Symantec is a global leader in software security, storage, and systems management. Sometimes people enviously argue that a company like Symantec can afford to invest in leadership and organization development because of their success. But a large part of Symantec’s success has resulted from these development investments.
Symantec attracts highly effective leaders from around the world. However, “there are good leaders and there are great leaders — and Symantec makes momentous efforts to help both further develop their strengths as they progress within the organization,” said Sandy Hunter, Senior Director, Leadership & Employee Development, Symantec. “We know that deploying strong leadership practices from top to bottom is going to drive better business results.”
Sandy goes on to explain, “what got them to where they are may not be sufficient to keep them successful over time, especially in a very dynamic environment. Our success depends on our ability to develop, motivate, and retain high-potential employees at every level of the company, and prepare them to take on additional responsibility as the organization grows.”
A key element in Symantec’s leadership development efforts is a program they launched in 2010 called “Top Talent.” It has three tracks for individual contributor, managers/senior managers, and directors/senior directors.
We’ve just published a case study on Symantec’s highly successful Top Talent program.
Highlights include:
• About 15 of Symantec’s full time employees are recognized as Top Talent.
• Zenger Folkman’s The Extraordinary Leader development system was used for 455 high-potential first line managers and senior managers using multiple learning strategies and technologies.
• Follow through included webinars and monthly newsletters.
• A reassessment showed the first cohort of leaders going through the program found “the results were incredibly positive. Symantec found improvement in each and every competency measured.”
Symantec is now implementing a corporate-wide high-potential program. According to Bettina Koblick, Chief HR Officer at Symantec:
“By cultivating and deploying our employees’ leadership strengths, we can drive superior performance amidst accelerating growth and competitiveness in the IT marketplace. To not accelerate their development and feed this leadership pipeline would have been a shame … We now have leaders who are intensely focused on learning, teaching, and understanding which competencies are not only valuable, but are critical to their performance.”
Click here to download and read Symantec Leaders Show “Extraordinary” Results
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