More on Hamel: Five Models for Business Innovation

By Michael Fitzgerald

November 29th, 2007 @ 1:17 pm


Categories: Management, Strategy

Tags: Innovation, Manager, Hamel, Workforce Management, Leadership, Human Resources, Management, Michael Fitzgerald

In the first two parts of his “Future of Management,” Gary Hamel has been a witty, engaging visionary, beguiling and impressing managers into thinking they must change (indeed, I find myself randomly rethinking my own approaches to problematic issues here at Fitzgerald Enterprises).

In part three, the professor begins his pep talk. He wants to inspire managers, especially those not at the highest levels of a company, to get out there and change. And change is hard and change is costly and change means challenge. It will not be a snap of the fingers. But imagine (and he uses the word in the way a New Age guru would have a student visualize), imagine the Future of Management, your Future, manager.

Imagine that your company is not the company of today, but the company of tomorrow, without hierarchy, without naysayers who reject change, endlessly innovative and open to new ideas, where the talent rises to the top and the budget goes to where it should. And imagine the profits!

For instance, he cites the example of Semco, a Brazilian company that has 3000 employees, all of whom decide when they’re going to work, how many hours they’ll work and, in many cases, what they’ll be paid. It has no organization chart, it has almost no managers. Its turnover rate is 1 percent. It’s a very successful firm.

Hamel argues that to reinvent companies in this mold, or in that of Google or W.L. Gore or Whole Foods, draw inspiration not from the business world, but from elsewhere. Five elsewheres, in fact.
Life, which has evolved from the simplicity to immense diversity (thus the business manager should think things like: experimentation beats planning, the broader the gene pool the better)
Markets, which are flexible (a market is better at change than a hierarchy, and opens the door for innovators)
Democracy, which is built around activism (leaders are accountable to the governed, everyone has a right to dissent)
Faith, which gives life meaning (set a mission employees care about)
Cities, where serendipity can occur (ideas can come from everywhere in a diverse place)

At the end of this extended cheer, he tosses in a caveat —it will take time to reinvent your company.

He has one more section in the book, and that will be the subject of my next post.

Gary Hamel: Don’t Be a Dinosaur

By Michael Fitzgerald

November 30th, 2007 @ 12:11 pm

Categories: Management

Tags: IBM Corp., Gary Hamel, Strategic Planning, Operational Accounting, Strategy, Management, Finance, Michael Fitzgerald

Gary Hamel ends his ‘Future of Management’ with a two-chapter ‘how-to’ section, aptly titled ‘Building the Future of Management.’

The first looks closely at two real-world attempts to create more innovative companies. Hamel starts with IBM’s efforts to take its world-beating research and turn it into new lines of business, instead of repeating mistakes like the router and the relational database, both IBM inventions that mint money for others. This initiative was started by a frustrated Lou Gerstner (see the 2nd item from this page in IBM’s 2000 annual report How we manage our portfolio for better value ) and continues today (here’s an interesting look from 2005 from Fast Company, Building a Better Skunkworks). Hamel sets up various problems in developing a new line of business, like the tendency to kill a new venture due to budget pressure, and shows how IBM has tried to address these. At the end, he assembles five broader lessons managers can learn from IBM’s experiences. He gives IBM the benefit of the doubt for having changed its culture to one that is much more nurturing to innovations and credits these changes with helping IBM’s revenue to weather the sale of key businesses, such as its PC operation (IBM’s revenues are down from 2005, when it sold the PC business, but after two years of being flat at about $91 billion, company revenues were up 7 percent through the nine months ended Sept. 30).

Hamel projects a brighter future for IBM because it has so gamely wrestled with a difficult management task.

Of course, IBM’s CEOs backed this project. So his second section showcases how a vice president with no mandate and no budget turned his company on to harnessing the wisdom of its internal crowds. That would be Best Buy, where a marketing VP named Jeff Severts got a series of internal forecasting markets off the ground, despite both a lack of funding and significant internal opposition from important power blocs in the company. What Severts pulled off is well worth a read to those who think only the CEO can get a company to embrace new ideas. Hamel tops it off with five more lessons. (here’s a link to a Best Buy page on its market, which it calls TagTrade).

Hamel ends his book with a chapter titled, lamentably, ‘Forging Management 2.0.’ The title is lamentable not least because ‘2.0’ has at this point all the oomph of slapping “New and improved!” on some box. Nonetheless, keep reading. Hamel sums up with a sweeping recap of his argument that the business world is going through a sweeping change in the way it is organized. Those who have relied on hierarchy and free markets must understand the power of global communications networks that work in real time. To paraphrase the historian Bruce Catton, in such an environment, managers have become masters of their own fate, but they may not have had the proper training. Hamel doesn’t have all the answers – he says at the end that he wrote this book “not to predict the future of management, but to help you invent it.”

It is, then, a manager’s self-help book to the future. And it is a natural follow-on to a different ‘Future of’ book published by Harvard University Press, Tom Malone’s “The Future of Work” (2004). Malone laid out an argument that the companies of today, with their vast size, their centralization, their hulking hierarchies are “merely a temporary aberration – an interlude of centralization – between periods of largely decentralized organizations.”

In other words, the 20th century was the Jurassic era of industrial organization. The industrial dinosaurs are headed to extinction. Smart managers, though, can turn their companies into mammals.

What Hamel has done is take that premise and made it easier for managers to try to implement it. His battery of questions, to-dos, and homework are meant to help you help yourself. It is, then Hamel has given us the Purpose-Driven Life for business managers.

Seeing Into Gary Hamel’s ‘Future’

By Michael Fitzgerald

November 20th, 2007 @ 1:31 pm

Categories: Management, Strategy

Tags: Innovation, Manager, Leadership, Strategy, Management, Michael Fitzgerald

It’s almost pompous to title a book “The Future Of” anything. The future usually flummoxes forecasters of all stripes, though they may get pieces of things right. In fact, an executive I was interviewing once told me he saved time by not reading anything that aimed to predict the future, and I’ve found that a useful tip.

Still, if you’re a manager, it’s hard not to at least look at a book like Gary Hamel’s new book “The Future of Management,” written with Bill Breen. Hamel holds up management innovation as the pinnacle of the corporate innovation process, ahead of operations innovation, product or service innovation and strategic innovation. But creating real management innovation, he says, is a huge challenge.

Part of the problem, Hamel claims, is that management is nearing an historic shift in its practice, and what it will mean.

Hem argues that management remains a top-down, 1960s affair that is not capable of dealing with the 21st century economy, with its rapid market shifts, low barriers to entry, virtualized companies, digitalization, globalization, and other challenges. Managers, he argues, are and always have been focused on efficiency.

He thinks that makes them focused on commodity techniques that any organization can duplicate. As he notes: “there is a growing swarm of consultants who work long days transferring best practices from exceptional companies to mediocre ones.”

He also attacks companies for “intellectual feudalism” and “creative apartheid,” which assumes that good ideas can only come from the top, or within specific departments (though he also says managers are not expected to innovate themselves, only to implement the good ideas of others).

Clever phrases like these make the book fun to read, though it does slip into management speak, like “Calibrating Your Agenda for Management Innovation.” He also at one point refers to Schumpeterian competition and Darwinian competition in the same paragraph, as if to cover all his bases.

Still, he does a good job of whacking management approaches as they are. Then he shifts to Dr. Phil mode – how can managers break their bad habits and create innovative companies, where every employee works hard for the company?

In my next post, we’ll look at whether his answers seem like they could work.

Gary Hamel’s Ideal Companies

By Michael Fitzgerald

November 24th, 2007 @ 9:13 pm


Categories: Management, Strategy

Tags: Google Inc., Whole Foods, Gary Hamel, Gore, Leadership, Strategy, Management, Michael Fitzgerald

The second segment of Gary Hamel’s “The Future Of Management” features case studies of three companies with unusual management structures: Whole Foods, W.L. Gore and Google. All of them have been written about heavily in the business press over the years, and so some of Hamel’s work may seem familiar (an excerpt also ran recently in Fortune).

Hamel boils down each firm’s management approach into a ‘management innovation challenge’ table, featuring three challenges and three answers.

Thus, for Whole Foods one such challenge was ‘how do you empower people by managing less while retaining discipline and focus?’ The Whole Foods Answer: ‘give employees a large dose of discretion; provide them with the information they need to make wise decisions; and then hold them accountable for results.’

Or, How do you make everyone in your company an innovator? Gore’s answer: do away with hierarchy; continually reinforce the belief that innovation can come from anyone; co-locate employees with diverse skills to facilitate the creative process.

Or How do you speed up the shift from investment in existing projects to new ones? Google’s answer: a formalized process of giving people 30 percent of their time to projects that are not specifically related to their current jobs, and giving people the freedom to do market experiments to build a case for their ideas.

Hamel picked these three companies because they’re big and unusual. They are also, as he acknowledges, companies that started out determined not to structure themselves like typical companies. So the question is whether a typical company can remake itself like one of these firms without killing itself in the process.

Hamel claims the typical company can, and in my next post I’ll look at his prescription for change.

Why Trademarks Are Important


Almost one of the last things you think about when you are establishing a brand is the question of service marks and trademarks. That may be especially true when the brand you are establishing - consciously or not so much - is your own.

That is particularly important with social media, as we learned not long ago from the Seth Godin case on Twitter. Is someone else reaping the fruits of your hard work?

You can find definitions of trademark here, here, and here. However, how did I find this information? By running a search. If someone is looking to find a resource that does “X”, they will use the same scientific method. You may stand out by having a registered mark next to the name of your business.

You may also stand out more on the force of your use of a certain expression as associated with your brand. De facto burnishing that expression in the minds of your potential customers and partners as associated with you. In other words, you can choose whether to hinder your idea because of trademark issues or agree to spread it anyway. Seth riffed about it here.

There are some very good ideas in his post:
- You can trademark just about any word or phrase, but that doesn't mean it will hold up. - One thing that has changed dramatically about trademarks is the world of domains. - Every trademark that turns generic does so for the same reason: because it's the easiest way to describe something.

And it is flattering, too when someone else adopts your idea or a name that is very similar to yours. What do you do when you find someone who has their ID and brand name almost exactly like yours? I posed the question on LinkedIn and received some preliminary answers:

Todd Jordan said: “First off, keep an eye open to see if they are copying your content or stealing your contacts away. Second, contact them and ask if they are a fan.”

Joe Raasch added: “Intent. What was the intent of the copycat? Copying is a sincere form of flattery if it is done with positive intent. If it is done with intent to steal business, contacts, or plagiarize a good name, that is wrong.”

Marc Aniballi contributed: “This is unavoidable as soon as you "get big." Or at least big enough. You can only minimize the damage. Make sure your clients know that a copycat exists and not to get duped. Clearly communicate YOUR id in all places to ensure that mistakes are minimized. Otherwise, there is little you can do to stop the other person unless they start to misrepresent themselves explicitly as you. And even then, you need proof.”

I know organizations are on top of trademarking laws and usage. There is legal help on hand. If you’re not, I recommend you make inquiries. What about individuals? With self-publishing and social media raising so many new individual profiles, it would be worth looking into it a bit more. And don't forget to look into the meaning of the phraseology and words you are planning to use if your business is global.

What is your experience?

http://www.actioncoach.com/library_article_01.php

YOU ARE WHAT YOU FEED YOUR MIND
By ActionCOACH Giles Patterson

"You are what you feed your mind." Dr. Frederick Eikerenkoetter
It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. St. Matthew 4:4
A SCIENCE OF LIVING PRINCIPLE

You will never get any further in life than the ideas in your mind. It is important to feed your mind only right ideas.

There's a story I like to tell of a hot dog vendor who sold very fine hot dogs by the side of the road. His business was booming, people loved his hot dogs, and they bought more and more. The man believed in his business and the need for someone to do what he was doing. This man was so busy advertising and selling his hot dogs and making lots of money, that he didn't even have time to read the newspaper or listen to the radio. Consequently, he never heard a word about a predicted recession or the need to cut back to save the economy. As long as he continued to offer his delicious hot dogs, his customers bought them. He kept selling, and they kept buying.

Then one day his well-educated son TOLD him that an economic recession was coming. His son TOLD him that people wouldn't have enough money to buy his hot dogs. And the hot dog vendor BELIEVED this, so he quit advertising. He quit trying to sell his tasty hot dogs. He started ordering less. He even went so far as to take down the sign at his roadside stand. And sure enough, people stopped coming to him. People stopped buying his hot dogs, and he went broke. Then he thought to himself. "How smart my son is, predicting this."

Everything in life comes from the ideas in your mind.

This story gives us an idea of how powerful your mind is. If you start believing something, it will happen. It doesn't make any difference whether your thought is good or bad, it will come about if you think it will come about. Those of you who follow my teachings have heard me say this many times. But it is such an important principle that it bears repeating. Everything in life comes from the ideas in your mind. Everything.

In other words, the experiences in your outer world come from the inner world of your thought. So be careful what you think, and be careful what you say. Feed yourself, feed your mind, right ideas. Never feed anything to your mind that you don't want in your experience.

Business Health Check

Many businesses can appear perfectly healthy, even when basic business practices may be working against the main goals of the company.

Whether your business needs improved organization and practices, or if you think things are functioning normally but just want to be sure, it’s important to evaluate your business with a Business Health Check.

Just as your body needs regular maintenance (and possibly repair), so does your business. Give your business a checkup and gain some invaluable insight into how it currently ranks in terms of time, team and money.

You’ll then receive a FREE report based on your answers, prepared by our team of highly skilled ActionCOACH Business Coaches.

Since this detailed report bases results on your company’s business model with regards to your business’ four core areas, the results indicate exactly which areas could use improvement.

After you look at your results, we urge you to contact us directly in order to find out how we can help improve and maintain the health of your company through our business coaching services.


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Time: How do you manage your time?

1.) Is there enough time in your day to get your job done?

Yes. My days are well planned and I complete everything I set out to do each day.
Most of the time. Occasionally there are things that don't get completed.
Some of the time. There are many times when things don't get completed.
Rarely. I struggle to keep up with my workload.
Never. I feel completely overwhelmed with my workload.

2.) How many hours on average would you say you work per week?

Less than 15 hours per week.
Between 16 and 30 hours per week.
Between 31 and 40 hours per week.
Between 41 and 50 hours per week.
Far too many!

3.) How do you currently manage your workload?

My days are largely disorganized and unscheduled with many interruptions.
I tackle each task as it comes to hand.
I have an assistant to handle details ensuring I have time to focus on the bigger picture
I plan ahead but am flexible enough to allow for unexpected challenges
I prioritize my tasks by level of urgency and/or importance


4.) Are you able to spend quality time with the people you care about?

I always set aside time in the week to spend quality time with my family and friends.
I spend time on weekends with my family and friends.
Only if it is a special occasion will I make time to see my family and friends.
I can't seem to find the time to see my family and friends; my business is my number one priority.
I am so exhausted after work; I don't want to spend time socializing and make excuses not to spend time with family and friends.


5.) Do you use time in meetings to your advantage?

Most of my meetings seem to go in circles and achieve nothing.
It is difficult to plan meetings around my current workload.
Meetings are arranged on an as needed basis with no set agenda.
Meetings are scheduled in advance - spur of the moment encounters are avoided.
Every meeting accomplishes some specific objective or outcome.


6.) What time do you take out of the day for yourself?

I take time out to exercise regularly.
I put aside time to enjoy my personal interests and hobbies.
I schedule time for my breaks.
I try to leave work behind me at a certain time each day.
I don't have time to relax.

Team: Do your team work with you or against you?

1.) How do your employees pull together as a team?

My employees do not work together as a team.
There are some personality clashes which affect the productivity of the team.
The team works effectively together most of the time.
The team always remains positive and does not tolerate negativism among its members.
There is synergy among all members of the team.

2.) Do your team members identify with your business?

Most of my team show no interest in the business and are only here to earn an income.
Some of my team knows and understands our unique selling proposition.
The majority of my team knows and understands our unique selling proposition.
Every member of my team is a walking/talking advertisement for the company.


3.) What level of communication occurs within your team?

All of the team communicate effectively with each other.
Most of the team communicate effectively with each other.
Occasionally the team will experience communication breakdown.
There are severe communication challenges within the team.
My employees work independently and do not communicate with each other.

4.) What level of understanding do your team members have about their role?

Each team member has a detailed written position description and undergoes regular performance reviews.
Each team member has a position description; however these are not reviewed or updated.
Team members are verbally briefed on their duties on the day of commencement.
Team members are expected to hit the ground running with little or no instruction.
No one understands their role and how they impact on the business.

5.) Do you consult your team members for suggestions for improvements?

I would never consider an idea put forth by a team member.
Team members are encouraged to submit suggestions but I would only introduce an idea if I believed in it.
I will always trial an idea even if I don't believe it will work.
Team members are encouraged to submit suggestions which are rarely implemented.
I regularly introduce into the business new ideas of improvement that a team member has suggested.


6.) Do you let your team members know when you are proud of their work?

Yes - I make a conscious effort to tell them.
Yes - but I only make the effort when I feel like it.
I tell everyone else in the team but that person.
No - I don't encourage my team.
No - I am not proud of any of my team's work.
 

Money: Is your financial performance at its peak?

1.) Does your company stick to a clearly defined budget?

Yes. The budget is always adhered to.
Most of the time. There are some occasions where the budget is exceeded.
Some of the time. The budget is considered more of a guide.
Rarely. The budget is generally not followed.
No. We don't use a budget.
 
2.) What financial importance would you place on getting new business in the next 12 months?

I don't need any new customers.
Not important.
Important but not critical.
Critical to the survival of my business.

3.) How often do you complete your financial statements?

Weekly.
Monthly.
Quarterly.
Six monthly.
Yearly.

4.) How has your profit margin performed this past financial year?

Increased.
Decreased.
Remained Constant.
Not sure.

5.) What is your cashflow outlook for the next 12 months?

A positive cashflow result is forecast.
A negative cashflow result is forecast.
I never have enough cash to pay my bills.
I don't monitor my cashflow.

6.) How does your company set it's prices?

Add x% markup to the cost price.
Undercut the competition.
Estimate market value.
Charge what the market will bear.
I'm not involved with price setting.
 
Systems: Do you have the systems in place to efficiently run your business?

1.) Does your company stick to a clearly defined business plan?

Yes. We follow clearly defined goals and review our business plan every 90 days.
Yes. We have a business plan in place which is followed most of the time.
No. The business plan is rarely referred to after it has been set.
Our business plan does not have clearly defined goals with achievable deadlines.
We don't have a formal business plan.

2.) How organized are your company's systems and procedures?

The company runs like clockwork as a result of highly efficient systems and procedures.
Some systems and procedures are working but there is still room for improvement.
The systems and procedures are out of date and need updating to become efficient.
There are no systems and procedures in place.
Employees set their own procedures for getting the job done.

3.) Do you have procedures in place to systemize the people and education aspect of your business?

I have not formally systemized the people and education aspect of my business.
We have a consistent recruitment method in place for finding new team members.
We run an ongoing training system for all employees.
There is a defined system for recognition and remuneration of team members.
There is a formal system for conflict resolution in place

4.) What delivery and distribution procedures have you implemented for systemizing processes in your business?

I have not formally systemized delivery and distribution in my business.
We forecast customer demand to plan for stock movements.
A complete purchasing and stock receiving system is in place.
We run paperless delivery and distribution systems.
We complete regular stocktakes.

5.) How do you test and measure the performance of your business?

We survey our clients regularly to determine how we can better serve them.

Sales processes are managed on a regular basis and measures are taken to ensure quotas are met.

We track our leads; our client conversion rate and the number of transactions per client continuously.

The company is driven by both quality and profit; and both are measured regularly.

I don't test and measure the company's performance.


6.) What technological procedures have you implemented for systemising processes in your business?

I have not formally systemized the technological side of my business.
Operations are (for the most part) fully computerized.
We schedule and complete regular maintenance on all equipment.
We use computer invoicing and credit monitoring.
The business has a computer backup system to ensure the integrity of company information.

http://www.mentoringandcoaching.com/?gclid=CJrT3_-RzpECFQgaewodzWWe2w

Leadership Development is Self Development

There has been much written about leadership over the last 30 years.


From 1975 to 1995, according to the Library of Congress, books on leadership appeared at a rate of about 24 a year. In the past 10 years, that output has doubled. That's a new book on leadership every week, or enough over the decade to wallpaper every classroom at Harvard Business School. We've been graced recently with leadership lessons from everyone from Jesus to George W. to Geronimo to Colin Powell.


Yet, becoming an effective leader does not happen in the library or classroom but on-the-job with the help of a mentor or coach. Leadership development is not an event but a behavioral process of self development. And self development happens best with the assistance of a personal guide to allow your perceptions to evolve.



As an active participant in the coaching process, you are required to:

Understand executive coaching, what it can accomplish and its limitations
Realize why specific strategies are necessary to overcome special barriers to executive development
Decide whether and how coaching is likely to help you become a more effective leader
Discover how to assess potential coaches and choose the best fit for your particular needs
Recognize the critical steps in the coaching process and learn how to manage them with the aid of your coach
Learn not only how coaching can help you change your own behavior, but also how it can help you influence colleagues to perceive you in the way you want to be perceived

Soft Skills Trump Hard Skills
February 12th, 2008 | Michael Q. Pink

For the next while, I want to address the great need in the body of Christ and certainly in my own life for what I call the “soft skills.” Hard skills include things like workmanship, oratory ability, logistic ability, planning skills, and many, many more. But without soft skills, we are in great danger of a fall (Prov 16:18) and the loss of all we have worked so hard for. Worse yet… we may keep what we worked for and lose our family, our friends, our soul. (Mark 8:36)

Soft skills are so important that Solomon names two key soft skills (humility and the fear of the Lord) and claims they are the way to riches and honor and life. But then there are the fruit of the Spirit with love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self control. These are exactly the kind of soft skills I am speaking of.

I think it best to begin with humility because when we succeed in business (or even sometimes in our efforts to succeed), we can easily become prideful, boastful, and self-important. I know that is something I must fight. I don’t like to admit that, but it is true and I fear the consequences of a proud or haughty spirit. So what are the signs of lack of humility or pridefulness? We shall examine a few. But today I ask you… Will you walk on this journey with me? Will you contribute to the discussion? Specifically, will you share your insights on the telltale signs of pridefulness in our own life? I look forward to your thoughts…

An Exclusive Conversation with Zig Ziglar
February 14th, 2008 | Michael Q. Pink

Congratulations my friend,

You’re on the short list.

You’re among an exclusive group of leaders with a free pass to see a conversation that will change the way you look at your life.

Undoubtedly, you’ve heard of the guy we’re talking to. His name is Zig Ziglar.

There’s a good chance you might be among the millions of people who have seen Zig speak. If not, you’ve probably read one of his many best-selling books, or read his syndicated articles. However, our interview with Ziglar isn’t about promoting conferences or selling books or CDs.

It’s about life.

Few people have a more unique or inspiring view on life than Zig Ziglar. At 81 years of age, Zig Ziglar has a joyful perspective about life that’s contagious - even in times of difficulty.

Last year, Zig had a terrible accident that left his family wondering if he’d make it. Tumbling down a steep flight of stairs, he hit his head on the marble floor below. Since his fall, he’s had to endure daily physical therapy, and has dealt with ongoing struggles both with his balance and his memory.

The circumstances have changed for Ziglar, but his wisdom and heart haven’t. In fact, since his accident, he returned to his speaking tour. His presentation is dramatically different, but the reaction has been astounding. Thousands of people have expressed gratitude for the opportunity to learn from the wisdom that Ziglar is sharing. People who have seen him speak before AND after his accident have remarked that there’s something different - something extra special - about what he has to say.

Not long ago, I was privileged to have the honor of being invited to visit the Ziglar headquarters and lead the morning devotions for the team. Afterward, I spent the morning chatting with Zig Ziglar and his son Tom Ziglar - the CEO of the Ziglar corporation. We had an intimate conversation, and I was able to ask some very specific questions. Questions about business life and family life. Success and failure. Questions about his faith. Zig’s answers were directed specifically to us, the Christian Business community, and Zig and Tom shared insights that you won’t hear on the podium.

This is a special interview that you don’t want to miss. It will be 1 PM EST next Thursday, February 21. Click here to get your free pass!

Sincerely,

Michael Q. Pink, Founder
Selling Among Wolves, LLC

Best Practices - Josh Bersin Published February 2008

Leadership Development in 2008
Josh Bersin

Leadership development continues to be one of the fastest-growing areas of corporate training. Spanning programs from management training to executive development and cultivating high potentials, leadership development consumes almost 25 percent of all corporate training dollars. Today’s emphasis on building the leadership pipeline makes this investment more important than ever.

After two years of research, we have found six best practices common to highly successful leadership development initiatives.

1. Strong executive engagement: The most important practice of all is to obtain the engagement of top leaders and managers. Their commitment means that the program will be highly regarded, aligned with corporate strategy and focused on the right business issues. At Textron, the top leadership team participates in each major element of the leadership development program.

2. Tailored leadership competencies: Successful leadership development programs are based on identified leadership competencies. By isolating and agreeing upon leadership competencies most important to your business, you will have the foundation for leadership development, as well as succession planning, career development and other talent-related processes. All high-impact programs we’ve studied are built on well-established leadership competency models.

3. Alignment with business strategy: Leadership development is far more than management training. As leaders move up in the organization, their skills must shift from people and project management to strategic business and operations management. Organizations such as Agilent, Aetna and Cisco focus heavily on company-specific business strategies in their leadership programs. Such programs cannot be totally comprised of off-the-shelf content. Furthermore, leadership development programs must be included in business conversations and planning. At New York Mellon, the top 10 executives meet quarterly to review the efforts of the leadership development group and how it is supporting the company’s current business initiatives.

4. Target all levels of leadership: While the term “leadership” may not seem to apply to first-line managers, we find that high-impact programs have elements that apply to every level of management. At Shell, line managers participate in a program called Shell Life, which includes basic training in coaching, change management, delegation and development. Functional managers participate in a program that focuses on business leadership, business management, vision and other leadership qualities. Also, top business leaders are involved in a third program, which focuses on Shell’s business management and uses external education and consultants to train top global leaders.

5. Apply a comprehensive and ongoing approach: No sound leadership development program consists solely of an instructor-led training event. Programs must include developmental assignments, 360-degree assessments, meetings with global counterparts, case studies, external education and a wide variety of e-learning and other media to give leaders a complete experience. People learn to lead by doing, so the best leadership development programs focus heavily on experiential learning.

6. Integrate with talent management: To build a sustainable leadership pipeline, organizations must implement programs to assess leadership potential (part of the performance management process), identify successors to existing leaders and place these individuals into the right development programs as part of the company’s regular business practices. In fact, one of the biggest indicators of a first-class leadership development program is a set of established practices and a corporate culture that encourages development throughout the enterprise.

Those companies with weak leadership pipelines could well suffer in the years ahead, when talent grows increasingly scarce. I encourage you to think about leadership development initiatives and these six practices as you plan for 2008

Josh Bersin is the principal and founder of Bersin & Associates, with more than 25 years of experience in corporate solutions, training and e-learning.

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You know engagement's important...but how do you actually do it?

The importance of employee engagement and the link between an engaged workforce and the bottom line has long been established. But what does employee engagement look like in practice? And what programs and initiatives should you be leading?

Melcrum’s latest practitioner’s guide, Essential techniques for employee engagement, tells you how to implement proven programs to build a committed workforce. It guides you through the 4 most important techniques for engaging employees and shows you how to successfully introduce your own initiatives. 100% practical, this guide is the perfect tool for anyone interested in improving employee engagement within their company.

Order your copy now and learn how to engage your company’s employees by:
Establishing employee action teams to create an active, two-way communication program
Using Appreciative Inquiry to construct inspiring and energizing views of the organization
Creating message maps to communicate clear, credible and compelling messages to your audiences
Introducing storytelling to get to the heart of the organization's culture, build trust and develop powerful new communication platforms
Plus, get exclusive research into employee engagement at global companies – use this ammunition to benchmark and prove the case for
investment


What's in this practical guide?

The 4 key techniques for engaging employees: what they are, how to apply them and practical tools for getting up and running in your organization:
Employee action teams
Message maps
Storytelling
Appreciative Inquiry


Each chapter is written by an international employee engagement expert specializing in their the particular technique:
Linda Dulye, President, L.M. Dulye & Co.
David Grossman, President, dg&a
Tony Quinlan, Principal, Narrate
Caryn Vanstone, Consultant and Business Director, Ashridge Consulting

Plus, an introduction from Karen Horn, Senior Vice President, Internal Communication, Washington Mutual


Case studies include:
O2
DRS Technologies Inc.
Royal Mail
UK Government
Rolls-Royce Engine Services
McDonald's


Exclusive data from global Melcrum research into employee engagement, including:
Organizations' approach to employee engagement
Which function is responsible for engagement?
How do organizations measure engagement?
Which engagement techniques are being used?
What organizations are planning to introduce in the next 12 months


The guide is a "how-to" for implementing the 4 most important employee engagement techniques. Each section is written by the leading expert in their field, who takes you through how you can use their technique in the most practical way possible.