Identifying and developing the best talent you have in your business is vital.
The best organisations regularly ask: have we got the right people on our high potential list?
We work frequently alongside people leaders to complement their internal processes for high potential executives. We value these partnerships.
Working with individuals and their stakeholders, we use core development questions and diagnostics, informed by stakeholder perspectives.
These questions get beyond models and processes to what truly inspires, challenges and potentially trips up the person.
Areas covered typically include:
What is the person’s realistic ambition for their career: a realistic imagination of success?
What sort of role would fit their ambition and values? Why do they want that role/type of role? How would it serve their values?
What would they contribute in the role?
How are they going to prepare in order to achieve their ambition?
What specific strengths and development needs will that preparation address?
A TYPICAL APPROACH TO EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT
Define personal values that reflect true career aspirations and alignment with enterprise values.
Explore empowerment and resourcing in the seven areas of life, including career.
What is imagined success in a career, and link to personal values.
Debrief and findings from the diagnostics covering values, behaviours and potential derailers; debrief stakeholder interviews and/or behavioural 360.
Perceptions and expectations of self and others in relation to career options and their associated risks - dissolve barriers to achievement through mindsets and strategies.
Translation of diagnostic work into an expanded version of what the coaching client stands for and uniquely contributes as leader, and what that would require of them.
Mindset and skill development to begin to put new leadership awareness into practice.
Build leadership development plan with dates and accountabilities.
CASE STUDY: THE EMPTY SUIT
The executive was at top 100 level in a large organisation in the energy sector. He was identified as top talent; high IQ, a nose for what was important, and recognised for his ability to deliver on seemingly impossible deadlines. What we were solving for was a career pathway for him – what did he envision, did that match the organisation’s vision for him, and why he wanted his stated aspiration.
We partnered with him in a nine-session program including a range of diagnostics.
One of the key things that the work uncovered was that this hugely talented and hardworking executive didn’t back himself. Leaders need ambition and the confidence to support that ambition, otherwise they become an “empty suit”. That lack of inner confidence flowed over into him accepting roles that were offered more passively than he needed to. It also meant that he was not able to clearly define the role he wanted.
We worked with him to enable him to “own” and bring alive his ambition, which was to be a CEO within five years. He is working towards that with a clear plan that he believes in.
