Bench Strength

CHAPTER 3

F

RAMING

Y

OUR

S

TRATEGY

Perception is strong and sight weak. In

strategy it is important to see distant things as

if they were close and to take a distanced

view of close things.

—M

IYAMOTO

M

USASHI

J

APANESE

S

AMURAI AND SWORD MASTER

When asked to de scrib e how they go about devel oping a tale nt

management str ategy , many HR leaders tell me that they st ar t of f

by attemp ting to iden tify the lea dersh ip competencies that ar e

most important to the ir lea ders’ success. Su ch an answer refle cts

what I cal l an ‘‘inside-out’’ approach to talent management, w hich

proceeds from an inte rnall y derived vi ew of leader ship n eeds, com-

petencies, and programs. U nfort unately, while qu ite po pular , the

inside-out approach is seldom effective because it fails to fully pre-

pare the organi zation to meet future bu sines s cond ition s.

Building Talent from the Outside-In

As i s illustrated in Figure 3-1, the alt ernat ive ‘‘outside-in’’ approach

to talent management starts out with an environmental sc an to

construct a cle ar pic ture o f an or ganiz ation ’s evo lving business,

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44 B

ENCH

S

TRENGTH

Figure 3-1. The outside-in approach to talent management.

External Business Conditions

Organizational Structure

Leadership Requirements

Future

Leadership

Talent

Requirements

political, and economic landsca pe. For corporations and busi-

nesses, t his means un derstanding the c ompan y’s changin g markets

and competitive posi tion. For nonprof it org anizations , the o utside-

in approa ch tra nslat es int o tracking changes in legislation, funding

sources, or community agen das th at are likel y to affect the future

health and growth of t hese agenci es. In both cases, taking an

outside-in app roach to tal ent management me ans de termi ning h ow

emerging exter nal opportun itie s and constraints are likely to alter

the organizational structure and culture in which leaders will be

called upon to p erfor m. This approach then at tempt s to determine

how these exter nal an d organizat ional chang es are likely to tr ans-

form leaders’ r oles, responsibilitie s, and performance stan dards .

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45F

RAMING

Y

OUR

S

TRATEGY

Ideally, what emerge s from the integra tion of business s trate gy,

organizationa l stru cture , and ever-changi ng lea dersh ip require-

ments is a talent stra tegy that is future-foc used, i n tha t it is based

on a model of how the organiz ation ’s lea dership ben ch wil l need

to look and function three to five years down the path. This ability

to plan for the future becomes eve n more important the hig her we

climb up manage ment l adder , given that with e ach rung up t he lad-

der it takes more time to prepare leader s for future roles. Thus ,

while it may take one to three years for a sales representative to

progress to the role of loca l sale s manager, i t usua lly re quires a

local sales manager a longer period of ti me to develop the compe -

tencies and exp erience needed to succeed as a director of sales.

In a dditi on, at higher management leve ls, th e talent man ageme nt

decisions we ma ke involve greater risks because they exer t a

broader and more per v asive impac t on our organizat ions. The

point i s t hat, as we move from managemen t development actions

directed toward front-lin e superviso rs or middle managers, to those

aimed at executive ma nager s, it is esse ntial that we be able to l ook

far ther d own th e road before formulati ng our talent stra tegy.

T

HE

O

UTSIDE

-I

N

A

PPROACH IN

A

CTION

Years ago I work ed for a jet engine manuf actur er during the

time that this company was attemp ting to make the transi-

tion from being dependent upon the U.S. milit ary market

as the sol e sour ce of its revenue, to its first entry into t he

commercial market. This dramatic mark et shift required a

radical r edefi nitio n in the roles required o f the company’s

marketing and s ales p rofes siona ls, many of whom were ex-

militar y personnel, whose sales experience had been lim -

ited to preparing proposal s and demonstrati ons for the U.S.

militar y . Those managers who couldn’t make the transiti on

had to be replaced, while ot hers required extensive develop-

ment. This is but one e xampl e of the types of large-scale

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