Corporate University: Avoiding the “Ivory Tower”
Learning and Development departments, as well as corporate universities, can sometimes fall victim to the “ivory tower” syndrome, that is, losing touch with the “real world”. Typically the ivory tower is no one’s fault; it simply happens because all of your resources are so focused on the task at hand. The tower can even develop when you are still in the process of rolling out your corporate university, so some of the ideas here can be used during the initial build as well as in the future. How can you avoid getting caught up in the ivory tower?
The first way to avoid the ivory tower is to keep analysis and assessment consistent. Even if there is no major development going on at a given time, you should be evaluating courses, instructors, technology, delivery methods, and even the Learning Management System at all times. Continuous assessment of how you’re performing will help you determine where to put your resources, even if the corporate university is still in the setup phase. Plus, assessment will help you discover the university’s efficiency, costs, and benefits. And this will come in handy when it’s time to prove ROI.
Another way to keep in touch with the “real world” is to maintain contact with your sponsors and stakeholders, throughout the entire rollout process and beyond. This group is made up of people who are doing the work, supervising the work, and even planning the goals behind the work. If you alienate this group or simply lose contact with them, you run the risk of losing contact with the world outside of the corporate university office.
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Corporate University: Effective Staffing
The worst thing you can do when setting up a corporate university is to get it rolled out and then find that you have too much or too little staff. In today’s economic climate, you’re probably leaning toward having too little staff, but regardless of whether you can hire one person or ten you’ll need to plan carefully. Let’s examine best practices related to staffing your corporate university.
First, examine your current staffing model in relation to the current training offerings and organizational needs. Is it working? For example, how much time are instructors spending in the classroom versus the “ideal”? Do you have online courses sitting on a shelf waiting to be developed? Who is developing classroom training, if at all? Is the current staff overworked or pulled in numerous directions to the point that they are not accomplishing much of anything? If you could staff to your ideal in the current department and climate, what would that staff look like? Although it’s fun to create wish list for staffing, you’ll need to maintain your realism, as well.
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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 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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Decision Making Strategies
Leadership skills become second nature for many people. But one of the most difficult skills is decision making. There are always numerous factors to consider, impacts to predict, and, simply put, it’s difficult to please everyone from the highest levels. It’s easy for leaders to procrastinate on decision-making or even try to offload the decision to someone else. But an effective decision making strategy is a highly useful leadership tool, so let’s discuss how to make those decisions in a methodical and factual way.
First, let’s discuss how decisions are made. Some leaders may make all decisions alone. This may be based on the individual or the dynamic of the group he or she leads. On the other hand, some leaders do not step into decision-making unless they have their “sounding board” group around them. Before you enter into the decision process, determine how you’ll make your decision. With that said, remember that group decision- making is sometimes highly effective because, let’s face it, none of us has all of the answers.
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Leadership Analytics
Maintaining the leadership pool is a challenging task for an organization and its top leaders. There are a number of activities, as well as developmental exercises, that can be undertaken to grow leadership at every level within the organization. But how can organizational leaders measure leadership? And, more importantly, what analytics can be used to ensure that leadership talent is used efficiently and appropriately? Let’s look at some broad categories of leadership analytics.
First, behavioral profiling is an excellent analytical tool. There are two ways to approach behavioral analytics for leaders. First, you can identify behavioral characteristics of well-known leaders, either in the world at large or within the organization itself. These general characteristics can be used as a “yardstick” for leadership development and leadership measurement. There are many sources of popular leadership profiles, but how can you profile within the organization? Myers-Briggs type indicators are one example. A certified Myers-Briggs consultant can assess leaders, name their “types”, and help the organization build profiles, communication plans, and job-specific characteristics – and use these items as leadership analytics.
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Death spiral!
After reading this blog in the Seth Godin’s website, I could do nothing more than to share it with you. It has so many applications to training, leadership and every aspect of talent management. How many of you are working for companies in the death spiril? Enjoy.
| You’ve probably seen it. The fish monger sees a decline in business, so they have less money to spend on upkeep and inventory, so they keep the fish a bit longer and don’t clean up as often, so of course, business declines and then they have even less money… Eventually, you have an empty, smelly fish store that’s out of business.
The doctor has fewer patients so he doesn’t invest as much in training or staff and so some other patients choose to leave which means that there are even fewer patients…
The newspaper has fewer advertisers, so they can’t invest as much in running stories, so people stop reading it, which means advertisers have less reason to advertise which leaves less money for stories…
As Tom Peters says, “You can’t shrink your way to greatness,” and yet that’s what so many dying businesses try to do. They hunker down and wait for things to get better, but they don’t. This isn’t a dip, it’s a cul de sac. It’s over.
Right this minute, you still have some cash, some customers, some momentum… Instead of squandering it in a long, slow, death spiral, do something else. Buy a new platform. Move. Find new products for the customers that still trust you.
Change is a bear, but it’s better than death.
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.
Once you have defined high performance, you must create a structure to achieve it. As we mentioned, high performance goals are not valuable if leaders are not held accountable to them. So the question becomes how to hold leaders accountable. One way to do this is to create a “stretch” environment, where reaching a goal is great but stretching beyond it is high performance. For example, the 100% customer satisfaction measurement may be impossible to achieve. But is 95% customer satisfaction impossible? Given the right situations, effective training, and consistent coaching, it probably isn’t. To stretch this high performance goal, make 95% the point where the team meets the goal, and 96% where the team begins to excel the goal. High performance teams are always looking to excel their previous performance, so by creating this structure you’re paving the way for excellence.
In line with stretch goals, leaders must create incentive to reach goals – and excel them. There are numerous ways to create incentive. Obviously bonuses or profit sharing are great ways to draw high performance. But the way the cash incentive program is created will keep the high performance team in stretch mode. For example, pay 1% profit when the team reaches the 95% customer satisfaction goal, 2% at 96%, and so on. Bonus and profit sharing programs create high performance and retain those high performers. But what about non-cash incentives, especially when the organization may be operating in economic uncertainty? One way to avoid up-front cash is to consider making team members eligible for promotion as they achieve various levels of stretch goals. Obviously there will be a cost involved, but salary is typically not going to be an “off the top expense”. Also, consider products or services offered by the organization as rewards for achieving stretch goals, or consider reallocating funds for reward. For example, if executives are accustomed to a trip to a seminar or something similar, consider using those funds to reward the top performer.
Outside of the realm of incentive comes the sense of spirit you, as a leader, must create. As high performers are identified, bring them together to brainstorm organizational problems and create solutions. Have the groups meet once a month for a network event, especially if the team members aren’t geographically located with one another. Let the high performance teams know that they are the future of the organization, and that it is their responsibility to solve problems and lead others in the organization to their levels. As this type of environment begins to emerge, you’ll see a team spirit begin to take shape amongst the high performers. They will “recruit” other high performers and send the message down the line.
Finally, coach, teach, mentor, and hire for high performance. Coaching and training in leadership and advanced operational topics should always exist for high performance teams. This provides yet another incentive for high performers, who are always interested in learning and improvement. Assign coaches or mentors to the high performers as they emerge – this way, you’ll consistently have a support system that ensures the continuance of high performance behavior. If the budget allows, offer leadership training for the high performers at various levels. As they learn and improve, they will begin to create other high performers simply because of their every day behavior.
But perhaps the most important aspect of creating and leading high performance teams is to hire for high performance. As you define high performance at individual job levels, you will begin to define ideal candidates for every position in the organization. When this occurs, even entry-level employees are leaders in their own rights. Organizations have the tendency to hire in order to get a “warm body”. When this practice is replaced with a search for the person with the high performance attributes, leadership begins at all levels.
Creating the high performance team is a process, but follow these basics and you’ll see results quickly.
