Solutions for All Pipeline Levels
DDI believes in a pipeline approach to assessment and development at all levels of your organization. Whether you’re looking to focus on one part of your leadership pipeline or are putting together a comprehensive approach to building bench strength at every level, DDI has solutions that will help you create and sustain strong leaders throughout your organization.
Individual Contributors
Individual Contributors are often “leaders in training” who will eventually take on formal roles, showing promise as they lead teams or peers in their current non-management role. Many will transition into People Leader roles and need to develop skills to get results through direct reports and teams. Other employees may have no desire to advance and/or are star contributors in their own right, but do not manage others formally. DDI can help make these key players more confident and more aligned with your organization’s goals.
It starts with selection—we have a proven, systematic approach for hiring and promoting Individual Contributors with the right skills and fit. From a development standpoint, we have effective, competency-based training to equip your workforce—individual contributors, team members, and frontline leaders—with the day-to-day interpersonal, teamwork and business skills that create and maintain a high-performance workplace. To drive greater accountability, we bring a performance management process and skills to every worker.
People Leaders
Early People Leader roles provide the first formal opportunities for leaders to get work done through others.
Effective motivation, planning, coaching and responsibility for evaluating others’ performance require both value (i.e., emotional) and skill adjustments. The transition from an Individual Contributor role to a People Leader role also offers individuals a chance to determine if they are suited to leadership.
We develop front-line managers who can drive results, who develop star performers and who improve engagement. Our comprehensive approach to frontline talent includes:
- Assessment platforms to hire and promote as well as to identify skill gaps.
- A robust curriculum based on behavior-modeling techniques, giving leaders a strong skill set and the tools to apply them on the job.
- An approach to blending learning that saves you money while maintaining the quality of training and its outcomes.
- A performance management system to drive accountability and execution.
Operational Leaders
Operational leaders may manage managers and/or be asked to manage beyond their own functional areas or experience. They are often focused on optimizing processes and the performance of their unit.
Key transitional challenges at this level include increasing the span of control by managing other leaders, shifting from tactical activities to operational and strategic issues, taking on accountability for growth and profitability and balancing requests from the top with the needs and expectations of employees. To accomplish these objectives, individuals need to mature in their communication and leadership skills, and develop sound delegation skills.
DDI will help you build a holistic Success ProfileSM of operational leaders who will be best equipped to execute your business strategies. We’ll create a framework for identifying high potentials early and reliably. We’ll also leverage assessment techniques to give you a complete picture of your leaders’ strengths, derailers and development priorities, so you can make sound hiring and placement decisions.
To help you understand your operational leaders’ ability to lead the organization toward existing or new goals, we can conduct a readiness audit. To speed development, we offer a focused curriculum to help these leaders master the unique challenges they face daily. And, to drive accountability around the “whats” and the “hows,” we have a performance management system.
Strategic Leaders
Strategic Leaders establish the organization’s long-term vision, act as entrepreneurs to devise and drive strategies that keep the organization ahead of competitors and create and nuture a high performance culture. Leaders at the top need skills not necessary at other levels, including strategic thinking, inspiring communication and the ability to create and execute vision.
DDI will help you build a holistic Executive Success ProfileSM so you’ll know what makes senior leaders effective and able to execute your business strategies. You’ll have a framework for identifying high potentials early and reliably, as well as assessment techniques to give you a complete picture of your leaders’ strengths, derailers and development priorities, so you can make sound hiring and placement decisions.
A readiness audit will help you understand your senior team’s ability to lead the organization toward existing or new goals. Customized programs linked to your business challenges will help speed development. Plus, to maximize each executive’s impact, we provide external coaching support, mentor training and strategic learning experiences.