Challenge
A global real estate company’s Asia Pacific (APAC) operation has grown quickly in recent years, and as a by-product of that rapid expansion, it’s critical their leadership development strategy keeps up with the fast pace of business and competition for talent in the region. The senior regional leaders at the organization wanted to invest in building the pipeline of successors who could take on their roles in the future.
The organization engaged us to help strengthen their talent pipeline in APAC, instill a more objective process around promotions, and help shape a more collaborative culture. The firm’s leadership recognized that achieving these goals would make the company a more attractive employer to external hires and help retain high-performing talent.
Solution
- We designed a leadership development program, grounded in the behavioral sciences and backed by scientific rigor. 30 leaders across APAC were selected to participate in the program.
- To understand the context for each leader we spoke to line managers and talent partners, which provided a view into the individuals’ unique challenges and demands, tenure in the role and nature of their team.
- We also took time to understand the leadership context in which the organization operated to help future-proof the work. This included learning about the business strategy and the implications for leadership.
- We individually assessed each leader, combining elements of behavioral interviewing with a deeper, psychological and biographical approach. Participants were then benchmarked against YSC’s validated JDI Model of Potential™.
- Reports were shared in one-on-one feedback and coaching session so leaders could explore the insights in detail. A series of 4-way development planning sessions with participants, their managers and HR were held to discuss the insights and co-create an actionable development plan.
- We analyzed the cohort to identify key leadership strengths, development areas and recommendations for how to best support their ongoing development.
- We co-designed a series of bespoke interventions to build resilience and stretch their thinking, informed by the insights gleaned from the earlier stages of the process.
Partnering with YSC to assess our top talent helped us realize how we need to lead our people differently to support their development. The process has enabled a different level of career development conversation, which goes beyond the work activities to identify and remove blockers to their development. Seeing our people transform through YSC’s coaching and process has been important to our business success.” – President, North Asia
Impact
- Our analytics showed that being on the program doubled the chances of career acceleration for the identified talent.
- Of the 30 participants: 15 were promoted to larger or more complex roles; 2 took up stretch assignments; and 17 have been identified as successors to APAC regional C-suite roles, just 18 months after the program commenced.
- We were able to make holistic recommendations to the client about succession planning and who would most benefit from coaching based on their potential, criticality of their current or future role, and receptivity to change.
- They committed to prioritizing an executive leadership program to focus on developing these future C-suite level leaders across APAC and create a strong link to in-region talent and succession planning.
- The organization also put a more objective system in place to award promotions, one that relied less on an individual’s champion within the firm and more on their data-driven assessment of potential to deliver on the company’s business objectives.
