Raise your hand if yourleadership is continually encouraging innovation, but when it comes down toimplementation, everyone continues to do things as they’ve always done them.Don’t worry; you’re not the only one with your hand in the air. It’s notuncommon for us to revert back to what we know, what is comfortable. What youdid five or ten years ago worked for you — it got you to where you are today.Perhaps what you did back then was unbelievably innovative, and ultimatelysuccessful, for your company. Do you know what your next steps are for aninnovative and successful future? Do youhave the tools and talent necessary for your company’s evolution?
Approximately seven yearsago, a TTI-certified consultant, Vicki Lauter, was working with a healthcareconsulting company. A small, entrepreneurial company, the leaders were having ahard time hiring the right people. This isn’t to say they weren’t hiringgreat people — they were hiring recent cream-of-the-crop MBAs from Duke andChapel Hill. These extremely intelligent, driven graduates were staying withthe company for about a year, then moving on to run divisions at Fortune 1000companies. They were tomorrow’s CEOs, and this particular consulting companydesperately needed dedicated healthcare consultants. Moreover, the leaderswanted employees who would be trained on how to be the perfect healthcareconsultant the way their company envisioned and how they had experiencedsuccess.
Lauter and her teambenchmarked the healthcare consultant position by identifying the keyaccountabilities of the job, and then determining the most successfulbehavioral (DISC) style, motivators, acumen and competencies (soft skills) anideal candidate would possess. As theyrecruited and onboarded candidates who aligned with that particular benchmark,they found that their retention rate increased substantially, and the firstbatch of benchmarked consultants stayed on staff a minimum of four years.
Let’s fast-forward now to2011. Five years after the original (andsuccessful) job benchmark, the company’s leadership came to the realizationthat their clients were changing, and thus the company needed to change aswell. Lauter’s team was brought back in to re-benchmark the company’s standardconsultant position, and during the benchmarking process, the leadership teamtruly realized how much their talent pool needed to change. Originally, theywere looking for highly compliant, technically savvy individuals who woulddeliver the company’s strategy precisely as they were taught. Afterre-benchmarking, the position, the company leaders recognized that they neededconsultants who were comfortable talking and meeting with clients, anddelivering solutions to each client depending on that client’s individualneeds. This was a very different type ofemployee.
Implemented successfully,this healthcare consulting company developed a cadre of talented consultants,equipped to evolve with the company’s strategic plan, but before they couldinnovate, they needed the right people working to fulfill the vision of thecompany.
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