Intentional Development-A Call to Action

Gina Seaton, Vice President of Talent Management & Organizational Effectiveness at PVH and James Scrivani, Global Head of Assessment & Development at Novartis

Leadership development has become a multi-billion-dollar industry.  Any way you look, you can find a vendor offering ‘the latest and greatest’ model and approach.  With so many options, where do we, as HR professionals, even begin?

We argue that you must develop against what you measure and measure what you value and reward.  In other words, measurement should drive development.  How do we do this?  Start by ensuring your leadership development program is fully integrated with your leadership assessment program that measures validated leadership skills and abilities required to deliver the business strategy.  At the individual level, ensure leaders have space to focus on their respective areas of opportunity.  When leadership development is approached this way, organizations can harness the power of talent data, drive consistent and intentional leadership development, and ensure clear accountability and messaging around how every leader can help drive the business strategy.  Additionally, this can help your organization maintain legal compliance in an ever-evolving litigious landscape (think bias audits and discrimination analyses). 

The concept of assessment and development programs designed and operating in this manner isn't a new idea; it is one that is widely discussed and called for in HR and externally.  However, when the rubber meets the road, it isn’t always easy to implement.  It requires a strong level of integration between talent management and learning and development efforts.

In reality, we see too many instances of talent management and learning and development teams reporting into the same hierarchy, even sitting next to one another in the office, and yet still operating too independently in this space.  The resulting programs that come out of these teams can result in a disjointed experience, leaving leaders feeling like they’re jumping from one HR initiative to the next without any clear connection between programs and experiences and, worse, no clear connection between their individual development needs and the business strategy.  This is where the power of integrated leadership assessment and leadership development programs really shines through.

"Through thoughtful, rigorous and integrated leadership assessment and development programs, we can cultivate a new generation of leaders who are capable and empowered to lead with purpose and impact."

Let’s use health as an analogy to bring this to life.  As a patient, you hope that the advice you get from your doctor is sound and backed by science.  You also know that to get the most comprehensive care, your specialists need to talk to one another so your treatment options are fully informed.  This same concept applies to leadership assessment and leadership development programs.  What is measured in your leadership assessment programs should be validated in your respective organization and tested to ensure it actually drives behaviors that propel your business strategy forward (i.e., measure what you value).  Ensuring that your assessment and development programs are locked down is akin to your specialists talking to one another.  It ensures that you are developing against what you value.

Integrating assessment into leadership development isn't a one-and-done activity, either.  It helps facilitate follow-through, another area in which most companies fall short.  Going back to our health analogy, you wouldn’t solely rely on an annual check-up to stay healthy; you would also incorporate daily habits like diet and exercise for the other 364 days a year, tracking progress and making sure you fall within certain ranges of various health metrics.  Some of us might be working to control our cholesterol levels, while others might be working toward running a marathon.  Once again, the same principles apply to leadership development.  Each individual has unique needs and will need time to reach their goals.  The process will involve work and tracking progress to gauge effectiveness.  When it comes to leadership assessment and leadership development, this takes the form of an ongoing sequence of assessment and development, then assessment again and development again.  Because development is informed by assessment, it ensures that time spent on development is intentional and aligned with individual needs and the business strategy.

So, what's the call to action?  It's time to embrace intentional development.  Let's move away from disjointed leadership assessment and leadership development approaches and instead integrate assessment into major steps of the journey.  Assessment is the check-up, and development is the wellness plan; both are essential for organizational health and performance.  We get it; this seems pretty basic and straightforward.  So is preparing healthy meals for the week to help us achieve our health and wellness goals.  The concept is not the hard part; the hard part is actually taking the time to plan and execute thoughtfully.  This is where many organizations trip up when it comes to leadership assessment and development.  Through thoughtful, rigorous and integrated leadership assessment and development programs, we can cultivate a new generation of leaders who are capable and empowered to lead with purpose and impact.

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