Welcome to our final newsletter from our Pitt Street office which has been home to Talent Solutions for the last five years. Come the 6th of August we will be relocating to Level 10, 65 York Street.  These are exciting times for the company. The last six months have seen unprecedented growth as we find our forward delivery schedule booked 12 months out. Much of this work involves ongoing projects with organisations from the oil and gas sector, financial services, building services and the federal government. At the same time, we are expanding in size with the addition of several senior consultants who will provide an ongoing level of professionalism as we continue to help organisations harness the potential of their people – stay tuned for more information in our next newsletter.

Leadership assessment and development continues to be in high demand as organisations grapple with the challenges of a tight labour market and an aging workforce. In a project we commenced in November 2006 we have assessed over 100 staff as part of a longitudinal study to help this organisation identify the critical attributes and abilities that define executive effectiveness. This database is being used for succession management, workforce planning and recruitment activity. We have partnered with a global leader in executive assessment to develop a ‘best practice’ measurement methodology that has saved the organisation both time and money.

At the same time we have a range of leadership programs currently rolling out across a high profile government agency. One of these has been modularised to produce a range of flexible modules that can stand alone and address a wide variety of needs including team effectiveness, leading with emotional intelligence, managing change and communicating with influence. These programs will begin rolling out in Canberra next month.

Our ongoing work in the oil and gas sector is fast approaching delivery stage with three major programs at the executive level addressing leadership and management, team effectiveness and managing change. August sees the pilot of a five day leadership development program with a state government agency as well as the commencement of a 12 month program focussing on performance leadership with one of the big four Australian banks.

Much of our current work in the executive coaching area focuses on CEO teams and their direct reports.  We have been working in the airline industry, financial services and resources sectors to assist senior executives with the challenges of leadership, team problem solving, decision making and organisational alignment. Last month saw the start of our first foray into the not-for-profit sector as we commenced a pro-bono assignment with the CEO and their team as they face the challenges of growth in an increasingly competitive environment. This project has already started to deliver some benefits by way of facilitating executive thinking to focus on the critical business success factors over the next three months.

The ‘people-related’ challenges facing organisations in the last 12 months show few signs of abating. Increasingly organisational leaders are concerned with attracting and retaining the ‘right’ people. The competition for scarce talent is fierce and many companies are turning to ‘employer of choice’ strategies to get the edge on their competitors. If you’re interested in the latest perspective on this issue then keep an eye out for a recent interview I gave for the Australian Institute of Management in their next edition of Management Today. The article goes some way to dispelling many of the myths around attraction and retention – there is no silver bullet – effective leadership is a fundamental precondition for wining the war on talent.

Finally, if you’re interested in learning a bit more about the relationship between leadership effectiveness and Emotional Intelligence then please read on. I have been asked to talk further about this topic at the 4th Annual Turnaround Management Association Conference to be held at the Hilton Hotel on 15th and 16th of November 2007 in Sydney. Those readers familiar with the challenges of business turnarounds would be left in no doubt about the importance of understanding and working with emotions.

Michael Collins
Managing Director