Talent Mobility or Agility? What is Your Strategy for Developing Leaders?

Agile. Nimble. Flexible organizations. Organizations in the new millennium must be able to adapt to change to survive. Not only must organizations change in regards to business models and processes, talent must be able to adjust to changes in new roles, responsibilities, technologies, teams, and projects.

The concept of talent agility is particularly important in leadership roles as continuity of business is imperative to an organization’s success. Acquiring, developing and maintaining leaders who can move and lead across and up an organization’s services lines, product divisions or locations can help drive employee engagement and retention and prevent “brain drain” during volatile times that may cause leadership flight from the organization.

Structured or formal applications of talent agility may appear as career mapping, succession planning, high potential programs, formal talent and performance management systems, or other workforce planning initiatives. The key factor or outcome of building leadership bench strength is to be able to to respond quickly and efficiently to critical leadership workforce needs and for your leaders to be prepared and to move within the organization.

A by-product of talent agility is higher leadership engagement. By creating opportunities for your leadership team to acquire skills and competencies and to develop broad business acumen, your leaders may transfer this engagement to their own teams. If your organization is expanding, seeking growth and demanding leadership continuity, creating an agile leadership team that is capable of moving laterally and horizontally within your organization may help you achieve your goal.