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If you’re wondering where 2007 went then you’re
not alone. Christmas, New Year and even Easter have flashed
by and I can’t believe April is upon us.
The first three months of 2008 have set a cracking pace for
the team at Talent Solutions. Our team have been engaged across
the country delivering a range of leadership and team programs
in industries as diverse as pharmaceutical, federal government
and financial services. This year looks to be one of our busiest
with programs already starting to fill our work schedule as
far out as November.
We are seeing some common organisational themes emerge as
2008 takes shape. In particular, restructuring and a focus
on performance enhancement continues to drive the need for
our solutions. In the last two months alone I have worked with
no fewer that three global companies across various industries
as they respond to changes in market conditions and product
lifecycles. These organisations have engaged us to help their
leaders anticipate, plan for and implement change within their
teams. Much of our recent work has fundamentally shifted senior
leader perspectives, challenged existing assumptions and created
new initiatives to address resistance to change by front line
staff.
The recent change of government here at home has also impacted
a major federal agency that we have been working with for over
two years. They are facing a major restructure driven by a
20 per cent budget cut which has created greater demands on
leaders unaccustomed
to such change.
Over the last two years we have collected multi-rater feedback
on almost 200 leaders and will be presenting the analysis and
interpretation to the executive in June this year. We expect
this data to heavily influence the way the agency recruits,
inducts and develops their leaders over the next three to five
years.
All of this has created greater pressure on internal HR practitioners
as they support their business leaders throughout such change.
First and foremost in their minds has been addressing the demand
for key leadership talent to implement new initiatives and
solve ongoing or emerging issues. Our research into this issue
has produced some compelling insights and has challenged some
traditional approaches to talent management. Based on recent
global research and our own analysis of over 400 staff in a
major Australian company we have discovered the critical attributes
that predict emergent leadership ability. We can now more accurately
measure leadership potential and help fill key leadership roles
in a way that few organisations have been able to do successfully.
We will be presenting the results of this research in the next
few months, but for now you can read more about addressing
the ‘talent crisis’ by opening
the following link.
We have also recognised the pressures HR practitioners are
facing as they work to deliver on their internal clients’ expectations.
To help build internal HR consulting capability and confidence
we have embarked on a series of free boardroom events throughout
2008. The first of these focused on handling difficult conversations
and came about from the ideas we canvassed from both senior
and mid-level HR practitioners over the last six months. Our
first boardroom event was held last month and received great
feedback. If you are interested in learning
more about these events, or simply meeting a wider circle of
HR colleagues then keep 4:00 pm on Wednesday 23 April
in mind for our next boardroom event. You can contact Pam
Illingworth to get more information
and to register a place.
Finally, for those readers responsible for leading and motivating
sales teams I’ve included some recent research on the
challenges of motivating experienced sales professionals in
the pharmaceutical industry. The research
is helpful for any manager dealing with the challenges of motivating
experienced sales people in any industry and challenges some
of our thinking around popular ‘contingency’ leadership
theories like Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership.
Do experienced sales people respond best to a ‘delegating’ approach?
I’ll leave you to decide.
Warm regards,
Michael Collins
Managing Director
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