Bench Strength

224 B

ENCH

S

TRENGTH

2. Summarize some of the busin ess an d environme nt cha nges

that your organizati on is now fac ing that hav e forced you

to reasse ss this strategy. Ask yo ur senior team for their as-

sessment of the p erce ived i mpact of these changes on your

organization.

3. Provide y our team wit h a brief written outlin e of the

changes t hat you are p ropos ing to your current leadership

talent st rateg y and the respective tra de-of fs involved, e.g. ,

what your organizati on is likely to gain or lose by making

these changes.

4. Explain what changes to resources and talent infrastruc ture

may be needed to implement the p ro posed strategy shift.

This migh t incl ude an explanation of wh ether additional

staffing or funds m ay be needed, any sup port t hat yo u re-

quire from your senio r team , and a ny cha nges t o poli cies,

procedures, and exec utive compensation pro grams. At the

same time , provide yo ur team with a proposed timeli ne f or

implementing t hese c hange s.

5. Secure yo ur sen ior te am’s agreement that a ch ange to your

talent st rategy is warranted at this time, and that they a re

committed to securin g the resour ces and support needed to

make this chang e.

6. Discuss next-s tep actions that you’ll need to take over the

next few m onths to beg in to implement these ch anges . As

an exampl e, you may decide that yo ur organization needs

to m ake the tran sition from a strong Make /Foundati on

Strategy to one that w ill re ly heavily o n hiri ng best-in- indus -

try talent. In t his situation, one of you r first-step actions

may be to review your current relations hips w ith executive

recruiting firms to determine whether you need to revise

the scope of work or co ntrac t agreements for these firms.

At th e sam e time, you may need to determi ne whether t he

firms that h ave serve d you in the past are adequate to sup-

por t your future direction .

PAGE 224

................. 15735$ CH11 02-27-06 09:41:00 PS