Developing Human Capital

Developing Human Capital

Human capital development delves into improving employees’ competencies, performance, and capabilities. It involves on-the-job training initiatives designed to improve employees’ core competencies. As part of human capital development, leadership development aligns an organization’s strategy and goals with employees’ competencies.

How Competence Frameworks Contribute Towards Organizational Success

A competence framework refers to a structure that clarifies individual competencies required to achieve organizational goals. A well-established competence framework creates a link between individual and organizational performance (CIPD, 2020). Firstly, a competence framework clarifies a set of behavior expected from employees in performing tasks. It also sets out the organization’s expectations from employees as they perform different tasks. Besides, competence frameworks make recruitment exercises more open and fair (CIPD, 2020). That is because a competence framework clarifies the individual competencies required from recruits. Also, the competence framework creation process is measurable and standardized. Accordingly, that ensures clarity when determining what capabilities an organization will need to train its employees on.

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Steps Required for Future Innovation and Growth in the Organization

The first step towards innovation and growth is identifying innovation opportunities (Molloy, 2019). This refers to considering the problems an organization may solve. Once opportunities have been identified, the concerned parties must look at them from different angles to identify the most exciting possibilities. Once the most promising prospects are identified, the organization should prioritize the best options since there are no infinite resources and time. Thirdly, the organization should test the innovations to determine whether they deliver as desired. For instance, if a new product is part of the innovation process, an organization can present a few samples to potential customers. The fourth step is to seek support for innovation, which involves defending the innovation among stakeholders for financial support. Finally, the organization will learn from innovation efforts and implement corrective measures in the case of failure (Molloy, 2019).

Important Traits of Successful Leadership

Ability to Influence

An influential leader exerts influence by articulating an organization’s next course of action. To have such power, one must build trust with their teams. Also, effective leaders understand the individual motivation of each employee (Landry, 2018).

Transparency

Embracing transparency is key to establishing trust. Effective leaders should be open about an organization’s goals and problems. Subsequently, this will help employees understand their roles in achieving the goals.

Risk-taking

According to Landry (2018), trying out new ideas through experiments is key to achieving organizational growth. A good leader must be willing to take risks and innovate. Once a leader creates a culture that embraces failure, employees will be more inclined to try out new ideas.

Valuing Ethics and Integrity

High moral standing ranks as one of the essential leadership competencies. A leader who embraces ethics will encourage their followers to reciprocate. Besides, employees feel safe knowing their leaders will treat them well (Landry, 2018).

Acting Decisively

Leaders should make decisions quickly in today’s fast-paced environment. That means acting swiftly, even before getting all the information about an issue. In addition, this calls for leaders who can conceptualize and stick to the bigger picture.

Factors to Consider when Developing a Leadership Strategy

Quantity of Leaders Needed

The number of leaders needed for various positions is a crucial consideration when determining a leadership strategy. Some organizations have both formal and informal leadership positions. An organization can identify the leaders needed for various positions based on the projected leadership positions.

Understanding Organizational Needs

Recognizing organizational needs is vital before deciding on a leadership strategy. Some leaders fail due to a mismatch of the organizational needs and the leaders’ competencies. Therefore, there needs to be an alignment between the organizational needs and the leaders’ core competencies.

The Current Situation

Different situations determine a leader’s style of leadership. Since different situations call for different approaches, it is incumbent upon the leader to determine the most effective leadership style. For instance, a leader uses different approaches to respond to employees who portray inappropriate behaviour. Depending on the followers’ personalities, one may use confrontation or diplomacy.

Challenges of Developing Leadership Strategies

Lack of Continued Investment

One of the major challenges to leadership development is the lack of investment in leadership. Some CEOs fail to recognize the importance of leadership. They believe investing in such an initiative amounts to resource wastage (Tavakoli & Teimouri, 2010).

Lack of Managerial Support

The top management of an organization may also impede strategic leadership development. Ordinarily, top managers are expected to support employees in various leadership positions by offering support. However, when that fails to happen, leaders may be demoralized (Tavakoli & Teimouri, 2010).

Lack of Synergy between Organizational Strategy and Leadership Development Strategy

There needs to be a fit between organizational strategy and leadership development strategy. Any inconsistency between the two may potentially lead to role conflicts and ambiguity.

Metrics Used to Measure Leadership Development

Participants’ Reaction

Participants’ reactions are one of the useful metrics of leadership development. An organization gets to know the reactions by giving out surveys to the leaders (Panel®, 2021). This is a personal assessment initiative that measures leaders’ responses to development initiatives.

Workforce Attitudes

Also, measuring workforce reactions will give a hint of whether leadership development was successful or not. Determining workforce attitudes involves looking at business results and external audits (Panel®, 2021). Positive attitudes indicate successful leadership development.

Company Profitability

Leadership development programs must yield positive outcomes. If a business gets more profits and new clients after a leadership development initiative, then the exercise is deemed successful. In short, successful companies are led by effective leaders.

Suggestions for Making Managers Effective Coaches

One of the effective ways for leaders to become better coaches is by using regular check-ins (Grant & Hartley, 2013). Instead of waiting for annual reports, managers should check on their employees regularly. Such a strategy will help team members take corrective measures if something goes wrong. Also, a leader should encourage peer-to-peer coaching. This can be made possible by hosting regular meetings to help employees create a rapport. Besides, it is easy to teach employees who are gathered in a group instead of doing it individually. Finally, leaders should focus on the coach in everyone. Individual employees have a fountain of knowledge they can share with their colleagues (Grant & Hartley, 2013). That can be made possible by encouraging members to hold their seminars from time to time. The organization can also leverage technology to use software and private YouTube channels.

Conclusion

In summary, leadership development is part of an organization’s human capital development. Leadership development should be implemented with the goals and strategies of the organization in mind. Once leaders are empowered, they can transfer their competence to improve the rest of the organization.

References

CIPD. (2020). Competence & Competency Frameworks | Factsheets. CIPD. https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/people/performance/competency-factsheet#gref.

Grant, A. M., & Hartley, M. (2013). Developing the leader as coach: insights, strategies and tips for embedding coaching skills in the workplace. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 6(2), 102–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2013.824015.

Landry, L. (2018). 6 Characteristics of an Effective Leader | HBS Online. Business Insights – Blog. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/characteristics-of-an-effective-leader.

Molloy, J. (2019). Five Steps to Implementing Innovation. Harvard Business Publishing. https://www.harvardbusiness.org/five-steps-to-implementing-innovation/#top.

Panel®, E. (2021). Council Post: How To Measure Leadership Effectiveness: 14 Essential Tips. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/05/28/how-to-measure-leadership-effectiveness-14-essential-tips/?sh=63bce7952823.

Tavakoli, G., & Teimouri, H. (2010). The Challenges of Effective Leadership Development in the Third Millennium. The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture, and Change Management: Annual Review, 10(1), 551–564. https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9524/cgp/v10i01/49911.

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Imagine the following conversation taking place between a CEO and the director of HR:

CEO: What if we invest in the development of our employees, and then they leave our company? Aren’t we wasting that investment?

Director of HR: Well, what if we decide not to invest in the development of our employees, and they stay?

Developing human capital is a top priority for organizations aiming to be successful and effective. In fact, it is an important factor in retaining winning talent. For your Assignment, this week, imagine that you have been appointed for a special project to build the human capital at Global ProTech. You must research how to develop human capital.

Submit a 3- to 5-page paper that addresses the following:

Analyze how competency frameworks help determine capabilities needed for organizational success.
Analyze steps required for future innovation and growth in the organization.
Distinguish at least five important traits for successful leadership.
As an HR professional, identify at least three factors to consider when developing a leadership strategy.
Identify three challenges in developing such strategies.
Identify three metrics that you would use to measure a leadership-development approach and explain why these three metrics will build human capital.
Finally, provide three suggestions that can help managers to be better coaches.