Building a Community of High Performers

Despite a compelling future vision and potentially winning strategy, many leaders find execution blocked by a lack of organizational capacity. The challenges frequently include:

• Lack of down the line leaders with the general management skills to drive implementation effectively.
• Managers overly involved in the operational details of their direct reports – in effect, managing one level down from where they should be.
• Ineffective implementation across organizational boundaries.
• Individuals who feel overworked – yet also that they are not unleashing their full potential at work, and that their professional growth has stalled.

To overcome these challenges, many leaders turn to HR for initiatives that frequently address specific aspects – e.g., focused training and development programs, job redesign or new reporting relationships – but do not translate quickly into the desired improvements in capabilities and performance.

TruePoint takes an integrative, performance-driven approach to addressing these challenges. We work with leaders and their HR executives to expand the development of strategic human capabilities beyond periodic visits to the corporate training center to become an integral part of the transition to high performance and commitment. Specifically, TruePoint helps leaders address three interlinked areas:

• Capability building for high-potential down-the-line managers and pivotal groups. Within even very large organizations, significant gains in performance can be achieved by focusing on improving the capabilities of a small set of high-potential down-the-line managers or the members of pivotal groups – e.g., 50 high potentials within a $40 billion financial services company, 75 district managers within a 20,000 person restaurant chain, or 100 product managers within a 50,000 person telecommunications company. We typically design approaches that build individual capability – in the context of leading direct implementation projects – and spread capability across the entire group through peer-learning approaches and the development of an effective community of practice. (See also Down-the-Line Leaders.)
• Direct performance projects. We have found that the most powerful way to build new capabilities is through business-focused projects that deliver performance impact. For high potentials, these projects serve as the vehicle for both learning and development. They also can highlight areas of organizational misalignment that need to be addressed. (See also Quick Win Projects.)
• Supporting organization context. We engage pivotal managers themselves to identify the changes that will help them collectively achieve a step change in their capabilities and effectiveness. This typically clarifies and refines role requirements and competencies, and identifies the related changes required to enable these managers to play their roles effectively – e.g., more aligned performance metrics, incentives, information, or coordinating mechanisms.

TruePoint’s entry point will differ, depending upon the priorities and the context. But our goal is to create an interlinked, mutually reinforcing system that can drive both broad and deep impact.