The New Year is a time for important resolutions and commitments, both personally and professionally. And 2015 is special for leaders and employees. It’s been a long six years since the recession of 2008, and it’s finally over. GDP and employment are on the rise, and a new sense of optimism reigns for the economy. The right-sizings and restructurings are a thing of the past, and there’s a fresh opportunity to develop strong leaders & teams and engage employees, free from the sad stigma of the least six years.
Companies that accept the challenge of this opportunity will have a significant competitive advantage. Now is the time to take the steps that will develop great leaders, make great leaders greater and engage the workforce. Here’s a list of the ten things that will make you shine:
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- 1. Identify your most critical roles and develop behavioral profiles for high performers in these roles.
- 2. Use these profiles for recruiting, deployment and succession.
- 3. Train other incumbents in these roles in the behaviors that make high performers great.
- 4. Conduct leadership workshops, beginning with your senior leadership team
[list style=”customlist”]- . To develop a leadership coaching mindset
- . To enhance self-awareness and listening skills, and
- . To soften your culture.
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- 5. Use relationship-based behavioral assessments to match high potential employees, particularly diversity candidates, to mentors who will take a real interest in developing these employees.
- 6. Invest in developing women and placing them in risk-taking roles early in career.
- 7. Use relationship-based behavioral assessments to assemble teams, including teams reporting to managers, and to identify team leaders.
- 8. Commit to filling 50% of open manager positions with Millennials in 2015, phasing to 100% by 2020.
- 9. Develop outcome-based success metrics for your coaches, internal and external, and use these metrics to constantly strengthen your coaching cadre.
- 10. Use simulation workshops to train your business partners in HR and IT to exhibit the consultative behaviors that will drive strategic value.
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If you execute these changes in 2015, you can expect your leaders to be stronger, your diversity programs to succeed, your support functions to deliver high strategic value and your workforce to be highly engaged. You should also expect a 10% increase in productivity without burnout. Wow!
