Case Studies

Executive Assessments: A Strategic Alignment Tool

For decades, companies have realized the value of Executive Assessments as part of the hiring process. Now, more companies are using Executive Assessment in a new way, as part of a comprehensive talent review process to achieve strategic alignment with business goals. This new generation strategic alignment tool – assessing entire groups of leaders within an organization – provides insight to:

Guide operational restructuring
Determine senior leadership succession
Gauge systemic gaps in leadership talent

Client Challenge

A national specialty restaurant company set a business goal to improve store performance by restructuring. They called on BHI for help with planning and implementation. Designed to leverage market resources, communications, and operational best practices, the realignment strategy would consolidate support groups for both company and franchise operations. Restructuring presented challenges because the dynamics of managing operations support within the franchisee arena differ remarkably from those of company operations support. The competencies which lead to success in the company operations support group don't necessarily guarantee success in the franchise operations support groupand vice versa. For example, the role of leaders in franchise store operations support requires a higher level of skill in relationship management to lead through influence. The role within company store operations support requiresmore directive leadership with the ability to enforce standards. Who among the current operational leaders had the strongest potential for success in the new consolidated role?

Solutions

Partnering with the restaurant company, BHI provided a comprehensive, consistent and common-language talent assessment of 150 key operations leaders within five weeks without interrupting day-to-day operations. A Talent Review Dashboard was prepared on each individual and included:

Ratings of 14 leadership competencies aligned with company performance objectives
Narrative report outlining key strengths and developmental needs
Fit-For-Position graph for each of the roles in the new structure

Results

In one afternoon during a meeting of the top executive team, BHI presented a powerfully vivid picture of where the company stood regarding operational talent for restructuring. The Talent Review Dashboards and the comprehensive review process put a clear focus on the leadership competencies needed to drive business results, enabling decisions about restructuring to be made with more precision and confidence. Talent levels by individual, team, and entire regions could quickly be reviewed resulting in more targeted relocation, promotion, and role-change decisions. Specific recruiting strategies could be identified to close exposed gaps in management talent. The talent review process also generated a common language to nurture a culture centered on the identified leadership competencies.

Smooth Leadership Succession

Even when retirement or other changes are on a somewhat distant horizon, the transition of CEO or other top executive positions has the potential to significantly disrupt business performance. Who will be selected to lead the company? How will this leader be selected? How will this leadership change impact the organizational culture? What effect will the transition have on business operations and ultimately results? What are the risks and costs of selecting the wrong person? These are some of the questions companies must address. Using Executive Assessments as a next generation strategic alignment tool enables companies to gauge executive talent throughout the organization, develop the best succession plan, and ensure business results. More specifically, this process of assessing and aligning executive talent helps companies:

Make confident decisions about the next CEO and structure a powerful succession plan by measuring all candidates against an objective Profile of Success
Transition the CEO position smoothly with minimum turnover of executives
Provide a clear map for successful leadership transition by defining and communicating key organizational priorities for the first year
Strengthen the leadership effectiveness and team orientation of the entire senior leadership team

Closing Systemic Gaps

Frequently, the quality or emphasis of leadership talent varies region by region, district by district or group by group. Many times the differences are driven by the strengths of the leader in that region, district or group. Naturally, we all tend to foster an environment where people work like we like to work.

While not necessarily a problem, this situation can create leadership performance gaps – issues not readily seen in managing the day-to-day business operations. The ability to objectively and systematically diagnose these talent gaps is the key to driving results. In working with another national company, BHI identified that the leadership style of each regional director had pervaded their management teams to such a degree that performance was beginning to decrease. System-wide assessments were used to examine specific talent issues by region and remedy the situations more quickly and effectively. For instance, in one region the pervasive leadership style was easy-going and relationship focused with less value placed on accountability. In the second region, the pervasive leadership style was aggressive and controlling with less value placed on developing people and teams. For both regions, BHI was able to identify blind spots about leadership talent that hindered business performance. Comprehensively assessing executive leadership talent allowed the company to quickly close systemic gaps in organizational leadership talent by

Altering selection strategies for new hires and promotions to ensure strong overall effective leadership
Focusing development and training on region-specific needs to maximize resources and results

It's Your Call

Is your organization's talent aligned with your business strategies? Are you ready for restructuring? Do you know if you have the right leaders in the right positions? Do you have depth and precision in your succession plan? Do you know what your organizational blind spots are regarding leadership talent? Find out how BHI can partner with you to achieve the business results you want. Call our consultants at 469.241.9701.

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