Talent Management, Performance Culture & Leadership Supply
CEOs worry about having the right people in key jobs—they know it's key to ensuring great decisions and execution. But most are frustrated by the time and effort it takes to kick-start their organizations' talent machine. Building a talent-rich organization is in fact a multiyear challenge. But three specific steps will not only have an immediate impact on a company's talent supply, they will also lay the foundation for longer-term moves.
These steps help leaders address their talent challenges quickly. They also build longer-term commitment for the actions that take more time to bear fruit—changing recruiting strategies, building new training and mentoring programs and the like.
Performance Culture
Company culture is at the heart of competitive advantage, because it determines how things are done and how people behave; it is the hardest thing for competitors to copy. High performers create an environment with a unique personality and soul, and with a passion for performance—so that people make the right decisions and do the right thing wherever they are in the business.
A true high-performance organizational culture provides a company with its single greatest source of competitive advantage. The culture inspires people to go the extra mile–to make and execute good decisions even when nobody's looking. But fewer than 7 percent of companies actually succeed in building a winning culture, and even the ones that do so may find it hard to maintain.
High-performance cultures have two central characteristics:
Creating and maintaining such a culture is challenging, but it can be done. Leadership is key. Cultural change won't happen unless leaders themselves model the behaviors and values that define the new culture. The most effective leaders also spread the word through constant personal contact and communication, particularly with "linchpin" employees who will buy in to the culture and whose words will carry weight with others. They don't shrink from making the organizational changes necessary to support the new culture–for example, altering incentives, redistributing decision rights or streamlining processes. They rigorously track their progress as the culture evolves to make sure performance stays high.