Building Great Talent and Effective Teams
by Dr Marianne Broadbent, EWK International
Dr Marianne Broadbent is a Senior Partner at EWK International, an innovative
global, executive search and leadership capability group enabling clients to make
their leadership team the best it can be. She can be contacted on +61 3 8626 0625 or
marianne.broadbent@ewki.com
Great CIOs need Great Teams
The era of the ‘hero CEO’ has now passed, and so
should the era of the ‘hero CIO’. Great leaders lead
great teams. They don’t do it on their own. They work
with their team, their peer colleagues and the rest of
the executive and CEO to set the vision and identify
what it takes to get there. They are dependent on
their team members for follow through and
dependent on their broader team to exercise
leadership that is consistent with the desired culture
and values of their organisation.
Two areas enable CIOs to build the ‘benchstrength’
that they need. The first is spending time and energy
on building their talent, on getting the right people
and developing them well. The second is a genuine
focus on improving how those people work together –
on taking into account and building real teams, not
just a group of direct reports.
Effective Talent and Team Management is
now a ‘Must Do’
Conscientious talent management and succession
planning is now a mainstream expectation for all
executives. Focusing on talent management is no
longer something to do when things slow down, but a
‘must do’ so that you can deal effectively with
growth, with changing or shifting demands, be they
to contain costs, develop innovative ways to delight
customers or integrate a newly acquired business.
But too many executives - and organisations
generally - continue to underestimate the risk they
place themselves and their organisations in by
thinking of talent management, succession planning
and team dynamics as something to focus on next
week, next month or next year.
In this paper we focus on these two areas. They are
interrelated in that great teams are enabled by
effective management of talent, as well as focusing on
team dynamics and mutual accountabilities.
So what is Talent Management? Why does it matter?
How does it help build great teams?
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© 2010 Arbiter Leadership Technologies
Case Example:
What if you want to take on a line of business role in your organisation ?
In conversation with a CIO recently (let’s call her Debra) we were discussing her future career
options. Debra had terrific experience as an IT professional and manager, including three years
working for a respected consulting firm (largely in the IT area), and was now concluding her third
year as CIO. While her performance was well regarded in the company, we agreed that if she
really wanted to be considered as a potential CEO she needed to have relevant and recent
experience managing a line of business and delivering on a P/L. She became very interested in the
option of taking on the position of General Manager of one of the company’s business lines, a
position which was becoming available due to an impending retirement.
My immediate question to Debra was what was the strength of her IT Leadership team? How
many potential internal candidates would there be for her CIO position? The question was really
about the potential risk she was proposing to her CEO in departing her current position. To what
extent could she honestly indicate that the risk was low because she had a very good team with
one or more individuals whom the CEO and his executive peers would be comfortable about
seeing ‘step up’ into the CIO position?
Debra blanched somewhat indicating that she was always going to get around to some serious
focus on the whole matter of succession planning, but there were always more urgent priorities.
While she had a good team, perhaps she hadn’t put the time and effort into careful talent
development and management. Two on the team could potentially ‘step up’, but not just yet. And
then there was the problem of the next layer down – the pipeline into the IT Leadership team,
which was a bit thin.
The immediate outcome was that Debra did not indicate an interest in the forthcoming business
division GM role to her CEO. Instead she indicated that she would be keen to take on such a role in
about two years, when her team had the ‘bench strength’ it needed so that several of her team
could be in the candidate pool for a search for a new CIO if she transferred to another position in
the company.
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© 2010 Arbiter Leadership Technologies
Good talent and team management
maximises organisational performance
and minimises risk
Debra’s experience (see p2) is not uncommon. If
you are a well regarded executive, your CEO and
peers want to know that you have managed the
company’s risk if you want an internal transfer,
or if you are unfortunate enough to be in an
accident, suffer serious illness or just decide its
time for a ‘sea change’. The best compliment
any executive can receive is that they have built
a sustainable team that is not dependent for its
success on one person – you as the leader.
Great talent will go to where it is appreciated,
valued, and encouraged to thrive. If you want
that talent to be part of your team – and remain
part of your team – it requires serious and
genuine focus on knowing and growing the
capabilities that you have. In the long term, it’s
much more effective to develop and nurture the
talent you have than constantly bringing new
people in, especially at a senior level. Sure, you
need some turnover to refresh a team, and
sometimes to help staff or backfill for new
developments, but constantly having to recruit
externally through lack of talent development
internally demoralizes people. It’s just poor
management.
Effective talent management requires
systematic focus on capabilities
Effective talent management starts with a
systematic approach to understanding the real
potential of your current talent pool. It’s more
than ensuring 360 degree reviews and
performance appraisals are completed each
year, and it’s more than sending messages by
skewing bonus pools for performance. If done
well, these are important sources of (hopefully)
critical and constructive feedback to team
members. But they usually don’t provide an
objective and in-depth review of an individual’s
real capabilities in the context of the potential
contribution to your organisation.
The essence of good talent management can be
summarised into four actions:
1. Gain objective and actionable insights into
your team’s - and their team’s – technical,
managerial and leadership capabilities
2. Act on those insights, not just once, but
constantly, taking a longitudinal and
integrated approach to tracking
developments over time
3. Identify or create development programs
tailored for individuals (and teams) to meet
your organisation’s needs
4. Go external for talent when you have to
(and use a well regarded Search firm to
assist you)
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© 2010 Arbiter Leadership Technologies
Case Example:
Gaining a quick understanding of Team
Capabilities
1. Gain objective and actionable insights
into capabilities
It’s hard to develop an individual’s capabilities if
you don’t really understand where they are right
now. As Leadership Consultants, EWK International
draws on a very grounded Capability Framework
built up through working with hundreds of
organisations and thousands of individuals globally
both through Leadership Capability and
Development Needs Assessments and Executive
Searches. Other organisations that operate in this
area will have their version of this. The purpose
here is simply to illustrate where and how these
approaches assist executives with the challenges
of talent management and succession planning.
An outline of the key steps in the usual process is
depicted in Figure 1 below. The actual approach is
customized for each organisation.
EWK International
‘Know
Janine was a newly appointed Business Technology
leader for a consumer goods firm. She needed to gain a
quick understanding of her team. We gave her feedback
initially on the organisational and structural changes she
was planning to make. When she had settled on the first
phase of new organisational arrangements and revised
positions, we worked with her staff to develop position
descriptions and a role-specific Capability Framework
for each. This framework identified the specific
leadership, management and technical requirements for
each role. Each member of the team, and then many of
their direct reports, was included in a process to
understand their track record and potential, particularly
in light of the new structure, focus and positions. In the
end the new team comprised the majority of the
previous incumbents, two from the next level down,
and two positions became the subject of an external
search due to lack of specific experience and capabilities
amongst the top 20 or so in the Business Technology
team.
and Grow’ your Teams’ Capabilities
Example: Applying the Leadership Insights Approach
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
Stage 6
Organ’l &
Mapping
Analysis
Custom
Capability
Framewrk &
Comms
Participant
Comms &
Data Capture
Assess’t
Interviews &
Analysis
Managem’t
Reporting &
Feedback
Individual
Reporting,
Feedback
• Custom
Capability
Framework
• Confirmed
Self Assess’t
material
• Informed
participants
• Data to
facilitate
Interviews,
Assessment
• External
View of
executives
• Confidential
report, each
participant
Input to:
• Org Design,
Resource
Planning,
Allocation
• Succession
Planning
Potential
Applications:
• Sound basis
for planning
assessment
© 2010 Arbiter Leadership Technologies
• Career , Prof
Development
• Personal
Development
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Figure 1: Know and Grow your Team Capabilities
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© 2010 Arbiter Leadership Technologies
This process is extremely helpful both for the organisation and for the individuals themselves. Depending on the
objectives and focus, we often include as part of the process individual Emotional Intelligence assessments. This is
usually done in an objective way using EI assessment such as those used by the Canadian based MHS group (see
Figure 2 below).
Depicted in that figure are the key areas of EI as assessed as part of that exercise which can be completed online by
participants. It can be particularly useful for those with a technology background to understand some of their key
behaviors and motivators. The learnings are often about the combination of attributes of an individual’s EI. The
process requires too a good facilitator who is able to assist individuals to put their EI in context and to work with the
strategies for improvement that usually come with EI individual reports.
2. Act on insights and take a longitudinal and
integrated approach to capability
development
When business technology leaders take on a ‘know and
grow’ approach it is critical not raise expectations that
then remain unfulfilled. When leadership capability and
development needs assessments are undertaken, the
results need to be acted on – and in a timely way. A
good leader knows there will be some hard decisions to
make and will make them.
Our experience is that when a process is transparent
and fair people welcome the results and the action.
Often you are surfacing what has been simmering under
the surface for years in finally recognising real talent
and contribution. It’s about making visible and tangible
what is often invisible but the source of well founded
mutterings. At the same time we find that others are
often relieved to have honest and helpful feedback that
enables them to make decisions they might have put off
for years.
EWK International
Understand your Emotional Intelligence
 Understand what EI
is and why it matters
 Consider completing
an EI Evaluation
(such as the BarOn
EQ-i offered by MHS)
Stress
Management
• Stress Tolerance
• Impulse Control
Adaptability
• Reality Testing
Intrapersonal
• Self Regard
• Emotional Self
Awareness
• Assertiveness
• Independence
• Self Actualisation
• Flexibility
Interpersonal
General Mood
• Optimism
• Happiness
• Interpersonal
Relationship
• Social
Responsibility
• Empathy
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© 2010 Arbiter Leadership Technologies and MHS
Figure 2 – Understanding your Emotional Intelligence
Organisations undertake a capability development assessment for different reasons. We worked with a global
energy company when a new CEO was appointed and shifted the balance of accountabilities – shifting much
more to the business units while retaining a better defined – but smaller - set of services from the headquarters
group. This meant that there were higher levels of capability required in the business units as their
accountabilities both broadened and deepened. We worked with them to identify the real capabilities and
development needs of the technology team at both the whole-of-organisation and business unit levels (see
Figure 3 below). This enabled them to get a much better understanding of different types of capabilities. While
this had an immediate impact on where some staff were deployed, it was also very useful when the Global
Financial Crisis hit and they had to work through which staff would be most effective in what locations. Their
business performed unevenly across business units and across the globe. A deeper knowledge of the capabilities
of team members meant that they were able to match needs with resources much more quickly than they would
have been able to do without undertaking the assessment process.
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© 2010 Arbiter Leadership Technologies
If you want to send a message to your team about
what really matters in terms of talent potential and
behaviours, it is important to ensure that there is
internal consistency in how you assess and develop
current staff, how you reward staff and what you look
for in new people to join the team. We are currently
working with a services provider to complement the
talent identification approaches they already have in
place. In some ways, they have been more focused on
talent management than other firms due to both
organic and acquisitive growth. But their efforts in this
area comprise a series of separate activities rather
than a holistic approach. We are assisting them to
integrate their currently disparate and disconnected
approaches to assessment for external searches, for
talent development and for appraisal.
3. Identify or create development programs
tailored for individual’s need to meet your
organisation’s needs
Usually the higher you go in organisations, the more
individual and specific development programs need to
be for individuals and organisations to really benefit.
They might include mentoring, perhaps from an
individual with a very different background, perhaps
from a colleague on the same level, or perhaps some
‘upwards’ mentoring from some Generation Y
professionals, especially if your organisation works in
consumer-related areas.
Development programs could include being part of a
team in another part of the organisation, being
seconded for 12 months to a new business, a
‘sabbatical’ to pursue a ‘pet project’, or acting as ‘chief
of staff’ for one of the executives. It could include a
short course at a national business school, or one
located elsewhere. There are many possibilities. The
key criterion is what is most likely to further develop
the capabilities of the individual to contribute to both
their success and the success of the business or
organisation.
EWK International
Case Example - Global Energy Company
Building in Agility for New Demands and Capabilities
Q2-3 2008
Leadership Review:
Capability &
Development
• Focus: Retain, assess
and develop critical key
people
• Assessed global
Leadership, Managm’t,
Technical Capabilities
• Identified practical
and simple individual
Development Plans
2007-2008
Strategic Refocus
on Core Businesses
• Maintain limited core
of top level functional
teams
• Use Service Provider
Partnerships as new
systems in place
• Better coordination,
streamlining, cost
reductions
Q4 08 – Q1 09
Move with agility
in difficult
financial situations
• Great knowledge of
full range of
capabilities,attributes
• Dynamic action
shifting people into
different roles
quickly
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© 2010 Arbiter Leadership Technologies
Figure 3 – Global Company: Building in Agility for New
Demands and Capabilities
Figure 4 below presents on one page a summary of the
individual needs of team members (A-J across the top) with
the recommended actions. It is also important to act on the
fact that this should not be a ‘one off’ exercise: it needs to
be part of a continuum of assessment with a clear set of
accountabilities for monitoring the implementation the
recommended development programs.
EWK International
Participant
Sample Leadership Development Summary Matrix
A
B
C
X
X
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
Personal Support
Coaching
X
Mentoring Support
X
X
X
Shadowing
X
Manager Feedback
Networking
Mentoring Others
X
X
X
X
X
X
Role Enrichment/Secondment
Role Expansion
X
Line of Business Role
X
X
X
Secondment Short term
X
Promotional Offer
Greater Responsibility/
Promotion
Executive Education
Short Courses
Exec Education
Skills Development
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
© 2010 Arbiter Leadership Technologies
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Figure 4 - Identify or create development programs
tailored for individuals (and teams) to meet your
organisation’s needs
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© 2010 Arbiter Leadership Technologies
4. Go external for talent when you have to
Organisations that have a strong focus on developing their
internal talent tend to have a much more focused approach
when they need to recruit externally. They are in tune with
the real capabilities that they need, and with the values and
cultural attributes they are seeking in external candidates.
Their teams have a better ‘shared understanding’ of what
they want and need in talent that they are seeking to bring
into the organisation. In short, their external recruitment is
likely to entail less risk than those who have not focused so
much on internal talent management.
Succession Planning should now be seen as a basic
requirement
A further evolution of talent management is having an
understanding of the talent pool available for succession at
multiple levels in the organisation. While you can never
guarantee who should succeed whom and when, an
extension to effective development of your talent is
mapping the potential trajectory of professionals, managers
and executives against incumbents. The goal is to ensure
you have a well developing pool of talent to meet
succession needs. That pool of talent becomes smaller the
higher you go in the organisation, or the more specific and
specialised the technical capabilities.
One of the major concerns of some organisations today is
the ageing and impending retirement of baby boomers and
the expertise and experiences they will take with them –
though the GFC has deferred the retirement of some of this
group due to depletion of their savings. Understanding
exactly what stage and age your workforce is at now is a
basic requirement, both for managing the workforce today
and for managing succession.
Figure 5 depicts some different approaches to looking at the
current status and challenges of workforce planning and
visualizing the availability of future talent. For example
some organisations we have worked with take a long term
view of their talent looking at employee potential and doing
age profiles of their workforce. Figure 5 presents this
visually - mapping specific roles against the potential of the
individuals in those roles and their likely time to retirement.
This is particularly important with organisations with ‘baby
boomer’ bulges where they are likely to have significant
talent nearing retirement age. Presenting this in a visual
form helps them identify their likely talent ‘gaps’ in the
short, medium and longer terms.
© 2010 Arbiter Leadership Technologies
Figure 5 – Succession planning
Conscientious talent management is just good
management
The expectations for effective executives will continue to
evolve – as they have for the past 50 years. But the talent
bar has been elevated. Companies and their boards are
seeking to appoint executives who have the acumen to deal
with volatile shifts in their competitiveness while
concurrently satisfying shareholders and accommodating
regulators. Both business and government are increasingly
seeking executives who combine multiple sector experience
to work through the often conflicting demands for
efficiencies, creativity and meeting citizen expectations.
Amidst these expectations we are experiencing accelerated
change as technology developments fundamentally alter
how organisations operate. Some of the fallout from the
GFC is a different level of accountability and different set of
expectations of those in the private sector.
Higher expectations for executives and their teams, and
their criticality to the business have raised the profile and
importance of talent management and succession planning.
There is no readily obtainable pool of great talent to meet
all the needs of business, industry and government – no
matter what the state of business, global and local
economies. organisations that want to compete successfully
both in their business and in the talent marketplace need to
‘know and grow’ the capabilities they have. They need to
understand what motivates people, and understand the
strategically significant leadership, managerial and technical
capabilities that they have and that they need.
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Smart organisations put in place specific strategies to
meet the capability and developmental needs of their
talent pool and for smooth transitions during successions.
They develop programs tailored for individuals to meet
the organisation’s future needs, understanding that if
individuals believe their capabilities are continuing to be
developed by their organisation, they are less likely to
want to go elsewhere.
Effective Teams are Critical to the Success of CIOs
While getting the talent gene pool right is important,
challenges don’t stop there. It is critical for executives and
managers to work on creating and nurturing a real team
rather than a collection of smart and motivated
individuals. This requires hard work and is often greatly
underestimated.
Figure 6 – The five common dysfunctions of teams
The key dysfunctions of teams are well described by Lencioni of The Table Group. It starts with trust: trust amongst
team members is the bedrock of effective teams. Without that foundation of trust, it’s hard to deal with conflict in
a constructive way. Team members don’t have the necessary commitment, and interpersonal discomfort means
that team members won’t hold each other accountable.
There is the issue of ‘which team am I on?’. This is a hard decision for, say members of the CIO’s team – it is that
team that should be their primary team. At the same time the CIO’s primary team is the executive team of which
he or she is a member. The pyramid of team dysfunctions is well depicted in Figure 6 above.
Act on the Five Dysfunctions of Teams
While developing and sustaining great teams is hard
work, the path to achieving these is reasonably clear.
There are some simple approaches to tackle each of
the five dysfunctions indicated above. These need to
be tackled in turn, starting with building trust, where
the leader of the team needs to share their concerns
and vulnerabilities with the team. Leading by
example is critical is at all stages of team building.
Figure 7 – Enabling Teams to be effective
Leaders need to mine for conflict, not pretend that it isn’t there and achieve a false notion of harmony. Team meetings
need to be used carefully to ensure there is open and transparent discussion and the there is real clarity and closure of
issues. People need to be held accountable – by each other – that is the test of really effective team, that each person feels
comfortable about holding their colleagues to account. Difficult issues need to be confronted, dealt with and then the
team and the individuals need to move on. Taking collective responsibility shows real team maturity – where the
individuals are comfortable with both themselves and with each other.
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© 2010 Arbiter Leadership Technologies
Lessons Learnt: Know and Grow Individual and Team
Capabilities
Nurturing great talent and building effective teams is a key objective for
most leaders. However not everyone tackles it in a pragmatic,
constructive and practical way so that it has real impact on the
individuals, the team and business.
From working with executive teams, there are clear lessons that increase
the likelihood of real impact:
1.
It’s hard to develop your team if you don’t’ really understand the
capabilities, aspirations and motivation of each individual
2.
The ability to be an effective team member is also now critical
3.
While undertaking individual capability and development needs
assessment can be seen as confronting (at least initially), it can be
done with real engagement and respect. The benefits are real and
are appreciated by individuals as well as the team as a whole
4.
It is only when individuals really understand themselves that they
are able to reach their full potential as leaders and managers
5.
The best starting point is with the top level executives themselves.
There is no substitute for leading by example
To Keep Talent, Manage it Well
Remember, great talent will go to where it is appreciated, valued, and
encouraged to thrive. Effective talent management requires taking
thoughtful and considered actions today. It’s not something to do next
month or next year. By then the ‘talent’ will have walked and it’s very
hard to get it back.
A version of this Whitepaper is being published in the book Managing IT
Human Resources: Considerations for organisations and Personnel edited
by Dr. Jerry Luftman, To be published by IGI Global, 2010
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© 2010 Arbiter Leadership Technologies