One challenge that many leaders face in today’s constantly-changing world is making sure that “legacy” employees have the skills and domain knowledge to adapt to the emerging needs of your organization. Watch Bobbie LaPorte’s October 17 “Calling the Game” video for some practical tips to help you maximize their contributions.
Ensuring Legacy Employees are Equipped for Tomorrow’s Challenges
Hi, this is Bobbie LaPorte, back with another week of “Calling the Game,” where I share my own experience and insights while giving you valuable tools you can use to call your own game…and plan the best moves for you and your team.
I’ve been hearing leaders talk quite a bit recently about “legacy employees.” I’m sure you know what I’m referring to. Whether your company is a mature organization working on a major transformation or an early venture scaling rapidly, we often find that the skills, talents, and domain knowledge of the people in our org need to shift with it.
In either scenario, that doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to wholesale replace your current staff with new hires, but you do need to be clear about the new skills and other qualifications needed to meet with emerging needs of the organization and then be thoughtful on how you approach retooling your team.
This can be challenging for even the most experienced and self-assured leaders and will likely be the scenario going forward in this changing and challenging environment.
3 Things to Consider When Managing Legacy Employees
There is no established playbook for this, but here are three things to consider:
- Through whatever formal or informal means you have to assess talent, you must take the time to clearly define what you need to make your team successful – with an emphasis on matching the company’s emerging needs.
- As part of this assessment, don’t just look at technical/functional skills and domain knowledge. Look for the ability, or at least the willingness to learn, the skills and mindset shifts necessary to deal with unrelenting uncertainty – like the self-awareness to admit one does not have all the answers, to ask for help, and to confidently act in the face of ambiguity.
- Just because they are “legacy” employees doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a second chance. Be clear with them about how the business is changing, what is now needed to be successful, and your expectations in this “new reality.” Give them a chance to step up. During and now following the pandemic, many people felt very disconnected from their managers, not given the support and development opportunities they might have had in other times.
Approach this challenge without pre-judgment. But know that in some cases, you will need to ACT. You are not serving anyone well by retaining people who are not going to be able to fully contribute. This will ultimately reflect on your leadership – or lack of.
There is no question that this can be tough, but recognize that this will now be a “test” for all leaders of how you assess, develop, and deploy talent in challenging times.
OK, that’s it for this week’s “Calling the Game.” Hope this helps you gear up for a great week and navigate any curveballs that may come your way!