Today’s executives face an increasing battle to acquire the leadership talent needed to ensure the long-term success of the organisations they lead. This applies not only to commercial organisations but also to government agencies and departments.
Many organisations address this challenge by focusing on the external labour market, often with mixed success. We find that this challenge is further compounded by well intentioned but outdated thinking in relation to internal talent identification and development.
Many involved in both external and internal selection hold the view that:
- Current performance is the best predictor of potential in a new role
- Workplace behaviour is best assessed through interviewing, reference checking and assessment centre activities
- Personality assessments add little value in the overall process
- Leadership and management skills can be learned in much the same way as most other technical or business-related skills
In many situations such thinking has led to inaccurate appraisals of leadership potential and costly development solutions with little to show for the effort. That’s why we promote a different view. We believe that such decisions should be based on evidence just like any other important business decision. Over the years we have established an enviable track record in providing evidence that reveals the true capability of external and internal candidates.
We achieve this by utilising a discrete number of empirically based selection tools in combination with specialised interview techniques and analysis. Our methodology is at the forefront of applied research in this field and provides a more informed selection decision in a fraction of the time compared to alternative methods.
Over the last decade we have developed the capacity to quickly and accurately identify those individuals who posses the critical attributes necessary for high performance in a variety of business critical roles.