Talent
Development
and she says determining who
gets “watched” is a critical annual
exercise for senior leadership.
She also hopes to expand the
programs to include “out” lesbian
and gay employees as well as
those with both visible and nonvisible disabilities.
Eisenberger recalls several real-world instances when these programs helped her hone her skills
or even begin to realize she needed improvement. As part of the
Pathways Program, for example, she participated in a mock client meeting in which an agenda
had been set and planned. The “
client” turned the plan around within the first five minutes, leaving
Eisenberger scrambling. “The biggest realization is that no matter
ners have encouraged her and
helped her with work/life issues as
she manages career and her four
daughters, ages 5 to 15. “They’ve
made an investment in me and
that’s important. I know someone
wants me to be successful, and I
will do my best.”
CASE STUDY NO. 2
IBM
IBM’s approach to talent development is far more global. “Our goal
is to work across many differences
and learn how you leverage those
differences,” Ashida says. “We need
to keep focusing on the traditionally underrepresented groups, which
“In Asian societies,
the nail that
sticks up gets
hammered down.”
MARGARET E. ASHIDA, IBM
how prepared you are, the client
is going to have its own agenda,”
she says.
Another key takeaway from this
program, she says, was around partner communications. “I’d always
seen myself as being rather articulate,” she says. “I learned through
my participation in the program
that I also had a tendency to be
longwinded … I was given coaching that helped me rein it in and be
more succinct in my delivery.”
She also notes that female part-
is U.S.-centric, but it’s also important to recognize that all countries
have underrepresented groups.”
IBM has a Center for Leadership
Development and its HR team on
Business and Technical Leadership
works with line leaders globally
to identify and develop top talent
with potential. People are identified based on managers’ assessments of their potential against
leadership competencies that are
tied to IBM’s business strategy,
Ashida says.
Ashida’s experience illustrates
the corporation’s increasing emphasis on cultural adaptability. Ashida was born in Lincoln, Neb., to a
Japanese father and a white mother, who weren’t allowed to marry
in those days. As a child, she “
suppressed her Asian heritage” and
didn’t really begin to appreciate it
until she went to work for IBM.
After her participation in the
multicultural women’s symposium,
she learned about “a gamut of
insights that normally you would
get from years of mentoring.”
IBM also uses external relationships to develop its training.
The company sent Ashida to LEAP
(Leadership Education for Asian
Pacifics) training. Her ties to the
organization have lasted and she is
now LEAP’s board chair.
The training was particularly
important for her because she had
adopted some classic Asian leadership styles and “they weren’t
working effectively in a U.S.-based
company. In Asian societies, the
nail that sticks up gets hammered
down. I wasn’t comfortable speaking out or sticking out and I had to
learn how to do that,” she says.
Ashida emphasizes that cultural
adaptability isn’t about assimilating;
it’s about adapting. The corporation
has moved its leadership talent
training and cultural modes onto a
larger scale. Late last year, for
example, IBM was one of several
companies that collaborated on an
Asian Leadership Summit in New
York, providing personal development and mentoring. Sponsorship
of the summit included such 2008
DiversityInc Top 50 companies as
PricewaterhouseCoopers, No. 4;
Marriott International, No. 11;
HSBC Bank USA, NA, No. 18, and
several other companies, including
Cisco and Pfizer.
