Corporate University: Buy In and Marketing
If you’re ready to build your corporate university, one of the next best practices revolves around creating sponsors, obtaining buy-in, and building a marketing plan. This is an important best practice, as a corporate university with no traction is basically going to be a training department in an ivory tower. The idea here is to get people involved, get them talking, and get them excited about what the corporate university will have to offer. And you can do all of this with a well-planned marketing campaign.
The first step is to create sponsors, or the people who will drive the corporate university’s public face. It’s understood that your Learning and Development department will be a major sponsor, but we are talking about people outside of L&D. This group of sponsors can be your stakeholders, learners, and executives, and preferably a mix of all of these groups. But how do you “create” sponsorship? Show each group how the corporate university will benefit their departments, the organization, and their careers. Tailor this message based on the group you are courting. For example, career benefits are perfect talking points for learners, because the discussion starts on a personal level. When you line up sponsors who will “talk up” the university, you’ll see how the news catches on.
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GLD 7: Managing the Program
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?
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GLD 6: Obtaining Buy-In in a Global Environment
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.
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GLD 5: Budgets and Workforces
One of the biggest challenges to any training program is budget. In today’s environment, training budgets have been slashed and it may be difficult to obtain further funding. And in those budget cuts, sometimes only the most essential of training programs can continue to be offered. So the challenge for a global leadership program may be obtaining a budget, much less obtaining more money to complete the program. One of the first considerations in the area of budget is simply whether or not the budget can support a global scale leadership development program. If the answer is questionable, you may have to work hard to obtain buy in, which we will discuss in the future.
To begin looking at your budget possibilities, you probably will want to determine how you will create your leadership bench, as well as how you will train and coach those individuals. If you have made this determination, consider creating a matrix of training and coaching methods, as well as network and group meeting costs. Tailor your matrix to your optimal situation and then work your way down the list, eliminating the areas that prove to be too costly. When you take the time to complete this exercise, you’ll know exactly what to ask for-and how to explain the costs of the program.
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GLD 4: Training and Coaching Methods
Now that you’ve determined how to build your global leadership bench, you must make the determination of which coaching and training methods you’ll use-and begin the process of developing the program. As with any program, there are a wide variety of options available in terms of development and delivery. But since your leadership development program is to be truly global in scope, your choice of training and coaching methods could be a ‘make or break’ for the program and its participants.
First, consider all of the options available. For leadership development, the possibilities may be endless. In person, classroom training is always a good option. Informational pieces can be delivered via the classroom, independent study, or even as online learning interventions. Networking for leaders can also occur in person, but also via web conference, blogs, or moderated discussion boards. The coaching and mentoring aspects of a leadership development program are often best in person, but what’s to stop you from testing out the effectiveness of a web cam if the members of the program are geographically diverse?
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GLD 3: Creating a Global Bench
After dealing with the challenges of distance and culture, the next challenge for global leadership development is how to create a leadership bench or pool that is truly global in scope. When you took the time to define leadership across the cultures that exist within your organization, you may have also begun to see potential succession patterns developing. We will discuss making leaders mobile later, but we will confine this discussion to the overall creation of a global bench.
The first step is to create the pool or bench. From the definitions you’ve collected, you should be able to create profiles of existing leaders within the organization. Plus, existing leaders may be able to begin choosing those professionals who can fit the leadership definition after going through the development program. These people can begin to fill the leadership pool or bench. Obviously getting them through the program you will create is going to be the first, and biggest, step to preparation. But how are you going to plan for succession across a diverse workforce?
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GLD 2: Defining Leadership Across Cultures
We’ve discussed distance in relation to a global leadership development program, but let’s take the discussion a little deeper. When training for leadership across cultures, it’s necessary to be mindful of the fact that the concept and definitions of leadership may be different across cultures. And before we proceed, let’s define a “culture”. In the sense of training and development, a culture is the attitudes, experience, and work styles of any like group of people. For example, your organization may be located only in one geographical location but may have various cultures in existence. That’s why a discussion of global leadership development can apply to any organization, regardless of geographic factors.
Along these lines, be aware that there are differences in cultures not only within one geographic location but also in varied geographic locations-even within the same country. For example, work styles and attitudes are different in South Florida than they are in the Mid-Southern states, and so on. Of course, world cultures may be completely different, even if everyone works for the same organization. All of these factors will contribute to the definition of leadership and therefore into the definition of your leadership development program.
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Global Leadership Development (GLD): Distance
Leadership development, like traditional training and development, faces traditional challenges such as distance, culture, diversity, design and delivery methods, along with budgets and workforces. We are going to take a look at the challenges you may face when implementing a global leadership development program, starting with one of the most obvious challenges: distance. If you are a local organization, you probably wonÕt deal with distance. But consider those organizations that have members spread out over a wide geography, and even across international boarders. Developing their leadership program may be a little more difficult, starting with the distance that separates them.
Any leadership development program is going to require regular meetings and training, not to mention networking and coaching. So what can you do to truly train leaders ‘at a distance’? We will discuss the development and design of global leadership development training in an upcoming installment. But before you get to that point, you must think about how you’ll bring that group together. In today’s environment, training can be delivered in many different ways, including online and via web conference. The first challenge is creating a program that lends itself to a distance format. If your organization is spread out in different countries or geographic areas, think about the budget strain that may occur if you try to bring your leadership pool together on a regular basis. Also consider the differences in time-the pool in the U.S. may be at work when the pool in Europe or the Middle East is heading home for the day. One way to bridge distance is to offer your informational training online and then have the pool meet to discuss via a web conference. Blogs and discussion boards are also helpful to groups who are separated by distance or time.
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Training for a “New Face”
As we hear rumors of the eventual upturn in the global economy, organizations are beginning to emerge after taking cover and taking drastic action during the downturn. Many organizations will never operate the same again, and many are looking for ways to absorb the lessons learned and move forward with new structures and operations. How can the training organization help during this time of stepping forward? There are several areas on which to focus and change training – and ensure that the organization continues to move forward.
First, take a look at the new hire situation. Many organizations are on hiring freezes or may still be involved in layoffs. But some organizations are in constant need of new hire employees, especially on the front lines. If your organization has high turnover or simply continues to hire, look at the training that was offered for this group during the times before the economic downturn. How much of the information was truly “need to know”? Did the training integrate efficiencies such as e-learning and on-the-job programs? If not, take the time to revamp these programs to make them as efficient in delivery and subject matter as possible. Did the material focus on how to do the job efficiently? Try focusing the training itself on efficiency and see how well the new hires do. On top of this, remember to evaluate the new program in order to clean it up and keep it as cost-effective as possible.
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Leading High Performance Teams
General leadership is always a task that moves an organization forward. But creating and leading a high performance team may increase retention, efficiency, and even profit. In an age when buzz words sometimes get more notice, let’s look at high performance teams and determine how to make that team a reality instead of simply a popular term.
First, leaders must define what high performance really is. There are general leadership attributes that can be reached and exceeded by leaders at all levels and in all types of organizations. But the true definition of high performance leadership is going to center on the organization, its needs, and the way it will become a leader in its field. For example, simply providing customer service is not a high performance attribute. But providing 100% customer satisfaction in every customer interaction is a high performance standard, especially when that standard is measured and is part of accountability. So to begin creating a high performance team, determine what attributes create high performance at the individual, group, and organizational level.
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