The Invisible Talent Problem That’s Costing Your Organization
If you’re a good leader, you probably spend a good portion of your time thinking about talent. Are you staffed to reach the lofty outcomes you aspire to? Is your team innovating and finding solutions that put you ahead of competitors? Is there a succession plan in place for someone to step into your role so you can move up in the organization?
My hope is that when you look at your current talent bench you have a clear idea of who’s helping move the business forward, as well as the frontrunners for promotions. But if none of the candidates are women, you definitely have a problem.
In this article you’ll learn why your organization’s future depends on priming women as strategic thinkers, and four ways you can implement change right now.
The Silent Issue
As more and more industries feel the crunch to build diverse C-suites, I’ve watched leadership teams struggle to find women candidates they think are ready to step into strategic roles, and it’s not because of a hiring gap.
Oftentimes, leaders can identify women who are fantastic at their functional roles. They own their areas of expertise and consistently deliver. However, when I press leaders to articulate why these same candidates aren’t ready to advance, the answers are usually vague and intangible. Common comments I often hear include, “maybe she needs confidence training,” or “she just needs another certification,” or “I’m not sure what it is, but she just isn’t ready.” But is that what’s really standing in the way, or is it something else?
If you can’t pinpoint why you don’t see her moving up in the ranks or seated next to you at the table, it’s usually a sign that there’s a strategic-thinking gap.
Have you or your fellow leaders ever clearly stated that business acumen is a requirement for moving up? Does the organization offer opportunities to cultivate this perspective?
What we’ve only recently learned is that most women are never told this information. While their male leaders and counterparts may understand it’s a given, women have only ever received feedback around functional skills, speaking more confidently, or learning to manage up, and never around their ability (or inability) to demonstrate strategic thinking.
Your Organization’s Future Depends on Priming Women as Strategic Thinkers
If the organization continues to pigeon hole half of the job force into functional roles and doesn’t address the strategic-thinking gap, it will start to feel the consequences across multiple dimensions.
Succession planning gets harder. Hiring from within is easier than searching externally, but if you aren’t grooming women candidates for leadership, your pool of options shrinks. That means it’s going to be a lot harder to promote yourself down the road, or move into that VP role you’ve been eyeing.
Innovation suffers. Strategic teams come up with solutions that have a wider impact. Because they think bigger, the results are more impactful and longer lasting. But if you’re leading a team of functional doers absent any thought partners who can help accelerate solutions, then you’re only as good as your best idea. Don’t operate in a silo. You need strategic thinkers to ask “what if” questions, explore new avenues and make an impact on goals.
Leaders fall short on their ability to, well, lead. Promoting your people is demonstrative of your own leadership qualities. If you can’t build promotable people, or the only ones you’re promoting are men, then what does that say about your ability to build talent in the company or manage more people?
Here Are Four Ways to Implement Change
Maybe by now you’ve realized that a strategic-thinking gap is impacting your organization. The good news is that you can start priming women to build business acumen almost immediately.
Here are four ways to get started:
Create Observational Moments
Make certain that these up-and-coming women are exposed to the strategic conversations that matter to the organization. Find opportunities for them to experience different types of thinking by joining planning meetings, strategy sessions and beyond. Once the meeting is over, ask them about their insights and encourage them to imagine how they might need to show up differently in order to contribute at a higher level.
Upgrade Your Review Process
Have conversations early on about the importance of strategic thinking to professional growth. During annual and quarterly reviews, identify opportunities for her to gain exposure to important dialogue, then be sure to create debrief moments afterward.
Invest in 1:1 Coaching Support
Find a strategic coach who can groom your candidate to meet the specific needs of the organization. In my mentorship work, I always meet with leaders to understand which capabilities are beneficial to the company so that I can guide the function in an informed way. One-on-one coaching is powerful for its ability to accelerate the cultivation of a strategic mindset. While the support is always personalized to the individual, the goal is always to help her better understand how to align her work with the needs of the organization and to learn to think beyond the function.
Seek Continuing Education via an MBA
It’s typical to see functional roles invest in master’s degrees in specialty areas, but if she’s already a rockstar at her job what she might actually need is a different kind of training. An MBA program does an excellent job at offering a broader perspective on how business is run. This leads to better systems thinking and an understanding of how different departments may need to come together to deliver on goals and outcomes. The emphasis becomes less about the functional role and more about what needs to be done to support the business.
If you think a strategic-thinking gap is impacting your organization, I encourage you to get out ahead of it. Adjust how you cultivate your talent, give women the support they need to build business acumen and invest in coaching and/or educational opportunities. Your outcomes, goals and talent pool will be better for it.