5 Reasons Why The Leadership Team is Key to the Success of the Organization?

February 15th, 2014

As stated in a previous blog, senior leadership creates the primary drivers of company success or failure. The buck stops with them….on many different fronts.

Strategy and vision for hiring top-quality staff ranks at the top, followed by the execution, and proper management/oversight of the strategy and vision. In other words, the leadership team must not only set the hiring strategy and create the vision but also be instrumental in the governance of the actual talent acquisition.

To highlight, here are 5 key actions the company’s leadership team can initiate — through their role in the hiring process — optimizing keys to organizational performance in acquiring high-caliber, proven top-performing talent.

  1. Direct the development of a hiring strategy and vision. This may be referred to as a Talent Acquisition Strategy. It needs to cover how each position will be filled, the hiring process, interviewing methods, who participates in interviews with different levels of candidates, communication with the candidates, offer process, and on-boarding are a few examples.
  2. Set the pace by taking action in line with the strategy for positions reporting directly to them. They must set the example of executing the strategy and get it right, both by the results achieved and by the process followed to generate the results. Everyone hiring and involved in interviews must have training and follow the designed process.
  3. Play major role in determining company success (or lack of) and what the organization becomes, based on the talent acquisition decisions/results. An “A” player in a leadership role will be compelled to build an “A” team, and to that avail, commit the resources and process necessary to accomplish that objective.
  4. Determine the values and purposes of the people hired, consciously. Strong leadership will not hire unconsciously. “A” level talent comes packaged in a variety of looks. It is the obligation of leadership to hire consciously. It will be necessary to look past first impressions: Are they like me? Do they interview well? Is their image above average?   They must get to the real “pattern of performance” data and decide based on the data. Can the candidate excel (in the role) based on past performance, depth of experience, and track record of success? Are they motivated to pay the price for success? These are the questions that consciously tuned in leaders will focus on answering.
  5. Provide oversight for setting the performance standards. Management with a stick doesn’t create valued performance. Goals depicting desired performance and rewards for achieving accomplished performance go a long way in motivating top-performers. Those not performing to standards must be penalized for their best interest. Leaders developing and governing (non-political) performance management as part of the Talent Acquisition vision will drastically increase the odds of organizational success.

All 5 of these actions enhance organizational performance. At Honer and Associates, we assist our clients in creating and executing powerful talent acquisition strategies. If you need to add additional “A” players to your organization in key areas, please contact us today.