Center for Leadership Solutions

Our High Performance solutions are the result of years of practical application and careful research. For over 20 years we have worked closely with Charlie Feld founder and CEO of The Feld Group —based in Dallas, Texas.

In 2009, Feld launched The Feld Group Institute, a leadership development firm that is using all of the learnings out of the decades of running IT organizations. His book Blind Spot, a leader’s guide to IT-enabled business transformation outlines how organizations and companies can use technology to transform themselves.

Charlie’s work has been featured in InformationWeek and CIO magazines, which placed him among its “5 Top CIOs” in 2001. In 1997, he was named “One of the 12 Most Influential IT Executives of the Past Decade” by CIO magazine and Computerworld named him as one of “25 IT People to Watch in 1998.” His articles on IT leadership topics have appeared regularly in Computerworld Executive Suite, Harvard Business Review, and CIO magazine.

The 5 building blocks of a high performance IT organization are:

• Organization
• Leadership
• Culture
• Performance
• Talent

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Organization

For some people, organization is just a way of saying who works for who, that getting the right people in the right jobs is what it is all about. Although there is a lot of truth to that, there is a lot more to organization than just names in boxes. Organization structure and the management processes that go along with them determine the amount of friction an organization experiences to get things done. Structure and processes in many ways define the capabilities of the organization and how problems are surfaced and resolved. In recent years, the IT environment has become both client focused and technology driven. It has had to focus on innovation, and cost cutting. These sometimes opposing forces create significant organizational challenges for any function or business.

Charlie Feld’s Hybrid organization structure enables organizations to be good business partners while managing technologies across increasingly complex and global platforms. It enables IT organizations to be strong business partners and good stewards of the technical architecture they must maintain and evolve.

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Leadership

This Hybrid organization requires leaders and managers who have strong technical, business and unique leadership skills. We have carefully the leadership competencies leaders need in the Hybrid. Grouped into three intuitive sets, they provide a valuable framework for the training and development of successful IT leaders:
Getting the Lay of the Land

• Pattern Recognition
• Street Smarts
• Technical Savvy

Building a Great Team

• Character
• Passion
• Influence and Persuasion
• Passion for the Job

Having an Impact

• Partnering with the Business
• Impact Players
• Resilience and Solution Orientation

Developing effective leaders and managers is a critical element of a High Performance Organization. Today’s IT leaders need to be capable of partnering closely with business clients while heading an organization of technical experts.

IT Leadership Development Training

Our IT Leadership Core is a modular training program built from the ground up for IT leaders. This is no off-the-shelf program re-fitted for IT. It is the result of careful analysis of what makes IT leaders successful in today’s rapidly changing world. We have implemented this leadership development program with thousands of IT leaders and professionals. It is the first leadership program that has been researched, designed, and developed for the IT leader. Working closely with Charlie Feld, we created a world-class IT leadership solution that is without parallel focusing on leadership skills and techniques that have been proven to be highly effective.
The primary focus on the IT Leadership Development program is to build leadership capability within the organization by focusing on competencies and tools are practical and proven. This is not a program about theory or philosophy, but about learning what works. The overriding goal is to create leaders who can create a high performance organization.

Video Cases and Video Clips -- Video case studies are included as well as an interactive game to deepen the understanding and application of the leadership competencies. A series of video cases are used in team break-out sessions to deepen the discussion and problem solving using real life situations and proven tools and techniques. Video clips with Charlie Feld and other respected IT leaders and CIOs are used to illustrate tools and explain proven techniques.

360 Assessment and Individual Feedback -- Each participant receives a 360 assessment before the program and is given feedback on each of competency. We can also customize the 360 to include additional competencies that are important in the organization.

Career Development –- A key part of any successful development program is to ignite the flame of continuous learning. Development planning tools are taught within the program providing guidance on how to use learning to continue individual career growth. Our instructors have had years of experience coaching and mentoring IT leaders, and are familiar with the unique challenges of developing a technical career. Technical career development frameworks that have been proven effective in IT organizations and that meet the requirements of today’s rapidly changing environment are taught and discussed as part of the development experience.
As an additional career development benefit, each participant will be enrolled in our Technical Career Development Center where they will have continued access to each of the videos used in the IT Leadership program, as well as access to additional tools and resources to help them develop their career in IT. This not only improves retention, but facilitates continuous learning and greater individual accountability for career management.

Building Block Integration -- In addition to building IT leadership skills, our training builds leadership capability in each of the other four building blocks of high performance organizations: Organization, Culture, Performance, and Talent Management.

Leaders are taught organization design fundamentals and how organization of projects, functions, and even workflow can affect the performance and effectiveness of the organization. The concepts of Friction and Alignment are illustrated as well as tools and techniques regarding manage their effects on the organization.

Configurable Learning Objectives -- Modules can be configured to deliver meaningful and value added development in formats ranging from ½ day to 3-day programs. Each leadership development initiative can be configured to meet the time requirements by choosing which elements are most important. As indicated earlier, modules can be custom developed to meet specific organizational needs.

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Culture

Each leader within the organization plays an important role in the development and effectiveness of not only the environment and culture they create within their team or department, but the overall culture of the IT organization. Leaders are taught how to create a positive culture and work environment. The role of shared values such as integrity, trust, and transparency are discussed in the context of the organizations ability to facilitate learning, encourage and reward high performance, and protect the credibility and reputation of IT within the organization.

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Performance

Performance management is key to the development of a highly functioning and successful organization. Leaders are taught the basic principles of setting objectives, monitoring progress, evaluating results and rewards and recognition as they apply to a technical organization. The importance of setting collaboration in setting stretch goals to drive improvement as well as learning is taught as it relates not only to the organization’s overall capability, but also for the continued development of the individual. How to give positive and negative feedback is taught emphasizing its power as a learning tool and as a method to maintain high standards.

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Talent

Talent management is one of the most important building blocks of high performance, and is an important but often neglected responsibility of the IT leader. Talent management means helping individuals achieve their highest potential. Teaching managers and leaders how to identify and develop individual potential is a foundational element to a High Performance Organization.

Leaders are taught how to develop the potential of all of the members of their team, not just their high potentials. They are taught the power of using experiences either through job or project assignment to accelerate learning within their group. We explain how to use stretch goals and objectives coupled with coaching, mentoring and feedback reduce turnover, drive engagement, and achieve higher performance.

IT leaders are also taught how to deepen understanding and anticipate client needs through project or temporary assignments in the client or business partner’s organization. Talent management processes such as Move Meetings, Talent Reviews, Hiring Teams are also covered based on their implementation in the organization. Furthermore, they are instructed in workforce fluidity or workforce forecasting. Tools and techniques to anticipate the need for new skills and technologies and how to prepare the members of their team to excel in those new capability areas are also covered.

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