TalentManagement

to execute busines must wins .

2

Agenda

• Purpose of this presentation

• Trends / the future of the function.

• Frameworks.

• Success profile for a role.

• Processes: performance and promotion management.

• Ways of working, enabling continuous learning on-the-job.

• Development programs and supports.

• Assessment centres.

• Conferences.

• Coaching. Career planning.

• “Training” programs.

• Hotline.

• Diversity management.

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Purpose of this presentation

• Food for thought.

• Basis for feedback and discussion.

• Collect and share best practices.

Trends / The future of the function.

Trends / The future of the function.

• Define strategies based on the VUCA filter (Volatility Uncertainty Complexity Ambiguity).

VUCA =? : http://www.slideshare.net/TheTrustProcess/vuca-my-approach-to-it

• Usage of Social networks and informal networks, is price-of-admission rather than differentiating.

• Treat them as processes (see next slide).

• Use the approach of ”manage/lead/governe in one way and organize/structure in the opposite way”.

E.g. at the most sponsor or support informal network but formally create time for the possibility to particpate in them, do not define how communities of

practices should look like or contribute but train all on how to work collabortively, do not create projects/events aimed at encouraging collaboritve work or at

the use of social network but reward when work is done according to these ways, do not reward the participation to informal networks but ask

peers/direct/customers reports to assess an employee on elements they have a better viewpoint on than the hierarchical boss, etc.

• Delegate task that others could do better.

• Leadership of the function is done by non experts or OE heads, supported by a pool of Centre of Expertise.

• Take legal, policies, comp & ben, workforce planning etc. out of HR, and give it back to Legal, Finance, QA etc.

• Rather than roll-out solutions, act as internal management/OE consultant proposing customized actions.

• Be less analytical / “linear thinking” or less feel the need to be in control:

Focus on the ”butterfly effect” enabling levers, such as: trust, values, playful workplace …

Focus less focus on processes, and more on creating the mindset behind them that make them impactful or render them un-necessary.

Less define paternalistically or centrally the contents/definitions (e.g. performance criteria, competency, potential, job descriptions …), but rather define the

frameworks using questions that users ask themselves and empower these users to define the content.

Ensure agility of learning: help on-the-job learning rather than propose curriculums, focus on outputs rather than inputs, enable employees to access learning at

the point of need rather than ”3 months later”, capitalize on the need to avoid cognitive dissonance/act differently and then reflect (rather than introspection

about ”who am I”).

Rather than define skills by a laundry list of skills that related to an average situation or person (which by essence do not exist, define skills either as processes that

the person at the receiving end needs to be pulled into going through, iand/or, in terms of elements that enable to achieve the skills vs. elements that enable to

avoid the lack of the skill (e.g. motivation vs. avoid lack of motivation – these two block of elements are of a different nature and can paradoxically co-exist). As a

consequence, for example for change management, you then stop advocate bottom-up or top-down, for engagement you realize that people can be at one and the

same time both very engaged and very dis-engaged.

Invest less in translating behaviour into numbers.

Give more importance to team functioning and the assessment of it.

Focus on beliefs and desire rather than abilities or knowledge.

View agility as price of admission rather than a characteristics of ”stars”.

Frameworks.

Success profile for a role.

Processes: performance and promotion management.

Ways of working, enabling continuous learning on-the-job.

RESULTS to deliver (what, when, how):

• Optimize vs. Build the future vs. Change the game.

• Value added of this role, in particular ones not provided by other roles.

• Deliverables that cannot be delegated or compensated by peers´ abilities.

• Bonus triggering elements.

BEHAVIORS (a selection of behaviours)

• Key success behaviours (5% that create 95%). Key failure/derailment behaviours.

• Good vs. great behaviours. Tolerable gaps. Price-of-admission behaviours for this role.

ENABLERS, of the abilities to deliver Results and Behaviours:

• Character element (e.g. courage, agility, resilience, composure, behaviours when stretched)

• Self-knowledge (not just self-awareness) and Executive control (not fall victim to own filters).

• Required drivers / sources of engagement.

• Judgement style and depth (of ideas, people, social situations).

Success profiles for a role.

DECICION MAKING GUIDELINES (that need to be used by the role holder):

• Criteria / What makes something important or urgent. Option to choose when facing dilemmas.

• Rights and duties.

• Translate simply the business needs.

• Each role provides a specific value added others do not provide. Avoid that roles that are different “look alike”.

• Enable the focus on a few behaviours or challenges, to succeed.

• Differentiate performers.

And thus:

HR and boss talk the same language (avoid HR being seen as disconnected from the business).

Facilitate transition into roles.

Make development a shared accountability between the CEO/HR/Boss/the executives.

Zero-in each development on what is unique to each role.

Avoid issues created by using concepts such as Competency libraries, Potential or Personality.

Have the same specifications of a role for all steps of talent management (hiring, performance, succession, workforce planning, risk management): create the

simple link between all people management systems.

O.D. sanity check: if the profiles are not qualitative, it´s a sign you have a big issue somewhere!

Translate in concrete terms the corporate culture and business must-wins .

Why? Pragmatism, differentiation, be close to realities, …

Note.

• Do not use competencies as defined in competency libraries (e.g. KFI, Hay, DDI, PDI, Right).

Instead, use selected behaviours.

• Do not use “personality tests” (e.g. Big five, MBTI).

Instead, use drivers.

WHY? (SEE NEXT SLIDES)

• Competencies do not enable to compare people, nor define what is needed, since

They are means and having them does not infer that they will be used or achieve a specific result, and its their combination that generate a result (e.g. excelling

at listening does not make you a collaborative leader, excelling at all the competencies required for leadership does not make you a leader is the sequence or

frequency of use of these competencies is not right or adapted to the context).

The context is not taken into account as they are defined; They describe an average and thus no one. At best they define the obvious.

They are symptoms that can be achieved in various ways; They do not describe the “how”, since that would require a book; There is never one best way to achieve

a result, the best answer is "it depends“; Their definition should be different depending on the hierarchical level/needs of followers/the context.

The segmentation between competencies can only be subjective and irrelevant because competencies are interlinked. They overlap i.e. a same behaviour is

needed for several competencies, and there more than just a few behaviours to demonstrate or not each competency.

If you have a competency framework, at the very least assist all in translating what they mean them.

• Competencies are not “important”.

For leaders, character and drivers are differentiators -competencies are price of admission.

The difference between a great vs. a good leader, and the transition challenges o leadership (i.e. lead individuals, managers, divisions, BU, Group), are about

element such as leadership style, executive gravitas, decision making style, character, agility etc. And these elements are not competencies.

• Personality concepts are of no use in the business / organizational context:

There is no proof that one personality type is the best for a job.

Personality tests use models created for drug dosing purposes. These models are now challenged by the knowledge of how the brain works. The model / criteria

used for big five also define non-conformity/free-thinking as a mental illness!

Test do not give information to the person they do not possess except in which box a psychiatrist would put them in.

• Personality concepts do not enable to predict or explain behaviours:

Personality is about preference, not about behaviours/abilities or drivers/current hierarchy of needs. With a bit of self-knowledge or maturity, we learn to manage

our preferences.

Drivers define what is the most tempting, and thus future behaviours.

Personality tests assume that people do not changes and behave the same in different context. The “only” real answer, even for people with extreme preference,

to them is “it depends”, but that answer is not proposed.

Social environment / assigned role /abilities compel and shape us, more, to behave in particular ways, than personality and modify the latter (Milgram, Asch,

Zimbardo, …)

Personality test exist because of cognitive bias/fallacy (i.e. “The Fundamental Attribution Error”: when we find a cause or intent in the other, we over-attribute

the cause to personality and give less attention to the situational determinants that drive behaviour).

Except for the concept of introvert vs extravert, for which there is neurological proof, personality models are using concepts that are neither clearly defined nor

measurable/observable objectively.

Execution Tips

• The purpose is not to pile up success profiles, but to establish a shared frame, a shared standard of excellence and an alignment to must-

wins.

So, centrally, define the profiles that correspond to main transitions (senior expert, manager of experts, manager of managers, leader of PNL/Business

units, leaders of leaders, group executives). And, locally, let employees define specific role success profiles.

• Provide “food for thoughts” for defining “selected behaviours”.

Translate what core behaviours/values mean for different hierarchical levels. Translate what the 6 abilities to be mastered by all (see end of this presentation) mean

for different hierarchical levels. . Pick and chose from existing competency libraries, pick from after action reviews, training material …

• When defining the role profile, ask those who will define the role, as a warm-up: What scenarios could the role holder face? What are the must-

wins for the role holder, today and tomorrow?

These two questions can be used for interviewing future candidates, using scenario based questions.

For succession management, map roles, not people*.

• Use development for a purpose (e.g. avoid having great executives if there is no need for them).

• * So e.g. stop using the perf. Vs. pot. 9 box grid

• Build a matrix using criteria such as: number of ready successors, retention risk of successors, impact of losing successors …

• For, a risk management of strategy execution and delivering on commitments, use a matrix using criteria such as: performance vs. impact of losing.

Impact of losing criteria: 4 Dimensions: (At local level, At global level) now or in the near future: 1. Operational execution: capacity to produce and deliver products . 2. Customer (relations/ satisfaction), i.e. Incomes . 3. Engagement of our employees and thus sustainability of Income and/or production. 4. Capacity to differentiate us from competition

• Invest in and recognize experts and first line managers,

in order to build the talents needed to execute strategies and to avoid that high performers want to be leaders for the wrong reasons (e.g. only real attractive career path).

• Do not, define career paths, define best experiences to prepare for each specific role.

• Do not use the concept of “potential”. Instead, use “promotability for 1-2 next levels”.

Why?

Typically “Potential” definitions are basically adaptability together with others. This is price of admission, for all, in today´s world (change, emerging markets) -if

not, you trigger mediocrity. Typically “Potential” definitions are basically having an average IQ, and, excelling at certain competencies, so just keep the latter

concept if you use it, or as we recommend, do not use the notion of competence and thus not the concept of potential. Some “Potential” definitions focus on self-

awareness, when the real lever is self-knowledge. The potential for one role does not rely on the same abilities as the one for another role. No one can predict the

future beyond a couple of years. However, you can predict behaviours in certain context, using the “enablers” define in the “success profiles”.

• E.g. promotability criteria:

High performance during two years. Positive 360 views by N+1/2/-1, partners and peers.

Successful at key success/failure factors and/or has drivers of roles at next one or two level(s). And/or High performance in roles that require success factors of a different nature/entirely set of new challenges -rather than performance in the same job at a larger scale.

Adaptability to the context / learn from experience. Track record of personal or job-related transitions.

Demonstrated abilities at the 6 core abilities described in the training slide of this presentation.

Engagement. Alignment to company values.

E.g. of promotability “assessments”: A: Not foreseeable. B: To early to assess C: Vertical. D: 1 level E: two levels F: candidate for non-obvious moves

Promotions management

Note: High-potentials and talent review

• It is not because you stop using the concept of potential,

that you stop managing specifically future leaders/experts/highpos, or, that you confuse performance with promotability/potential.

• Leadership highpo status should be deserved /based on results, not be inferred/guessed. First identify those who´s gaps make them not eligible, then place a bet to be confirmed.

• E.g. criteria for a leadership highpos = 2 levels promotability, and eventually:Excels at the expected “Enablers” * / “Results” ** .Seen as future leader by peers and leaders, company values / fit. Ambition to become a business leader.

*In particular/for example Executive gravitas, trust management, judgment

**In particular/for example: Challenges outdated approaches and simplify the complex; Experience in cross functional or business or geography, in overseeing multiple high-value client relationships/accounts, or organizational change; Positive deviant, having proven through results that accepted visions /business models /ways of working were not relevant or needed to be stretched. Fast learning or excellence in inferring lessons learned.

• Do not use scales with numbers/letters. Use scales with “so what” labels.

Ensure each employee…..

• Has performance criteria related to the organization´s performance:

Build the future.

Make the most of the present.

Operational execution: capacity to produce and deliver products.

Customer (relations/ satisfaction), i.e. Incomes.

Engagement of our employees and thus sustainability of Income and/or production.

Capacity to differentiate us from competition.

AND/OR ..

Performance management

AND/OR …..

• Has performance that enable easy comparability:

Quantity output of work. Timely delivery. Quality of delivery.

Usefulness for stakeholder/the business.

Efficient use of resources.

Impact on the performance of others. Impact on team performance.

Autonomy and freedom from unplanned support/supervision/monitoring/corrective feedback.

Productive work habits/personal efficiency (focus, adaptability, resilience, assertiveness, courage …)

Growth and adding skills useful to deliver the work in the current area/scope and in its future one.

Alignment to the direction.

AND/OR ….

• Has performance criteria for each of the 3 parts of the success profile

• RESULTS to deliver (what, when, how):

• BEHAVIORS (a selection of behaviours)

• ENABLERS, of the abilities to deliver Results and Behaviours:

Execution Tips

• Do not re-invent wheel, and thus build upon tools/systems that are already used locally or by acquired companies/JVs, in particular those that emphasis

simplicity/little reporting/usefulness for the boss.

• After the initial communication, invest less in training than in peer to peer coaching, using methods such as open space or fishbowl, targeted at

addressing dilemma or difficult situation triggered by the use of the processes.

• Build an ERP/IT tool in order to reinforce the desired behaviours or mind-sets, not to create them.

Establish policies and toolkits, such as:

• Create developmental roles. E.g. create boards per BU with exec from other BUs.

• Regular team functioning feedback.

• Each boss is a sponsor of an action learning program.

• Shadow cabinet.

3 days workshop, where the sponsor/internal client is a regular participant, during which participants make key business decisions, prior to regularly scheduled

management team meeting. Participants present them at it and occasionally attend regular ones. Shadow cabinet members serve e.g. two-year terms with half

rotating off panel each year.

• Extract from business review, action learning projects.

Scope the projects at about 25 percent of participants' time over a six-month period.

Use programs as a means for the CEO to share key messages / sense of urgency.

Balance project aimed at building the future vs. delivering the current business agenda.

Ways of working, enabling continuous on-the-job learning.

• Have a responsible for action learning initiatives in each BU.

• Aim to create learning experiences without changing jobs, rather than rotational job paths.

Either by adding permanent responsibilities to a job and delegating some previous ones, or by temporary assignment that take 25% of the person' time

during a period of 6 months, or by adding responsibilities outside of work.

• Have a meeting twice a month to share lessons learned on the job.

• Risk management of successions:

A delegation scorecard of task delegated to a success and the readiness of the latter on these tasks.

In advance of the succession, exchange the roles by having the successor hold their future role and the current role holder takes on the successor´s role

and/or takes on a role of mainly being a coach.

Daily shadowing: the successor observes and pairs up with the holder of their future role on most critical tasks of the successor´s future role.

Make an extended format of all teams for example “extended leadership teams”.

Have a rotational secretary for teams that is at the level N-3.

Tips, for managing an action learning project:

Enable as many as possible to, act, as leaders: encourage sub-groups/pairs, rotational leadership, shared leadership, differentiate leadership of activities and

reviews …

Have a “hotline” for coaching/advise from someone who is not involved in the project.

Quickly build bonds/solidarity between participants, thus enabling candid dialogues.

Assign the role of observer and facilitator/coach* to a participant (eventually rotational). Use external coaches to coach this participant. (*help the participants to

work effectively together).

Structure time for personal reflection / feedback.

Assign a sponsor, which role is, that expectations defined by participants are exceeded.

End, with an After Action Review session. Ensure that each participant also does their own AAR.

Make each participant accountable for one challenge.

Ensure each participant has a key development objectives before the project.

Be prudent in providing support. Indeed, figuring out learning needs and how to satisfy them is part of the development and the responsibility of participants.

Before, launching an action learning, ensure each one answers the question “If learning is a natural skill, why is it so hard?”, and agree on tactics to maximize

learning for them and the unit.

Ensure the project includes implementation in order to achieve bottom-line results.

Examples, of action learning projects:

Become more innovative and entrepreneurial.

Migrate to alternative value propositions and business models?

Cultural and organizational characteristics of a truly global firm, and what would we need to improve?

Measures to achieve optimal shareholder management?

Manage the acquisition, development and retention of talent at all levels of the organization?

Ensure that the potential of its talent is fully realized?

Launch this new organization-wide initiative, help accelerate its development and overcome resistance to change

Growth rate improvement actions?

Overcome communication and collaboration barriers and develop better alignment and cross-organizational teamwork?

Develop and execute an effective transition of a merger or acquisition project?

Validate our new strategic plan?

Validity our assumptions and decision making process about an investment?

Maximize ROI from our business units? Align investment with business objectives?

Standard benchmark for executive performance and development measurements?

Establish toolkits related to “ways of working”, such as:

• After action review.

• Peer-coaching solution finding methods such as: open space, fishbowl, future search and discuss the un-discussable …

• “30 minutes silence, at 9 a.m., daily: reflect alone or in pairs on how to achieve work related goals differently”, no calls or mails allowed. Or, “15

minutes silence, at regular team meetings, about team objectives, team member´s objectives and the team functioning”

Provide guides, such as:

• “Behavioural role profiles”.

• Developmental experiences that best prepare for a role.

• Coaching / Mentor questions, for decision-making or performance.

• Team coaching questions.

• Career planning questions.

Development programs and supports.

Assessment centres.

Conferences.

Coaching. Career planning.

“Training” programs.

Hotline.

Diversity management

• Things that differentiate a great assessment solutions, are:

Connected to “Success profiles”, for the main transition points (senior expert, manager of experts, manager of managers, leader of PNL/Business units, leaders of

leaders, group executives).

Pre-work: “your action plan to succeed?”, 360 degrees feedback , and/or online business case.

Provide feedback that could be difficult to hear.

Scenario based (thanks to the 360 feedback, online business case, scenario based questions “What if? / How much? / When?” interviews, …). Refer to the

scenarios define in the behavioural role profile or as a means to define the latter. Do not rely on “analysis of their stories” (it is about the past and memories can

play tricks).

The value added of the consultant is less about the “As-is” and more about the “Could-be”, the related risk management, and triggering of desire for growth.

An on-boarding/follow-up plan. e.g. 1 day to bridge gaps & design the plan, and, 1 day about how to execute the plan.

The internal assessor observes all interviews / is a steps of the process.

Assessment centre for executives (current and future)

Not done in a “lab” / “event”. Labs do not focus on perception of stakeholders are not collected, focus on fewer moments to infer data from than e.g. a 360

feedback, and are an non-representative context. Do mot set up assessment centre as such, instead, set up methodology for interview based assessment.

Avoid to focus elements that cannot be changed/developed. Put the executive in a box (personality, potential, …).

Avoid that lot of people doing interviews /involved – instead of a few but in-depth ones. Avoid to have more than on interviewer facing the candidate, unless you

specifically want to assess behaviours in a group.

Take into account that certain abilities are better assessed by some actors (peers, N-1, N+1).

Interview with a holder of the target role / expert in the culture / hiring expert / target role´s N+1: additional input, involvement, visibility, benchmarking.

Execution Tips

• Outsource with prudence: The talent advisor is always involved as a co-assessor. Other assessors can be external and current leaders/stakeholders.

• Define when Assessment centres are mandatary.

E.g. when transitioning between major leadership challenges (e.g. into leading several business, leading a management team, expatriate assignment), before a

leadership curriculums (they accelerate learning by triggering desire and awareness, they enable to customize …)

• Define how 360 degrees feedback complement or input to assessments.

e.g. provide data about the “Result” part of the success profile and some “behaviours”.

• Do not pre-define assessment packages for each success profile or need (e.g. prepare for a development, promotion decision, trigger desire for growth…).

The most important is to remain flexible and adapted to the reason for the assessment. Thus, the priority is to establish the methodology / how assessor

come to their conclusions

• Use success profiles as basis

• Can the DO the job? Do WE WANT to work with them?

assess: “Results” and “Behaviours” (defined in the success profile).

• WILL THEY do the job in different context? COULD they be do the job even if they have not before?

And/or can we explain their behaviours and thus PREDICT what they would be able?

And/or will they fit the team, boss, stakeholders, context?

And/or will they have the potential or desire to grow/take on the role?

And/or how will they behave when stretched / outside of comfort zone?

4

assess: “Enablers” and “Behaviours” (define in the success profile)

Note: The use of 360 degrees feedback:

• Invest in a face-to-face interview based process, eventually preceded by some online questions.

• Limit the number of topics covered, using the “success profile”.

• Ask raters to go beyond stating issues – ask for solutions / quick actions to implement.

• Numbers or complex analysis reports, are of little relevance/value.

• Take an After action reviews approach on a couple of specific projects:

what did we set out to do, what did we actually achieve, what happened, why it happened, what went well and why, what could have gone even better and why

(not what went wrong), how satisfied are you with the project, what lessons can be learned.

• Ensure that something concrete happens -or risk that raters will feel efforts were wasted.

• Keep in mind that sometimes the feedback says more about the rater than the feedback receiver.

Conferences – with peers, regular, 1 day max.

• Deliverables

Expose senior executives to ideas/lessons learned/must-wins/cultures outside* their organisation (*other BU in the organization and/or other companies).

Provide a safe space to challenge the obvious /assumptions/mental maps.

Enable to “take a step back”.

Have a dedicated action for networking (rather than rely on trainings for this).

• Each conference has two parts:

- Eureka! input about a theme / invite motivational and inspirational people / visit a context / business simulation.

- “So what can I do” discussion with peers. E.g. brainstorming at dinner table or structured solution finding. (Note that the facilitator´s credibility/abilities is

critical !).

Execution Tips

• Mix conference themes between business topics and general knowledge ones (e.g. social science, history, personal efficiency, geopolitics).

• Record conference for sharing.

• Have a board that is representative of your business and customers to select the themes of the conferences.

• Whenever possible, use an employee as an internal speaker.

• Conference themes should enable a “So what?” inference, be provocative, trigger debate, trigger awe/surprise/emotions.

• Do two conferences per year, one in June and one in end of December.

Coaching.

• For performance / development, in order to select a coach, do not, establish a predefined set of criteria but co-define them with the

coachee, since the main criteria is the fit with the coachee and the N+1/the stakes.

• For a specific purpose, such as an assessment centre, predefine the set of criteria of coaches, since the methodology is the key success

factor for assessments.

• Whenever possible prioritize peer coaching in a group setting over using an external coach.

The success of these methods relies on the process rather than on the facilitator.

• Outsource with prudence: Listen to 1st coaching sessions or collect impressions directly afterwards.

Career planning support.

• Assist in providing two different coaching supports:

• Make a decisions: “What do I want?”

• Plan. “How do I plan to achieve it I an uncertain context?”

• Provide, for each of these two topics, half a day coaching support rather than support extended over several months.

Empower the executive to prioritize using existing on-the-job learning guides such “What makes an experience developmental?” and “Best experiences to prepare

for a role?”.

“Training” programs

• Aim for performance, not career paths (e.g. highpo fast track). Have programs aimed at succeeding in specific roles, transitioning into

them, and at going from good to great.

Use “behavioural role profiles” zero-in on the specific key success factors.

Remember, it takes approx. ten years of intense practice, on-the-job, to excel at an ability.

• Outsource with prudence: Buy programs but couple them with company specific assessment centres.

And keep in mind that the key levers are: “what happens before and after, more than the content of a training (McKinsey)” and “customization to the participant”.

• In addition to programs aimed at performance in roles, have stand-alone modules,

to enhance the efficiency of structured action learning initiatives.

• Avoid fads and new approaches to leadership

(today, one can less get away with mediocrity today, but leadership abilities have not changed).

• Before / during the design of company specific programs, send participants to recognized programs and, ask them to feedback relevance for you, and ask past participants.

• Aim to enhance passion, then abilities.

Each action should achieve 6 deliverables: B: Beliefs A: Awareness D: Desire K: Knowledge A: Abilities R: Reinforcement. Invest most in what happens before

and after, not during the events.

• For accelerated learning, target Beliefs Awareness Desire. E.g. the two latter can be achieved thanks to assessments before trainings

• Prioritize action learning, based on real must-wins.

Target a “zero class room”: conceptual inputs can be provided by the coach/mentor/online, and, peer pressure/advice/feedback can be during projects.

Aim for peers/N-1/N+1s to make participants behave differently (do not rely on the facilitator/coach to change behaviours).

Give content beforehand, and use the training session/workshop as a learning laboratory.

• Have a solution rather than a problem focus: define programs based on what you want, i.e. success profiles, rather than a collection of

data about current gaps (and, data is not actionable since about averages and outdated once it is analysed...).

Specific gaps of specific participants will be identified and related action plans designed thanks to assessments before trainings and interviews of

boss/stakeholders.

Ensure a core of “6” (see next slide): train all employees on 6 abilities that cover 90% of the needs.

• Why?

Raise the bar of what you expect from leaders.

Have shared set of abilities across leaders while focusing on role/context specificities *

Critical mass skilled at the common denominators/root causes of excellence/avoid gaps.

Make career transitions less risky and internal mobility easier.

Build employee loyalty, since these 6 abilities also improve their extra-professional life.

The 6:

• Decision making (decisive-ness, personal and collective efficiency, strategy, KPI use):

Content: Systems thinking; Dilemma solution using “TRIZ” /”Theory of constraints”; “Ladder of inference”.

• Getting the best out of People (motivation, retention, engagement, accountability):

Content: Motivation is a two column table of factors that are of a different nature (i.e. one can be very motivated and very demotivated at the same time). Rewards management. Social animal elements.

• Follower-ship (influence, energize, change, pull feedback, negotiations, conflicts, coach):

Content: BADKAR: followers go through a 5 steps process (Belief, Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Abilities, Reinforcement); Alignment/delegated authority requires that you define for each role what makes something important vs. urgent and what rights vs. duties are. Crowd leadership. Solidarity.

• Doing the right thing and avoiding Toxic behaviours (emotional intelligence, resilience, self-confidence, personal efficiency):

Content: Self knowledge; Critical thinking (Cognitive biases. Ladder of inference) Self-leadership, Habits management. Confidence/fears.

• Manage others´ Perceptions of you (trust, executive gravitas, communication, build rapport):

Content: Trust is a 5 step process, Executive gravitas relies on 5 abilities; Transactional analysis.

• Team functioning:

Content: Coaching questions to ask.

Hotline.

Why?

• It is an on-demand, timely mini coaching/mentoring support or orientation towards resources.

• Be pragmatic / realistic with regards to support for performance and growth:

Indeed, in an ideal world, performance issues are resolved in the frame of formal steps of the processes set up by the organization, people have mentors, those

who need it are offered external coaching, people are prepared for their role/context, HR are seen as neutral and/or counterparts, there are “ombudsmen”, the

boss can both be an assessor/judge and a coach and is not a critical trigger of others´ s issues, employees feel safe to collect and ask upon feedback, people are

willing to share their doubts with their boss/HR/peers, and so on. Sadly, or realistically, this is typically not the case, and often for good and unavoidable

structural reasons.

• It is a prevention of derailment of performance or change initiatives.

• Under certain conditions, it can serve the role of an “ombudsman”.

• It can enable to identify the quality of eventual external coaches.

• It can be a developmental for an internal executive to respond to hotline requests.

• Cheap and very high ROI solution.

• Having a “critical mass” high performers, is essential for individual´s performance and organizational health.

• True neutrality can be critical to enable the employee to explore real solutions/triggers.

How

• Free of charge.

• Confidential eventually. anonymous.

• Ensure the focus is on own performance and on how one affect others´ performance.

• Advices are aligned to a shared approach / way of working.

• Assign one coach for every 100 employee and every 20 executives.

• Hotliners are full-time internal coaches.

• Hotliners pick and choose from different coaching schools (e.g. cognitive, behavioural, NLP, Rogerian, …).

• Hotliners, enable simple support actions such as: as safe listening to own thoughts, anchoring, replacement of self-limiting thinking, self-knowledge, solution

focus, direct toward resources and tips.

• Hotliners are rotational if done by internal executives.

• While the hotline is aimed at real life conversations, set up a web page of recommended readings and of tips collected from employees (have at least an annual

survey of “What I have learned.”).

Diversity managemente.g. to ensure that a target population is well represented in a role (e.g. amongst leaders)

Have a pull approach:

• Establish solutions, that are not specific to the “force-field”.

• Extra effort: the target benefits from a career coaching meeting with the talent advisor.

• Act-as-if: Add and/or Customize success profiles / programs to cultural expectations of the target´s expectation of a leader a leader (develop abilities to

lead both Saudi national and a global business)

• Adapt delivery methods to cultural expectations/sensitivities of the target.

• Risk management/Prevention: measure their retention risk or the target (i.e., are they likely to leave? If so, how likely?).

To start things, have an interview based process done by the talent advisor, but at some stage, ensure succession management systems formalize the

discussion about this.

• Facilitate Hiring. Identify experienced representatives of the target outside of the company. Partner with universities to attract young representatives of

the target.

• Establish solutions that are specific to the “force-field”:

• Understand the blockers/enablers with regards to a future change management plan (i.e. steps Beliefs, Desire, Abilities …) and the change message

(Why now? What if it does not happen?).

Survey internal stakeholders

• Identify specific gaps to zero in on in for the target.

Survey internal stakeholders and keep in mind local culture and research.

• Identify and build upon existing diversity management actions i.e. by hiring policies/approaches.

Contact:

slimlambert@gmail.com