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each strategic business unit, based on job performance and, sometimes, assessment center results.
The pros and cons of accelerated development are explained to the candidates, and they decide
whether to join the pool. There's no stigma to opting out.
People might be in the pool for one to 15 years, depending on when they enter and their
development needs. Pool members have an assigned mentor or a team of two to three executives
to aid their development. Assessment centers help define specific individual development needs
and act as the basis for individual development plans.
A senior management team reviews each participant's job performance, competency
development, and job-experience growth at least twice a year. The team makes appropriate
assignment and development decisions for the good of the organization and the candidate.
Organizational movement can be horizontal or vertical, with heavy use of task-force assignments
to minimize family relocation. Training focuses on management and interpersonal skills, with the
training delivered through action learning assignments, virtual teams, Web-based self-study, and
classroom instruction.
Though most people become part of the pool relatively early in their careers, the door is always
open for late bloomers, and they can be dropped if they aren't adequately performing in their
assigned jobs or meeting their development goals. Not everyone named to senior positions will
come from the pool, but most of the internal promotions will.
Segmenting the Talent Reservoir
There are many variations on the basic acceleration pool model. A large organization might have
three pools--one starting at the supervisory level, one at middle management, and one directly
below senior level. The size of a pool depends on the number of positions above it and the
selection ratio that the organization would like to have in filling target positions. The number
of acceleration pools reflects how a company thinks about its people and how it's organized.
For example, an acceleration pool in a manufacturing firm might exist to fill top plant
management positions, while the purpose of a pool of middle managers might be to fulfill a
range of positions. Some people might be in two or three pools as they advance. Some managers
might never be out of an acceleration pool; they might jump from one pool to another as they
move up.
Being in the right lane
Acceleration pools are built around several factors that define the characteristics of the top
managers needed to move the organization forward.
Competencies or dimensions - These are clusters of behavior, knowledge, technical skills, and
motivations important to success in senior management. Examples include change leadership,
strategic direction, global marketing, entrepreneurial insight, and the building of business
partnerships.
Job challenges - This refers to the kinds of situations that a person entering into top management
should have experienced or at least been exposed to. For example, carrying an assignment
through from beginning to end; being heavily involved with a merger, an acquisition, a strategic
alliance, or a partnership opportunity; implementing a companywide change; developing and
implementing a plan to cut costs or control inventories; negotiating agreements with external
organizations; and operating in high-pressure or high-visibility situations.
Organizational knowledge - This term encompasses the areas of an organization that a senior
manager must understand to perform effectively--such as line and staff, home office and field
offices, domestic and international, and management and sales.
Benchmark organizations use a combination of job performance, interview, and assessmentcenter data to identify high-potential people and to diagnose competency-development needs.
One organization looking for top managerial potential decided to put people with certain
organizational titles through assessment centers to help identify those with promise. One of the
assessment centers had people who managed 2,000 or 3,000 employees, along with a young man
who was responsible for only three employees. He stood out because he hadn't gone to college,
while most of the other managers being evaluated had M.B.A.s from leading schools. Yet, this
young man performed admirably--one of the best of the hundreds of people who went through
the centers. The organization jumped on the opportunity and sent him to an executive
development program at Harvard, gave him some behavioral training he needed, and promoted
him. Every few years, it moved him to different key assignments around the world. In every job,
he exceeded expectations, and within a few years he was leading one of the largest sectors of the
organization.
These are the lessons from that story:
* All organizations have more good people than they think; the trick is to find them.
* The assessment center method is a good system for spotting potential.
* An assessment center is an excellent tool for diagnosing specific development needs, which
can be the target of effective training interventions.
Modern day assessment centers can play an important role in succession and development
planning:
* Assessment centers provide insights far beyond those than can be obtained by quicker, easier
methods such as paper-and-pencil tests and interviews. Extensive research has proven their
effectiveness.
* The use of outside professional assessors provides an accurate and unbiased view of
competencies.
* The assessment center is perceived by participants as being fair, job relevant, and accurate.
* Assessment centers allow for an accurate comparison of people throughout the world.
Staying afloat
Acceleration pool members develop through a combination of short, high-impact, targeted
training programs; short-term learning experiences such as attending conferences or hosting a
delegation of foreign customers; and, most of all, from meaningful, measurable job assignments.
For each development activity, acceleration pool members are prepared for success. They
understand why the learning opportunity is important to their current and future job success, and
Acceleration pools are an attractive alternative because they fit the current culture's young
managers by offering intensive self-development, job flexibility, and self-management of their
careers.
Many corporations face a dearth of internal executive talent, mainly due to the failure of
traditional succession planning, which focuses on identifying rather than developing future
leaders.
* An acceleration pool provides an ongoing supply of constantly developing high-potential
candidates.
* Acceleration pools emphasize competencies, job challenges, and organizational knowledge.
Executive Assessment Center
An assessment center is a process designed to identify an individuals strengths, weaknesses, and
potential in a current or future role. The assessment process is characterized by:
- Multiple participants rated by multiple assessors on several varied exercises,
-
Assessees don't deal with other assessees in the center. In group situations, assessment
professionals role play the other meeting attendees. When exercises require an assessee to handle
a staff problem, an assessment professional assumes the role of the employee whose performance
is inadequate. Thus, one person at a time can be assessed in a modern assessment center; this
provides important scheduling flexibility.
Throughout the assessment process, the assessee is treated as a respected adult. He or she can
spend as little or as much time preparing for individual or group meetings, writing reports, and so
forth as he or she deems appropriate.
Reference:
Website http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4467/is_3_54/ai_61649760/ on 02.02.12