Who wears the pants in your organisation?

As a child I was always secure in the belief that if the school bus tipped over the edge of the Golden Gate Bridge (admittedly unlikely in Ealing), then there would always be a man in tights and red underpants there to rescue me.  Of course this was a simpler age when men exposing their underwear in public were considered less of a public menace than they are now but my belief (and that of every other spotty undersized kid in my class) was total.  However bad things might get, there would always be a superhero on hand to bail us out.

What I find interesting is that the belief in superhero infallibility frequently extends into adult life; as a society we are continuously on the lookout for superhero figures that we can adulate in the media.  Firemen, sports personalities, members of the armed forces, actors and really bad acts on the X Factor are all raised high on pedestals for brief periods until they are found wanting and turned over in favour of the next hero in the queue.  (Politicians are a class in their own on this list as most actually do behave as though bitten by a radioactive spider.)

In corporate life too we have become obsessed with hero figures; the star performer, the top sales person, the thought leader, the guru are all, metaphorically speaking, wearing their underpants around the office.  And possibly not a bad thing either; after all, we need leaders and role models who will give us direction and provide inspiration for what we need to achieve.  The problem of course is in knowing whether you have made heroes out of the right people or indeed whether they are demonstrating the superpowers you really need to deliver your strategy; Darth Vader may have been a genius at striking terror into the hearts of half the galaxy but that’s no reason to put him in charge of the executive coaching programme (or maybe it is?)

The truth is, star performers can easily become monsters or prima-donnas when the business context changes and their talents are no longer applicable in the new environment.

So how can organisations equip themselves with the talent they need to meet the challenges of their business strategy?  Our own research shows that most organisations already have the skills and capabilities they need to succeed but are poor at recognising them or they cling to old paradigms about what a ‘superhero’ actually looks like.  Superheroes, it turns out, are sensitive to the context in which they operate; what triumphs consistently in a business environment is not just technical capability (or the ability to leap tall buildings) but the mindsets and attitudes that they bring to the job.

Having studied the people genuinely regarded as superheroes in their organisations we have discovered a pattern. Firstly, they are very clear about their purpose; provide the very best customer service, give the best strategic HR advice, save the world – whatever it is it sits at the forefront of their thinking – all the time.  Secondly they know which relationships are important and how to manage them to achieve their purpose – in short they instinctively manage their stakeholders. Lastly, they understand themselves and how they need to be, their attitude and mindset, to achieve success – they are self-aware and know how to use this in the delivery of their role.  They are also good at changing in telephone boxes.

The Success Profile helps businesses to understand the elements that make superheroes super so that  these can be built into the fabric of your talent strategy.  Knowing what makes the difference between your star performers and the rest gives you the basis of a repeatable talent proposition and knowing how to spot those star performers will give you the power to lead change from within the organisation.  Once these key building blocks are in place, the Success Profile can be used to drive the key levers of talent, (resourcing, development, performance management and compensation) and these will then form the basis of a talent strategy that really works.

Anything else would be just pants.