A successful business is driven by three key processes: operational, strategic, and people. Leadership Capital Group has evolved since its inception to being an integral part of business by focusing on our clients’ people process. The LCG People Strategy approach takes a systems view of a clients’ process, focusing on individuals, leadership teams, and corporate culture, and highlights how the people process impacts operational and strategic processes. Just as you would engage legal counsel, bankers, or accounting firms for assistance in the areas of operations and/or strategy, Leadership Capital Group is the “specialist” that will provide assistance with your “people process.”
Why would a corporation need to focus on a People Strategy? How would they benefit? And why would the corporation need to focus on all three areas of the People Strategy: the individual, the leadership team, and the culture? You often hear the phrase “our people are our biggest asset”. The phrase should be: “the right people are our biggest asset”, because they are! This “asset” is comprised of the Individual Capital, the Leadership Capital, and the Cultural Capital, and although intangible and seemingly unquantifiable, it adds tremendous value to the bottom line. But to get the most from your people, as well as to integrate strategic and operational goals, a corporation must focus on, and implement, all three areas simultaneously.
There are a number of reasons to support the “individual” or Individual Capital focus in a corporate People Strategy evaluation. Listed below are few examples:
- You often hear that “managers are made” and “leaders are born”. This is not entirely true. Yes, the skill-set is different, but effective leadership skills can be learned. Often individuals climbing the corporate ladder are promoted based on excellent past performance as a manager and are sent into leadership roles without the appropriate skill set — sometimes being set up to fail. Who in your organization has a significant impact on your employees in a critical part of your business? Is that individual a manager or a leader? Is that individual being developed to become a leader?
- You have a key employee who you see as a valuable asset (remember “people are our most important asset?”) and you want to invest in their development. In addition, investment in this person would also serve as a retention strategy. Who in your organization is a key employee that you would like to retain and further invest in?
- Even the “chief” of an organization would benefit from ongoing development in the company of other high ranking executives and leaders. If running a company is your “sport”, you must practice the related skills to improve. Ask Tiger Woods, Michael Jordon, or Serena Williams! Would you like to become the best that you can be? Do you owe it to your self and your employees to continue practicing?
- Most companies have a few people (or if they are fortunate a “group”) that are well liked, and have been hand-picked to move into key roles within the organization. Often the person is chosen for a specific role because of tenure, past performance, and/or popularity. Why not use a process that guarantees a greater probability of success? Wouldn’t you want to base decisions on more than a gut feeling? Who is the individual in your organization that has the best skill set to move into the next available critical position? Wouldn’t a scientifically based reason give you and your shareholders greater peace of mind than a hunch?
- You have identified an excellent “up and comer” in the organization that is technically strong, a hard worker, and contributes to the bottom-line, but something about him/her concerns you, and has prevented you from taking them forward in the organization. Have you heard co-workers state that this person is difficult to work with? Does this person act like a manager, not a leader? Does this person lose their patience easily? Is this person unable to bond with the executive team?
These are a few examples that illustrate the need to focus on the “individual leader” and increase your organization’s Individual Capital. Leadership Capital Group can help you with all aspects of your People Strategy to help your organization…advance business through people!
As significant as individual development is within an organization, it is even more significant when a “team” is developed simultaneously. The impact of a “team of individual leaders” who progress as individuals and as a group, is considerable. The team approach creates “leadership communities” or Leadership Capital, where we develop a team of professionals simultaneously, having a substantial positive effect on the business, conducted either on- or off-site. Why would an organization want to focus on team-based initiatives? Listed below are a few examples:
- The Executive Team is made up of strong individuals, each having a different “style”. The team meetings are “spirited” as well as inconclusive. It is frustrating that such a talented team cannot seem to get anything done. Employees are confused and frustrated by the “vision of the month” and no longer take any corporate direction seriously.
- There are silos within the organization. The corporate leaders, as well as their departments, work and function independently of one another and no longer know, or care, what the others are doing. Operational support is unnecessarily duplicated as there is little synergy between departments — increasing expenses and decreasing profits. Overall, the company is neither strategically linked nor is it benefiting from interrelated goals.
- “Leadership starts at the top” and establishing team-based initiatives aid in forming strategic processes that drive corporate objectives. Vision and strategy that is driven by the Leadership Team as a unified message and is directly linked to your corporate strategy is much more likely to be successfully integrated into the organization.
These examples illustrate the benefits of focusing on the “team” by strengthening the Leadership Capital. LCG can help you with all aspects of your People Strategy, to help your organization…advance business through people!
Studies have proven that corporate culture has a profound effect on a business. High performing cultures generate over four times the Return On Equity (ROE) as low performing cultures. The difficulty is that there are facets of culture that are difficult to quantify, since they represent invisible aspects of the business, such as values and core beliefs. While difficult to characterize or quantify, these aspects greatly impact the people working in your organization since they are directly related to the organization’s strategy and management philosophy. In order to positively influence performance, it is imperative to understand the corporate culture. There is strong evidence suggesting areas such as profitability, quality, sales growth, innovation, and employee satisfaction are impacted by corporate culture, or Cultural Capital. The corporate culture can be evaluated by focusing on these four primary areas:
- Involvement: Building human capability, ownership, and responsibility.
- Consistency: Defining the values and systems that are the basis of a strong culture.
- Adaptability: Translating the demands of the business environment into action.
- Mission: Defining a meaningful long-term direction for the organization.
Leadership Capital Group can help your organization identify ways to increase performance by leveraging your human capital. LCG helps create a high performing Cultural Capital that links to your “bottom-line” by focusing on all aspects of your People Strategy... advancing business through people!
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