From Doers to Leaders: Nurturing Leadership Potential in Early Stage Organizations
Summary:
In this episode our host Dr. Jim sits down with Brittany Burton at HR Transform in Las Vegas to delve into the nuances of talent strategy within high-growth organizations. Theirdiscussion covers the gamut from cultivating hidden leadership potential to adapting HR practices in rapidly evolving business landscapes.
Brittany underscores the importance of recognizing and nurturing emergent leaders within a company, especially in the fertile ground of start-ups. She offers a compelling narrative on how identifying and developing these individuals is essential for innovation and growth, emphasizing the personalized nature of effective talent development. Dr. Jim and Brittany's conversation pivots around the principle of avoiding groupthink and maintaining a proactive talent strategy to sustain a high-growth trajectory.
Key Takeaways:
* Successful HR leadership in high growth environments involves recognizing leadership potential where individuals may not see it themselves.
* It's imperative to cultivate a talent strategy that's innovative, avoiding habitual groupthink and one-size-fits-all solutions.
* Start-up phases are ripe for developing leaders through intentional opportunity creation and experiential growth.
* Continuous improvement and iteration are vital, but a dynamic and flexible approach is required for a rapidly changing business.
* Understanding the unique competencies and motivations of emerging leaders is crucial for designing targeted development programs.
Chapters:
0:00:00
Introduction to the HR Impact show with Dr. Jim and guest Brittany Burton
0:01:04
Brittany's expertise lies in rapid change and growth projects
0:02:52
Brittany transitioned to consulting to work in her zone of genius
0:04:06
Identifying potential leaders who don't recognize their own potential
0:05:08
Cultivating leadership skills through tailored training and opportunities
0:06:15
Leaders must be intentional about seeking talent outside their circle
0:08:04
HR leaders drive innovation by bringing in fresh perspectives
0:09:18
Ways to contact Brittany Burton and join the Startup Stage community
0:09:40
Key takeaways: intentional talent strategy, problem-solving focus, proactive growth
Connect with Dr. Jim: linkedin.com/in/drjimk
Connect with CT: linkedin.com/in/cheetung
Connect with Brittany Burton: linkedin.com/in/blburton
Music Credit: Shake it Up - Fesliyanstudios.com - David Renda
Join us at HR Impact to learn and connect with a community of HR leaders just like you. This is the space where top people leaders share actionable insights and practical playbooks in fostering a high-performing workplace of the future.
Sign up as a member today for community updates on the latest HR resources and exclusive event invites: www.engagerocket.co/hrimpact
Mentioned in this episode:
Engaging Leadership Intro
Engaging Leadership Outro
Transcript
Brittany, thanks for hanging out with us.
[:[00:00:18] Dr. Jim: Yeah, super excited to have you on. And I think one of the important things that we want to do to set the stage is have the audience learn a little bit more about you. So tell us a little bit about some of the work that you're doing.
[:S. or going through a merger acquisition or some type of rapid change. Long story short, I, I [00:01:00] don't have an industry or sector that I am, like, set to. I don't have a size that I'm set to. I'm most passionate about the projects that need rapid change or growth. And if you fit the bill and it feels like an alignment, that's where I love to be.
[:[00:01:27] Brittany Burton: I started I'm an East Tennessee girl born and raised and I started in corporate HR and mostly manufacturing in East Tennessee and really had reached the pinnacle of, aspirations in that area if I didn't want to relocate and as luck and fortune would have it, the Tennessee Department of Economic Development found me and we aligned and would help to recruit industries to Tennessee.
o relocate their operations. [:And again, someone reached out after that. Another large Fortune 500 corporation that was looking to relocate a facility to Tennessee. And said, hey, we want you to come do for us what you just did for them. And so I kept finding myself in that situation. And ultimately, I realized that being a career employee and with an organization for 20 plus years is probably not my goal.
I really enjoy the building, the scaling, the growing. And then once we hit a point where we can have status quo and just focus on continuous improvement, I get bored. So I transitioned to consulting where I can work in my zone of genius with clients and help get them to the point where we're comfortable with where we are, bring in a permanent team to really continuously improve and drive those efforts.
And I can go on and help someone else.
[:You and I see eye to eye on a lot of things in terms of what we like to do. You mentioned something that was pretty interesting, and that was when it gets to the continuous improvement and iterative improvement stuff where you're trying to improve by 0. 01%, you get bored. That basically just describes me.
My attention span is not cut out for that sort of stuff. It's just too boring. When I'm working with organizations, I love being in those organizations that are from 0 to, let's say, 8 to 10 million. Because that's the pace that fits my personality. Once it gets beyond that, there's just too much structure.
and specifically how you get [:prepared to be leaders versus doers.
[:And I think the criteria, the foundational criteria is spending time to know your people and identifying those individual contributors that already show leadership potential and don't see it in themselves. So what type of opportunities can you give them? What stages can you give them? to show that project they're working on.
nd coaching them about their [:And. Really what drives them and placing a focus on leadership that really is going to motivate them to grow in that capacity.
[:In previous organizations, oftentimes working with each other. And they say, they often say, let's run this back and do it again. So when you're making the point of leaders have a responsibility of identifying those people who might not see in themselves the capacity to lead, that seems like it would be really difficult to do.
e. So what can leaders do to [:What are the steps that they should be taking to identify those folks in their organization that maybe are even out of the leader's comfort zone on who they would typically identify for that next step up?
[:The first is, I think as an HR leader of an organization, we are the stewards of driving innovation through looking at talent and the potential skills that they have to bring to the table when we grow them as a leader. We're only as good as the fresh perspectives and the new ideas that come our way, and we're not going to get that if it's the same teams building over and over.
In order to be able to drive this better, or do it more efficiently, or see the bigger picture, or be innovative, we've got to have fresh brains at the table. So who do we know? What is the right skill set? What is the leadership qualities? What is the qualities, just in general, that we're looking for?
hat talent and then building [:What are the competencies we're needing this person to develop in? And how do we build a program? How do we build opportunities to really grow and leverage that skill set? So if it is more scientific and data related, it is probably down an educational path, like true typical training. If it is more leadership and we need them to own or we need their visionary ability to really grow this, it's working with that person to understand what they need, what makes them thrive best.
there's no one size fits all [:We're not going to put people necessarily on a path that in a rapidly scaling startup there's not career progression and career paths. We don't spend time to do that because the organization's always adapted. So it's really individual based.
[:And I think one of the things that I take away from what you just mentioned is that leaders need to be intentional about not falling into group think. And the other element that I took from what you mentioned is you have to be zeroed in on what's the problem that you're going to, you're trying to solve.
And any good leader knows that there's more than one way to solve a particular problem. So why should you be looking at your talent pool with that one size fits all, or this is the one way that we're going to solve this mindset because there's a lot of different paths, some of them that you might not even be aware of that you can take to solve the problem better or bring in new perspectives into it.
his conversation, what's the [:[00:09:01] Brittany Burton: Yeah. So they can find me through org shakers. orgshakers. com, britney at orgshakers. com. And I'm also a founding partner of Startup Stage, which is an organization primed to, to showcase startups.
And so you can also find me there, britney at startupstage. app.
[:One, as a startup leader, you really need to be intentional about your talent strategy with a focus on understanding what's the problem that you're trying to solve. When you take that mindset that opens up your talent pool in a lot of interesting ways where. You might be broadening out your capabilities or broadening out the access to people to bring into the organization to solve that particular problem.
ization and your priority is [:So it's imperative that you take a proactive view of your talent strategy to make sure that you're growing at the pace that you expect to grow as an executive and as a leader. So for those of you who have been listening to the conversation, hope you liked it. Leave us a review if you haven't already done so.
Make sure you join the HR impact community. You can find that at www engage rocket dot ceo slash HR impact and then tune in. For another episode coming soon where we feature another great leader sharing with us the game changing insights that they've experienced that helped them build a high performing team
