Overcoming Barriers to Strategy

<p>There is a lot of talk in talent management circles about fully integrated talent management strategies. Unfortunately, this is where most human capital thought leaders stop. They fail to integrate and institutionalize talent management strategies into actual organizations. This is not due to a lack of interest on the part of theorists. Rather, it is due to the organizational and leadership constraints that exist for most learning leaders. </p><p>When talking with learning leaders &mdash; those responsible for deploying deliberate recruitment, learning, incentive-based, resilient and measured talent management strategies &mdash; it becomes clear that getting the job done is much more difficult than merely talking about it. Tactical actions that learning leaders can employ to help overcome these barriers include understanding the business model, developing the concept of human capital management within their organizations and approaching top management with suggestions regarding organizational structures and procedures that will encourage enduring talent management strategies. These are all good suggestions. </p> <p>Take these suggestions one step further. When it comes to forming a lasting systemwide human capital management strategy, one of the most undeniable qualities required of the learning leader is leadership. Learning leaders by necessity must become change agents within their organizations. No longer is it acceptable for learning leaders to wait for the CEO to reach out to them. On the contrary, learning leaders must reach across the organization to operations and directly lead the learning process within their organizations. </p> <p>Unfortunately, leadership can be difficult. It is not a right but a responsibility that requires energy, resilience, communication skills, motivation, self-efficacy, time management, charisma, hope, optimism, intelligence, political skills, integrity, honesty and drive. Leadership is not management, and leadership requires the learning leader to be the person in charge. </p> <p>Learning leaders need to ask themselves how they can gather their current leadership talent and drive their organizations forward. How do they handle conflict? What is their reaction to stress? Are they proactive communicators? How determined are they to not stray from their agenda? How skilled are they at crossing organizational barriers? How do they handle rejection? </p> <p>Honest appraisal of strengths and weaknesses is a first step toward applying the LAMP (logic, analytics, measures, processes) model described in the main article. Next, how does the learning team function as a whole? Where is the learning team stalwart and where are the blind spots? What types of leaders currently reside in the learning group? Is there a benefit in developing a cross-functional learning group by incorporating members from other areas, such as marketing, operations, business analysis, sales, and research and development? Can the learning team gain access to these individuals in an informal way? Does the learning team possess the leadership skills and informal power to drive this type of activity? If not, how can they develop it? </p> <p>It is no longer acceptable to declare that designing a talent management strategy is not possible due to factors outside our control. The mandate as a learning leader is to lead the organization to the one thing that will give the organization its ultimate competitive advantage &mdash; a planned, well-designed, incentive-based, resilient and measured people management strategy.</p>