Month: March 2013

Key thought: "don’t train your leaders, coach them." I disagree that all training is bad , some tools can effectively (and most cost efficiently) be delivered in a classroom setting. After the classroom it is critical to help people practice, get feedback and continue their learning. Don’t misunderstand, I’m all for developing through coaching. I AM an executive coach. I just don’t believe it is black and white. I believe if it were, we’d all be further along in developing our current and future leaders.

Deloitte tells us that the next challenge business faces is the war to develop talent.  Good news for those of us in the leadership development and coaching space, for sure. 

We’ve known for a long time that workers often enter the ranks of employment without some remedial skills.   Most of us think about this as an issue at the lower, less educated ranks.  Not so. Or at least the issue doesn’t end there.  The world of work is different now, with different rules of engagement–the old models no longer fit.  Increasingly global, full of employees with desires of meaning, satisfaction, and social impact.  The time an employee spends in an office is diminishing rapidly, while simultaneously the methods for learning are increasing leaving the classroom.

Deloitte describes three major shifts: to connectivity, from consumer to prosumer and community contributor and from generalist to serialist master. Across these shifts is the vast application technology has in all we do–and how technology has created new worlds of possibility.  

All of this suggests a need for disruption in methods we develop talent and leaders.  Deloitte tells us that employers need to shift as well: from "talent takers to skill developers." They tell us that "[m]any of the most competitive companies are leaders in both formal training and the broader range of on-the-job and in-the-job development."   We need to  "reimagine" development, focus on "the central role of technology" and manage beyond boundaries with the recongition that "business ecosystems and global talent markets are replacing the company and local and national talent markets."

The article provides a compelling review of, and read on the landscape. Development is key.  How we do it needs to keep up with how we do and succeed in business.  The same old same old won’t do it anymore.  

It’s a great time to be in the leadership and talent development space. 

Time to evalutate your year. Inc, tells us that March is the key month for reviewing projects and identify how best to leverage your limited resources.    A practice that, to my mind, is one that should be done more than at the close of each quarter.

Set up practices to evaluate initiaitves on an ongoing basis.  Organizations that do this well also think into the future and do pre-mortems ( take a vantage point of 6 months to a year from now and consder that the project failed….what likely was the cause of the failure?) and pre-parades (same drill but look at causes for its success).    What you learn from these drills could alter the course of  a project and head off significant obstacles.