal with a coaching or mentoring program is to make it a permanent part of the organization’s culture. To make that happen, you must take a few major steps beyond the implementation of the program. The next step, then, is to measure effectiveness. Let’s look at some great ways to do this.

First, it’s important to remember that measuring effectiveness is not a one-time thing. You must continue to measure the effectiveness of your program on a regular basis, just as you would a regular training and development program. Whether your program is formal or informal, the first thing to do in preparation for measurement is to revisit your original goals, objectives, and mission. From these items, you can formulate an evaluation. If your program is informal, take the goals of the program to formulate interview questions to be posed to both coaches and mentors and proteges. (more…)