Leadership Imperatives

The Need

Organisations need to define key leadership and management imperatives to:

• Improve the success rate of external recruitment into the business by having a sharper understanding of people as well as a deeper appreciation of the qualities that may be required to take a particular area forward.
  
  
• Focus development activities around key behaviours and qualities that will help the business succeed in the future.
  
  
• Send clear messages to people about what qualities are really important to the business and how these are aligned to the overall strategic direction.
  
  

The YSC Process

Effective leadership/management imperatives should reflect the strategic goals of the business. We therefore begin the process of developing these imperatives by having focused discussions with chosen senior executives on the challenges facing the organisation and the leadership/managerial characteristics that have been predictive of success in the past, as well as new characteristics that may be required for the future. On the basis of these discussions, we produce a definition of the key leadership/managerial imperatives required of managers in the business. These are disseminated to a relatively wide pool of managers for comments and appropriate modifications are made. Developing a clear consensus on these imperatives within the organisation helps to create a common language for discussing people and increases buy-in to any subsequent work in selecting or developing people.

Mapping managerial and leadership imperatives brings organisations the following benefits:

• A definition and articulation of key qualities required for success.
  
  
• Enhanced recruitment and succession planning.
  
  
• An opportunity for managers and senior executives to consider their development in the light of emerging business requirements.
  
  
• An objective, independent appraisal of management skills at this key level of the business.
  
  
• A means of collating data about individuals and developing a clear picture of the strengths and development needs of teams.
  
  

Case Examples

• Working with a multi-national FMCG organisation, we conducted a rigorous exploration of the key commercial drivers of the business and the subsequent qualities required of leaders and managers. These have been used world wide to sharpen selection, development and deployment activities.
• With a leading UK building society, we worked with senior executives and managers to define the key behavioural imperatives required by individuals at different levels of the organisation in order to meet significant challenges and changes in their market. These have helped drive more focused selection and development initiatives in the business.

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