Strategic Talent
Management Forum
Mission Critical Career Paths
Mapping the career journey for your most
critical roles
Mission critical career paths
We need to ensure that
companies are developing
the right capabilities for
their most critical jobs to
meet their future demands
of sustainable, profitable
growth
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Mission critical career paths
Many organisations are
developing their future
leaders in a vacuum,,
lacking a clear
understanding of the roles
leaders are destined for
and the experiences they
will need to ensure they
are ready when they get
there
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Are organizations getting the leaders
they need?
17%
>13%
of US and UK companies have
formalized career paths for the
majority of their employees*
of US and UK companies give
themselves high ratings when it
comes to managing their
future talent*
Source: *Boursin and Associates Factbook, 2009
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Where career pathing fits into talent
management
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Infrastructure for growth and information
Outsourcing
or contract
Workers
Talent
sourcing
Total
rewards
Succession
planning
Selection and
onboarding
Workforce
analytics
Leadership
and talent
development
Employee
engagement
Workforce
planning/
role definition
Performance
management
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T R A T E G I C
Organizational
competencies
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Mission
Critical
Career
paths
Candidate
assessment
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Traditional “supply-driven” talent
management
•
Having a pool of highly rated people doesn’t answer the
question: “What are they “good for?”
Performance
Contributor
Promotable
Fully Competent
Performer
Exceptional
Performer
Recently Promoted
Develop
Performance
Move Now
Manage to
Strengthen
Performance
Manage to
Strengthen
Performance
Develop
Skill Set
Recently Promoted
Manage to
Strengthen
Performance
Potential
Promotable with
Development
Mastery
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Seasoned Pro
“STARS”
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Demand-driven talent management starts
with future role requirements
1. Demand
Understand the current and future organizational
needs in terms of specific mission critical roles –
identify destination roles
3. High
potential
development
Ready people for
these specific
roles
ASSESS AND
MANAGE THE GAPS
2. Supply
Assess the capabilities of current and future
leaders to assume destination roles
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Demand-driven talent management
includes defining how …
> Future business will evolve
> Business direction shapes operating requirements and resulting
organizational structure
> Structure shapes role/position demands
> Position demands inform talent requirements for key positions
> Candidates fit (or not) to position demands (i.e., risk)
> Development can mitigate risk of placement and build long-term
capability
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Defining our terms
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Comprehensive career development programs illuminate
the path forward and provide career path options to all
staff members
But, this is not what we are talking about today
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Defining our terms
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Mission critical career paths focus like a laser beam on:
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The destination role
The lens through
which you need to
look in identifying
appropriate
experiences
for your most high
potential employees
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Definition of a destination role
Critical to the
operating model
and strategy
Destination roles are
defined as key to
delivering the strategy
and operating model; it is
a job where you cannot
afford to have a gap or
accept someone who is
in development mode for
a lengthy period of time
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Attractive/
has status
Multi-incumbent
They must be the kind of
jobs that people would
actually want to do
There should be
sufficient opportunity for
people to get such a job
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Relatively
stable
Platform for
further growth
There has to be a
realistic expectation that
the job will still exist in
several years’ time when
people see that they will
be ready for it
It might be a direct feed
to another destination
role, or it could be at the
intersection of multiple
career paths and be an
effective transition point
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Destination roles are
shaped by strategic needs of the business
Market demands
Business strategies/priorities
GLOBAL
LOCAL
Innovation
Operations/efficiency
Revenue/growth
Margin/profitability
Long-term
Short-term
(tomorrow’s business)
(today’s business)
Varying organizational and leadership implications
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Mission critical career pathing
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Development process
Identify feeder
and
destination
roles
Define
demands for
destination
and feeder
roles
Identify
critical
competencies
, capabilities
and
development
experiences
Career paths
for
destination
roles
Create
development
tools
[PHASE 1] [PHASE 2] [PHASE 3] [PHASE 4] [PHASE 5]
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Career path process – Phase 4
Identify feeder and
destination roles
Identify critical
competencies,
capabilities and
development
experiences
Define demands for
destination and
feeder roles
Business advisor
Career paths for
mission critical roles
Business partner
Create
development tools
Business owner
Proximity to front line
Levels of work
Strategy
development
Strategic
implementation
Destination role
6-month
secondment 1
6-month
secondment 2
Operational
management/
leadership
Operation focus
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Job rotation 2
Feeder role
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Job rotation 1
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Leadership scope typically increases
Enterprise
leadership
F
Enterprise
Executive
Functional
Executive
Manager of
Managers
Manager/
Senior
Specialist
Supervisor/
Individual
Contributor
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Career path process – Phase 5
Define demands for
destination and
feeder roles
Identify feeder and
destination roles
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Identify critical
competencies,
capabilities and
development
experiences
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Succession planning
Self assessment – “realistic job preview”
Peer surveys
Rotational development moves
Development plans
Executive coaching
Leadership development
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Career paths for
mission critical roles
Create
development tools
Formal training
Key project assignments
Resource Development Guides
Mentoring
Executive sponsorship
Governance for long term development
Manager coaching discussion guide
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Illustrative career path
Entry
roles
Rotational
assignment
options six
months
Required work experiences
two to four years
Destination
role
Continued
development
Senior
executive role
Senior executive
manufacturing
Applications
engineer
Senior program
manager
Business
intelligence
Plant leader
Customer
support
manager
Market
research
Marketing
communications
manager
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General
manager
Contracting
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VP
GM product
segment
Segment line
leader
Director
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Example of rotational assignments for
segment line leader destination role
Recommended rotational experiences (6 months each)* and key developmental requirements
Key
Accountabilities
Business intelligence
Market research
Technical/product support
Financial
Strategic
Leadership
Customer
Product

Develop strong financial skills and a
deep understanding of the intersection
of pricing and finance
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Gain in-depth understanding of and
manage financial levers/balance sheet of
the business
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Understand contribution margin and
levers affecting it

Drive top-line and margin growth

Develop deals, set pricing, etc. to drive
sales and profit

Contribute to sales forecasting,
planning , etc. to add LT value to the
business (e.g. set price point to gain
new business; identify effects of longterm/short-term contracts)
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Define and lead implementation of growth
strategies
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Align business strategy with market,
industry, and customer dynamics
Develop network and comfort
communicating at all levels and crossfunctionally across the organization:
senior leadership, sales, and product
management
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Develop ability to structure win-win
contracts for customer and GE
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Develop understanding of pricing
implications based on different product
investments, strategies, etc..
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Manage a cross-functional budget and
organize funding
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Translate a strategic objective into
actionable plans and direct execution
Build and manage teams (experience at
least two session C processes)
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Coordinate multiple functions to deliver on
stated objective
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Lead direct and indirect cross-functional
teams to achieve business objectives
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Identify, secure, and allocate resources
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Develop and maintain customer
relationships
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Deliver value to internal and/or external
customers against stated objectives
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Ensure customer satisfaction
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Interact at C-suite level; understand
strategic objectives of customer and how
GE can support them

Manage asset utilization to most
effectively drive services and products in
market; this includes investment
decisions around product mix, services,
etc.

Build capability and understanding of NPI
and product process or service functions

Learn language of engineering, and
limitations/capabilities of product
technologies or service offerings
Note: * At least one experience should occur in a global environment
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What the process delivers
Key ‘destination roles’ that
are most critical to achieving
your organisation’s business strategy
Greater discipline and focus to the
development of high potentials by
ensuring limited resources are spent
A roadmap of career experiences
that will ensure high
potentials arrive at their
destination roles with the
on developing
needed now and in the future for
capabilities they need to succeed
01
Career ‘accelerants’ – experiences
most likely to rapidly
develop
capabilities to meet future
needs and an understanding of
key risks to manage at each
transition point
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Identified feeder roles (or typical
backgrounds) and critical
development experiences so that the
planning can begin earlier
in a career, and ease the
transition to new roles
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the right skills
the organisation’s most critical jobs
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Growth and development
experiences tailored
unique needs that each high
potential brings
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to the
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Questions?
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