Tracy Mauro

Focuses on ways of building a sense of community in organizations after the September 11, 2002 terrorist attacks in the United States. Views of management on community-building; Impact of community-building on employees; Effect of the approach on job performance.

Helping Organizations Build Community

Given the talent management industry’s relatively short evolution and the vagaries of economic trends that are difficult to operate within—not to mention accurately predict—how can talent management firms adjust their growth strategies to ensure their long-term sustainability? The strategic growth pundits like Michael Porter, Tracy and Wiersema, Hamel and Prahalad, Jim Collins, and more recently Lafley et. al. all seem to point to a couple of consistent themes, namely focus, differentiation, delivery, and industry knowledge.In The Discipline of Market Leaders, Tracy and Wiersema identify the three disciplines of market leaders as customer intimacy, operational excellence, and product leadership and are quick to mention that organizations need to select one of these on which to focus and thus differentiate themselves from the competition. They note that very few successful enterprises have been successful at even two of these strategies simultaneously.Porter’s Competitive Advantage defines cost, differentiation, and focus as the three generic strategies, and in Competing for the Future, Hamel and Prahalad discuss reinventing industries and regenerating strategies by shaping the future industry structure, and competing for core competence leadership by effectively ensuring industry foresight and intellectual leadership. Much like Hamel and Prahalad before them, Kim and Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Strategy focuses on value innovation by creating uncontested market space, making competition irrelevant, capturing new demand, breaking the value-cost trade-off, and pursuing differentiation and low cost.Jim Collins, in his recent books Good to Great and Great By Choice, highlights the importance of strong leaders and their teams with the concepts of Level 5 Leadership and 10X Leadership, respectively. And, more recently Lafley, et.al., in their Harvard Business Review article, “Bringing Science to the Art of Strategy,” address how to narrow down novel strategic options to the one choice most likely to succeed through a focused seven-step scientifically rigorous process. Certainly, there are many more strategic growth patterns, but regardless which is chosen, the commonalities are greater than the differences. Let’s first look at the idea of “focus” as a growth strategy for talent management firms.It is easy for a basically entrepreneurial-led industry to chase the proverbial next shiny object. Indeed, what sometimes makes such ventures successful is that they have a vision for the future that often takes them astray from the central theme and focus of their business. Yet, too many firms have moved away from their core capability to their—if not total demise—certainly stunted growth. Some years ago, a relatively large traditional business strategy consulting firm thought it could ride out the peaks and valleys of its consulting business, acquiring a firm that developed and delivered executive-level training programs. It hired very capable and experienced people to create a new division and expected its high-level client contacts would provide an easy path to purchase decisions. What it didn’t totally understand, however, was the true value proposition of its consulting vis-à-vis its training businesses. Nor did it realize the costs for producing, inventorying, and marketing the latter’s materials. The acquired firm’s cost structure just didn’t fit the acquirer’s labor model, so when people in this division didn’t show billable hours, they were immediately branded as sloughing off. As expected, the training division had a short life span.Similarly, many years later, another strategy consulting firm merged with a traditional custom training business, assuming that its sixty-some consultants would be readily able to sell the training programs around leadership, sales, and service. However, those consultants weren’t motivated to sell training because it worked against their building up billable hours. They didn’t really care to understand how their clients would benefit from these new services, and as it turned out, their clients weren’t the buyers of training. Several years later it became clear that little-to-no value was being created by merging the two firms, so they severed their ties.A third example involved a large loyalty marketing consulting firm buying a training company on the premise that adding a training and education capability would enable their clients’ employees and customers to be better educated on the loyalty programs put in place. Again, with an already existing, large, worldwide salesforce, it was thought it would be easy to open the necessary doors for this additional offer. Four years later, when it was clear this strategy deferred their focus, they divested the training business. In each of these cases, the consistent issue that caused failure was the lack of focus on what these firms did best, or, as once characterized, their inability or unwillingness to “stick to their knitting.”What examples can you offer where focus was an extraordinarily successful strategy for a talent management firm? What examples can be offered where lack of focus was responsible for a firm’s lack of growth or even total failure? Please share in the comment section below.Check out Steve’s full series, Managing and Growing Talent Management Firms.

Growing Talent Management Firms: Focus

What does “leadership development done right” really mean? Here are characteristics of successful leadership programs to get you on track:Make it more than a workshop or a one-and-done process. Done right, it is a journey of learnings that helps leaders grow continuously over time. It’s a mix of both macro and micro learning to build skills and engage your leaders.Meet leaders during their time of need. Your program needs to be relevant and answer the challenges that your leaders have right now. Why? Leadership development is most effective when people get the right development at the right moment. Whether they are having a tough conversation with a team member or changing roles, leaders need development to help them face what they’re dealing with in the moment.Set it up to work the way your people work. With many people working remotely or hybrid, your leadership development programs should be set up to use the virtual classroom. And remember: The virtual classroom is not a webinar; it offers all the experiences of an in-person classroom, without physical handshakes and travel costs.Consider how your leaders like to learn. Give your leaders their development in the training types they want most. What’s clear is that leaders prefer a blend of modalities, including a mix of classroom learning with self-directed options and development assignments.Prove its impact. During the planning phases of your program, consider how you will measure the impact of your leadership development program and prove return on investment (ROI).Allow time for practice. An effective leadership program goes beyond theory. Ensure there is plenty of time for skills practice in a safe space with peers and on the job.Personalize it. Give leaders access to self-insight tools such as assessments, so they can identify strengths and gaps. Then allow them to pick development resources that match where they need to improve.Benefits of Leadership Development Done RightThe most important goal of leadership development is to change behavior. Leaders must identify their deficits and derailers. They must do things differently and develop new skills. When behaviors change, business benefits emerge. Valuable outcomes such as increasing revenue, changing culture, or leading transformation start with leaders who have the skills to take the right actions.Companies that invest in their leaders can expect to become more competitive, better able to attract and retain talent, and more likely to have long-term success.Leadership Development Is Life-ChangingLeadership development done right is impactful for organizations, but it can also be life-changing at the individual level.We’ve heard countless stories from clients and associates over the years about how becoming a better leader has changed lives. At a recent industry conference, an attendee shared what they learned about core skills during leadership training 15 years ago. The attendee recited the five most important principles from that training and how they still use them regularly during interactions with friends, family, and colleagues. They said these skills made leadership—and life—easier.Learn more about the benefits of leadership development done right by reading DDI’s blog.

Tracy Mauro

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