Episode 103: Skills, Skills, and More Skills— Finding What the Organization Values Most

Key Learnings

• “A skills-based organization is using this data to focus on specific business problems: whom to hire, whom to promote, how to develop people for increased performance, and whom to consider for an internal position. Many companies are now “paying for skills,” encouraging employees to figure out what skills are in demand and go out and build them.” Credit: Josh Bersion 2023 HR Report 

• Zenger Folkman’s organizational effectiveness research: 122,000 employees in 10,000 groups from different organizations.  The research distilled thousands of variables down to a few key capabilities that leveraged organizational effectiveness.
• There are many areas in every group that need improvement, but there is a much smaller list of key areas that are valued most by the members of a particular department or team.

• The problem we have is that most leaders are so preoccupied with “fixing weaknesses” that they don’t seek feedback from group members to identify which of the changes they would appreciate most.

• Word of warning about that: discovering only the needs for improvement should not be the priority when companies are seeking to increase their effectiveness.

• In short, balance is vital. Organizations should do the following:

  1)   Identify items in the organization that are both needed and valued by different work groups.

  2)   Identify organizational strengths, and build on them.

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