Page 91 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

Getting Great People on Board 81

program staff with the digital world. Walker and his team also changed
the job descriptions for new program officers to require some experience
with coding and a basic knowledge of the digital landscape in addition to
their own field. Finally, they changed the actual programs to focus on cre-
ating a new field of internet rights, marrying human rights to understand-
ing technology and media, and lots more.
Though this solution proved to be a good one, it was still a wrench- ing
and difficult change for the organization and for Walker, particularly since
he knew that not everyone could make the shift successfully. But he was
clear and candid in his communications: “I had to deliver a tough-love
message, saying to people that while we had a lot to be proud of, if we con-
tinued on that path, a lot of them would be irrelevant. I also had to be frank
about the fact that some of them wouldn’t make it. It wasn’t easy.”

Assembling your leadership team

Walker’s story demonstrates how difficult it is to get the right skills and
capabilities to pursue your strategic goals, while also respecting everyone’s
security and well-being. But the reality is that just as strategy development
is a continuous process, you will need to be continually making related
staffing decisions. That’s true at the scale of the whole organization, and
particularly within your own department or team.
Every leader, at every level, needs to have a top-notch team to help
develop and then execute strategy, and drive the organization forward. But
the direct report team is especially important because its work cascades
down to everything else the department or organization does. Sometimes
you’ll need to recruit the team or part of it, but most of the time, you’ll in-
herit a team already in place. As Walker did with his leaders, you’ll need to
make sure that all members of the team have the capability to fulfill their
particular roles and collaborate with others as needed in order to achieve
the organization’s goals.
So what are the most important things to consider when looking for
the right people for your leadership team? And how do you assess whether
those you already have can make the cut?