S&P Global — Talent & Leadership Development

Different leaders need different kinds of development. The opportunity was to create connective tissue across them: shared ideas and recognizable structures that could travel from one experience to another, while allowing each program to work for its particular audience and purpose.

That principle was present from the beginning. Early Talent Management work called for a system that could be recognizable, sustainable and expandable across training, communications, print and digital applications. At the same time, competency work was defining what effective HR and talent leadership meant in practice: connecting human-capital strategy to business strategy, developing and retaining talent, raising managers’ ability to coach, and helping leaders own people initiatives.

Leadership Essentials then translated enterprise strategy into six clear expectations: Operate Outside-In. Adopt a World View. Speak the Truth. Elevate People. Drive Performance. Execute with Discipline.

A Strategic Learning Map connected those behaviors visually to the company’s customers, business model, vision, mission and Essential Intelligence promise. Participants explored the visual together, worked through scenarios and questions, compared perspectives and formed their own conclusions. Facilitators were instructed to guide rather than teach.

The experience then brought the conversation down to the individual level: What needed to shift? What could get in the way? What would each leader start, stop or continue doing? Define the system. Translate it into behavior. Design experiences where leaders could practice it.