High Potential Managers Development

Development programs for High Potential Managers and Leaders (HiPos) are a cornerstone in TWP’s corporate offerings. Global and regional programs are offered to clients such as Unilever and Hindustan Lever, Allied Domecq, Imperial Tobacco, Mindshare, Schenker Logistics, The Singapore Police Force, Sony Ericcson, Del, Yahoo, Unicef, the United Nations and others.

HiPo programs are one of the major interventions corporations embark upon in what is usually a series of Transition Interventions. TWP are masters of behaviour change and preparation at key intervals in a manager’s or leader’s career where quite often skills from their previous experience no longer guarantee success in their new role. More emphasis is required on the “who this manager or leader is” rather than what they know or have done.

TWP focus on “what is it about You that will have you succeed in your next role?” There are questions that organisations need to ask but often don’t know how. These interventions, often coupled with skill-based sessions, have demonstrated dramatic shifts in behaviour for many of our clients. Several of our clients have instituted TWP programs as fundamental pillars in their core Leadership curriculum. In many cases they are the starting point of any curriculum.

TWP’s focus in HiPo Programs

i) Attitudes, Beliefs and the power of feedback at the right time

TWP’s expertise lies in actually shifting behaviour in a training room environment and then ensuring that this behaviour change is taken back to the workplace and demonstrated within the organisation. TWP’s programs are “sticky” - what happens in the training does make the transition to the workplace and the career of participants for years to follow. How does TWP do this?

TWP do not focus on what a manager or leader does. We focus on who they are. Using the analogy of an iceberg, all of us are consciously choosing a fraction of the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that drive our results - the tip of the iceberg. Think of anything you have learned but is now automatic for you – driving a car, using a PC, etc. It started with conscious learning but quickly became a habit. For all managers and leaders this is also true of their management or leadership style – they are now mainly unconscious habits.

Below the waterline, where we cannot tap into them, lie the habits, beliefs, and history that dictate most of our behaviour on a day-to-day basis. It is the power of these unseen attitudes and beliefs that sabotage most training initiatives, feedback models and other coaching interventions. In a classic training or education setting, the participants deal only with the behaviour of which they are conscious. Then, when they return to their organisation -- and importantly their homes -- the weight of years of habit, social needs, company culture and other influences to conform are far more powerful. All of us see the world through our own set of filters dictated by our history and habit. Only by shifting how a manager or leader sees themselves or situations will behaviour change.

Behaviour is predictable if not spontaneous, based on how someone sees themselves and/or the situation and, in the majority of cases, this way of seeing is dictated by their history, rather than the present circumstances or desired outcome. The TWP approach has the effect of getting the manager off their “automatic behaviours” and habits and instead, re-eqipping them with a wider range of choices.

This shows up increasingly as companies introduce competency models and 360-degree feedback models. Feedback on competencies is given in written or oral form but is taken in by the recipients through the filters they have established over years. They therefore can only see the feedback that their filters allow. Through years of habit, they can probably explain all the reasons why they are receiving this feedback and ultimately they therefore do not change their behaviour.

Organisations have been giving their leaders feedback in various forms for years, but in most cases behaviour does not truly change.

Until managers and leaders are aware of their own attitudes, beliefs and worldviews, they are not able to look at feedback in a new way. Because of this, in all TWP programs which incorporate documented feedback (and we recommend that all do), we urge that this feedback is given only after 3 to 4 days of personal awareness training.

TWP are experts at showing participants their attitudes and beliefs in a non-challenging but engaging manner. TWP’s sister division, which is open to members of the public, trains over 20,000 people a year in Personal Awareness workshops. In one country we have used these techniques to train over 250,000 teenagers in a National Character Building Program that has been made compulsory by the Governemnt

Discussion of a subject’s beliefs and attitudes can be a daunting prospect. The skill of the TWP facilitators is the key. Shifts in attitudes result in transformation rather than incremental change. In nearly all cases, an individual finds that he or she is liberated from old behaviours and habits and complete the modules feeling capable of far more in both their personal and professional lives. Participants leave TWP workshops incredibly motivated and committed – often a spouse has contacted TWP or their partner’s organisation to comment on the positive changes they see outside of work and with family.

ii) Making programs “sticky” – declaration, coaching and high profile performance within the program

New behaviour is easy to create in an isolated training environment using an artificial context, which encourages new content. However, once participants return to their workplace and families, the context that existed before the training interventions will determine subsequent behaviour unless the context of the training is maintained. This is done through intense (usually weekly) coaching and an end-of-coaching public presentation or demonstration of work completed. This is well known to the participants at the outset.

Neither training nor education will of themselves change behaviour in the long term. Behaviour is changed by the formation of new habits which start with the creation of a new mindset or attitude and a new commitment to change and practice. Current thinking indicates that it takes human beings an average of 40 days of continual practice to change a non-addictive habit. It happens gradually and, just as when we learned to drive the car, we one day realise that we can and are doing things differently.

TWP maintain the context of the training with expert coaching from the outset. Typically, TWP coaches interact with participants before the residential modules and then weekly for a period of 2 to 4 months before a second residential module, where participants will present the results of their work.

Where a corporation also wishes to instil a stronger coaching culture within the organisation, TWP can work with the organisation to develop an in-house coaching capacity for the HiPo programs. In these, a number (2-8) of in-house coaches (usually graduates of the same program) are supported by one senior TWP coach during the program. This reduces external costs for companies who plan to offer these programs on a long-term basis as well as providing an opportunity for the in-house coaches to “internalise” the new coaching skills within a supported framework.

The “Performance” element of the second residential module is the key in terms of providing the creative tension needed to accelerate behaviour change. Usually this takes the form of business presentations on projects chosen by teams of participants or allocated to them by the organisation. Attendance and support of the most senior management in this module is essential. There is a direct relationship between the seniority of panels when reviewing projects and the amount of work done and the amount of behaviour change.

In one of our UK stock exchange-listed clients, the panel consists of the Chairman, the entire global board and all non-executive directors. The projects allocated to the teams are those that would otherwise have gone to external global consultants. The company uses their HiPo’s in TWP programs in place of consultants and will not use consultants within the organisation. In another global listed client, the Chairman reported that sitting on the TWP program panel was his second highest business diary requirement after shareholder and city-related appointments.

In addition to being a mechanism within which to practise new behaviours, the business projects provide an ideal opportunity for companies to implement significant strategic initiatives. Examples of business projects that were successfully implemented within TWP programs include:

Personal Care Industry – The international Dove Campaign for Natural Beauty. The manifesto for this global program was the business project for the Dove Global Team in partnership with their advertising agency, which also attended the training.

Food industry: Reduce launch time for frozen food concept from 18 months to 4 months – resulting in the launch of the Birdseye Steamfresh range across Europe.

Telecoms industry: Implementation of New Account Management Strategy – doubled market share from 5% to 10.5% in Asia Pacific region.

Governmental: First UN initiative on HIV/Aids in Muslim countries – Introduced by TWP in Malaysia.

Global consumer goods: UK listed company – strategy for possible entry into 3 new markets presented to global board by 2 teams of participants. Recommendations to be implemented.

Global consumer goods: Instilling a coaching culture throughout Brazilian company. Implementation team awarded the only global HR award in that multinational in that year.

iii) Pre-Work and Building a Community and Team

Many training programs require pre-work but, as most organisations know, it is rarely done in full and often rushed at the last minute as participants attend the residential modules. As with feedback models which are placed too early in the process, pre-work also suffers in terms of impact as it is done with the “old mindset” of the participants.

TWP pre-work on HiPo programs is different. It is not a series of case studies or readings and is used as a way to start a journey. In most cases TWP will create a web-site community for participants who will receive a weekly task to complete and post their findings/learning to the web pages to be shared amongst members. Tasks are often seen as out-of-the-box, fun and enticing and they can often be completed with family members. At a minimum, participants come to the workshop realising that this training is different and they are engaged and enrolled. They have also learned a surprising amount about each other and themselves. Tasks will often include watching a movie and commenting, visiting non work organisations, answering provocative questions and so on.

In addition to the weekly tasks, the participants will receive their first coaching calls. This assists with community creation as well as providing the organisation and TWP with some element of screening and additional enrolment into programs. Where a series of programs is introduced, we often have alumni from previous programs assist with preparation and encouragement of participants.

The web site created often continues as a central forum for participants through later modules and a number of companies have taken the web sites in house due to the sensitive nature of some business projects.

iv) Adding Business Content, other learning – the “doing” element of Leadership

In most HiPo Programs, clients take the opportunity to add specific learning content to the residential modules. This recognises that although the power of behaviour changes lies in a shift in attitudes and beliefs, managers also need certain skills and tools. When designing Leadership programs, TWP always ask clients the question “Leadership towards what?” We find that Leadership alone is too vague a concept for clients and participants. All organisations need their leadership to move in specific directions. This often coincides with particular themes and periods in an organisation.

The most popular themes to date have been Leadership for Change, Leadership for Growth, Leadership through transition (company mergers etc), Leadership for Profit, Leadership for Speed, Leadership for Creativity and so on.

With these directions recognised it is possible to add educational content to programs. These not only build on a new excitement and enthusiasm among participants, but also enable them to look at business problems in new ways. TWP either provide the business content or work with a series of external educators to provide seamless programs.

Typically, content modules are provided for 2-3 days immediately after the awareness module, or, where travel costs do not preclude it, in follow-up residential modules in the following month or two. Some programs have 2-3 content modules in addition to the first residential module.

v) Other Options

All TWP programs are tailored to a client’s needs. The following options have been successfully incorporated into HiPo programs by TWP.

Outdoor Challenge day to end the first residential module

As with 360-degree feedback models, TWP find that most clients use Outdoor Challenge days at the wrong time in programs. They are usually used to open programs and “break the ice”. As with the feedback, we find that the benefits are reduced because participants come to the Challenge Day with their existing mindset, and although an enjoyable and stretching day can be created, little of the impact is retained.

TWP recommend the use of these days (when used) on the last day of the awareness module, not as a team building event but as a true challenge for participants to practise their new behaviour identified in the workshop. It is an opportunity for them to reinforce their new leadership and team behaviours as well as to stretch themselves both individually and as a team.

Collective Community Service Projects

A number of clients have their participants declare and create a community service project as a “non-work” initiative to practise their leadership behaviours. It is usually structured so that they can not use company resources or their position in an organisation to create the projects. Instead, participants have to rely on “who they are” and pure leadership skills to build something from nothing.

These projects are attractive since it is relatively easy to create a high level of commitment to an agreed project and because they do not rely on any one set of skills, background or knowledge. They are usually designed to be a one-day event in the same module as the business project or individual presentations at the end of the coaching.

Community service projects created by clients in TWP programs include:

• International Day at a home for terminally ill children in Boston, USA.
• Building of a new wing for a children’s home in Sao Paolo, Brazil, for families of children with cancer.
• Christmas party for abused children in London area, UK.
• Sensory experience (music, taste, animal zoo) for a group of blind children, UK.
• Beach party for mentally handicapped children in Singapore.
• And many others. TWP with its sister division oversee more than 10 service projects a month throughout the world.

Business visits

Where the theme for leadership suggests business visits to related, or often completely unrelated, business or enterprises, TWP have worked with clients to expose participants to other experiences in order to assist them to look at situations with a new perspective. All visits are tailor made, often in association with the client or other providers. Such visits are particularly popular when Leadership for Change is the theme.

Teaching Leaders to think like Coaches

After 2-3 months of intensive coaching, participants are usually very attracted to the idea of coaching, not only for themselves but as a tool for their teams. The most popular add-on to any of TWP’s Leadership modules is a “Think like a Coach” workshop – often delivered in the final panel day residential module. TWP recognise that Leaders do not want to be full-time coaches and therefore do not want masses of theory on coaching. What they want to learn is how the people who have been coaching them achieved what they did. In a 2 day module, TWP can give an insight to how the TWP coach approaches behaviour, results and action and give participants enough knowledge and practice to be able to use these skills with their teams when they leave the program. This module also equips participants to be internal coaches on later modules should a client wish to bring coaching in-house on a continuing basis. .

The success of the TWP HiPo programs resides in our ability to harness Leadership Awareness, Behaviour Change, Coaching, New Content and Provide Creative Tension with real measurable performance within one program.