Bridging Your Skill Gap
July 2010
How can you maximize the likelihood of winning—and
succeeding in—a leadership role? The simple "formula" is to figure out what
you need to be good at, assess your current level of competence, and then develop
a strategy to close the gap between the skills you have and those you need.
by Corbette
Doyle
But what, specifically, are the most sought-after leadership skills—and how
can you develop them? Good question. Corporations have invested significant
sums trying to identify the set of leadership
competencies that will differentiate their leaders from leaders in other organizations.
If they can answer that question, they can select, develop, and promote individuals
with the "secret sauce" that will allow them to outperform the competition.
Companies that excel at this process become known as feeders for talent or
leadership machines. While GE arguably has the most notable reputation as a
"leader feeder," best-practice companies in the insurance industry, according
to Brooks Chamberlin of Korn Ferry, include Argonaut, Chubb, Gen Re, and Marsh.1
Is it the talent process that creates a robust talent pipeline, or have these
companies succeeded in
branding their
talent by identifying a set of competencies unique to their firm? The answer
is murky at best. Many imported leaders (from CEOs to salespeople) thrive in
company after company while others, even when recruited from renowned talent
machines, fail to thrive in any organization other than the one where they received
their training.
Research by
Boris Groysberg of Harvard Business School indicates that, in fact, the
"stars" of male equity analysts are more likely to fall after a company move
than they are to rise. Women, on the other hand, were more likely to maintain
their success because they had built stronger external networks and because
they were more diligent in assessing the cultural fit of their prospective employer.
Recipe for Success: GE or Google?
Transplant success aside, it is questionable whether any handful of competencies
is likely to create a long-term sustainable "formula" for success. Companies
that remain static rarely remain successful. It's one of the reasons why Jim
Collins followed up Good to Great with
How the Mighty Fall. Even GE, that leadership machine, is reexamining its
approach to talent development—and, as
BusinessWeek reports, others are questioning whether the virtual world of
the 21st century requires GE's time-intensive, in-person, approach to leadership
development.
The Google alternative, which sounds much like the traditional insurance
brokerage approach, is to
"hire fantastic people, bring them in, and set them free." Google's chief
people person, not-so-coincidentally a GE alum, describes the need for a diversity
of talent or a "portfolio of people with widely varying skill sets," rather
than an army of individuals trained according to a static leadership model.
Which approach is right—GE or Google? Given rapidly improving technology
and rising transportation costs, virtual development and local "apprenticeships"
are likely to become far more prevalent than bricks and mortar "Company U" development
strategies. As for "branded" versus generic leadership skills, there is considerable
research support for the value in focusing on those leadership skills that are
much in demand.
85 Percent Solution
Lominger, a Korn Ferry subsidiary, has a leadership competency database of
more than 2,000 individuals. They have mapped this against 50 years worth of
leadership studies and 200 proprietary leadership models. Their conclusion is
the "85 percent solution":2 85 percent of the skills
associated with effective leadership are common across organizations. Though
individual firms may vary in terms of the position-specific competencies they
deem most relevant, competencies are more likely to vary by job level than by
company. They vary more by job level than by company, though each firm and each
position are likely to rely most heavily on a different subset of those competencies.
Technical skills and peer relationships, for example, are important competencies
for individual contributors, decision-quality and boss relationships are key
for managers, and executives must have political savvy.3
Perhaps the most relevant aspect of Lominger's research is the identification
of eight, "competitive-edge competencies"—or those skills that truly differentiate
effective executive leaders but which are in short supply. In other words, companies,
or you as an individual, have an opportunity to stand out from the crowd by
enhancing your competency in the following eight skills4:
- Strategic agility
- Dealing with ambiguity
- Creativity
- Planning
- Innovation management
- Building effective teams
- Motivating others
- Managing vision/purpose
While most of Lominger's research is proprietary, it sells an array of
books and tools that you can use to improve your own performance or that
of individuals whose development you are responsible for. The
FYI For Your Improvement book includes
a detailed description of each of these competencies when it is unskilled, skilled,
or overused, and suggestions for how to strengthen the skill. Though expensive,
this is a valuable resource for anyone striving to improve those critical leadership
skills likely to lead to a "C" level position.
Consistent with the Lominger research is a report by ASTD, "New
Factors Compound the Growing Skills Shortage," which categorizes skill gaps
by job level. The biggest talent gap the responding organizations identified
is the 50 percent gap at the Executive level. This compares to a 31 percent
gap at the managerial level.
Conclusion
One last question you should be asking yourselves: is it worth investing
your time and energy to enhance your leadership skills or those of a protégée?
The short answer is a resounding yes. Both the Deloitte study,
Generational Talent Management for Insurers,
and research by
Accenture indicate that the insurance industry will be harder hit than many
other industries by future talent shortages. The future will, clearly, belong
to those willing and able to step up to the leadership plate.
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