Transforming organisations

Over the top

Fast growing organisations often try to promote from within as if to reward some of the people that have been there since the early, formative, turbulent, demanding days.

Sometimes it works, but essentially if it is to work then the growth of the people has to be in harmony with and at a similar pace as the growth of the organisation.

This can be a tall order for some, especially if they are promoted from being a manager to being a director where a whole new type of responsibility kicks in. So what do you do with someone who is young, enthusiastic and talented as a manager but who doesn’t quite cut the mustard at director level?

My goodness, you train them!! We all have to attract, keep and develop talent from whatever source in order to develop and sustain competitive advantage in the knowledge economy. It could be a bespoke course, it could be group work such as to be found with the ACE organisation, it could be one to one mentoring but it has to be something.

Otherwise, as one massively talented, recently promoted person put it to me recently, who has no support and no mentoring, “Well, I was ready to leave the company.”

And that’s called a tragedy, both for the individual and for the organisation.

posted by Tim @ 2:08 AM