Leading Organization: The critical roles

Starting from the overall strategy, where value is created or needs to be protected, and

define what are the most critical roles that really create that value? 

It could be 40 or 50, it could be a bit more than that.

But it’s unlikely to be thousands.

They’re not always the most senior, hierarchically. Sometimes they are, but 

they can easily be one, two, three, or four levels down in the organization. 

Understanding what those roles are, and then putting a lot more rigor into them—

what’s the work that has to get done, 

what do we need these people to actually do in order to create that value—and then looking at whether you’ve got a good match.

As an example of one of the Scandinavian companies whom their fundamental to its strategy is growing its business in China. A lot of that is based on mergers and acquisitions and new business development. 

One of the critical roles, about a billion associated with it, is

Its head of China. 

A second critical role is its CFO in China.

when we looked at who they had in that specific role, it was someone who’s really good at cost cutting but had no business-development or M&A experience. 

So there was a clear disconnect.
Having those kinds of conversations to make sure that you are very clear on,
“What is that 5 percent of roles that disproportionately create value? And
Do you have the people with the knowledge, the skills, the aptitude, the experience to deliver that?”
This is one of the things that we’re seeing sets companies up for success.
You got your talent in the organization. You’re focusing on the top roles.

Leading organization: Talent and teams

The main question is how do I get the right players on the court? 

Through the following ones :

How do I attract and retain the talent I need to be successful with,
our business strategy?

How to set talent development plan? 

How to apply performance management?

How to form and keep high-performing teams? As per Michael Jordan quote,
“Talent wins games, but teamwork […] wins championships”
What are the timeless truths for bringing in and developing the right talent
in any organization?
The first truth:
Focusing on the 5 percent that create 95 percent of the value.
Now, this is different than saying, “We want to attract and retain talent, and therefore we’re going to fix our talent-recruiting process.
And we’re going to fix our employee value proposition.”

Let’s see how the American football players are paid?

The Blind Side is based in how American football players are paid,

and beneath that there’s a reason for why they’re paid that way.

If you ask people who know enough about American football to answer this question, 

“Who’s the highest paid player on the field?,”
Most people will say, “The quarterback.” And they will be right.
The quarterback is the one who touches the ball, makes most of the plays,
and is always involved in managing the team down the field to score points.

If you ask people who is the second highest-paid player on the team?

The second highest-paid player is what’s called the left tackle,
especially with a right-handed quarterback, or it could be the right tackle,
with a left-handed quarterback.

The reason for that is, the role of the left tackle is to block the person who’s
coming and, trying to tackle your quarterback,
who very easily could cause an injury,
because that person is coming to the quarterback’s blind side, as it is.
So this is a very important position that most people would say,
“ that we need to recruit a great left tackle,
and we’re going to pay them the second most on the team.”

What we found is when organizations talk about, “Who are our quarterbacks? 

Who are the people who play the roles on our team that create the most value?

And they often get it wrong because they forget to take into account those roles and,
positions that protect the value.

To bring some of these insights to life, is work with companies to get a handle on their critical roles and the talent in those critical roles