HBM’s Investment in the People of its Portfolio Companies: Leadership in Action
Talent development throughout our portfolio companies is a strategic priority for us. We don’t believe in simply motivating those in leadership roles; we help our portfolio companies directly by crafting and offering programs and strategies to create fully functioning, high performing teams that are all invested in the collective future.
In particular, we believe that leadership – the kind that can advance your career, accomplish oversized goals and uncover potential that you never thought possible – is a set of foundational principles, followed by thoughtful action, that all of us can learn and apply in our careers. Leadership is not a trait, but rather a behavior that all of us can choose to exhibit.
In partnership with Impact International, we recently launched a leadership program titled Leadership in Action. To develop the program, we collected feedback from key stakeholders in each of our businesses to understand the skill development opportunities for our current set of leaders. Our goal was to create a curriculum that would allow employees with supervisory responsibilities to prepare for the challenges they face as leaders. The final product is an interactive program that focuses participants on themes such as delegation, positive engagement of others, listening and communication strategies, and coaching.
During the interactive two-day course, the program immersed the teams in a series of topics around the concept that leadership can really be defined as a series of acts, not necessarily a set of characteristics. We encouraged the participants to view this program as a unique opportunity to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, and to discover more about their own leadership brand.
The feedback we received was very encouraging. Among the key takeaways from the program was the camaraderie that developed between colleagues from our different businesses. Realizing that no matter what size or industry you are a part of, leadership challenges and rewards have many common themes. At the conclusion of the program, participants selected an “accountability partner” to whom they will report on their progress towards applying key learnings from the program. Participants also told us they valued the hands-on, interactive format of the program, which is tailored to adult learners. The activities highlighted leadership challenges in creative ways and enabled leaders to connect new ideas about how to think about leading others.
Inviting leaders from each of our portfolio companies to participate in the training has had another benefit: The deep feeling that they are a part of something bigger than just their job. They also came away with the understanding that HBM is not only interested in their professional growth and development, but is ready and willing to make significant investments accordingly.
Participants of the training will continue to benefit from what they learned during the course and will be encouraged to participate in a sustainability program that has been created to keep the learnings and networks alive and thriving across HBM. We look forward to continuing to offer Leadership in Action to leaders within the organization, and building on the talent development investment we have made.
