How companies systematically develop leadership

A new organizational chart alone does not create change. Valerie Kaiser and Leonard Kluck (Dr. Wieselhuber & Partner) show how an internal academy for personnel development and transformation builds the bridge between structure and everyday life – by specifically developing talent, further developing leadership in a structured manner and anchoring change sustainably in the organization.

While companies are restructuring everywhere, one question remains central: Who will ensure that change is not only decided upon, but also implemented and consistently anchored in everyday life? In some companies the business model and economic viability are at stake, in the next the management structure is being reorganized and in the third digitalization dominates. All of these requirements have one thing in common and that is their disruptive impact on collaboration, participation, leadership and decision-making in the entire company.

But so that these transformations are not just planned on paper and only partially anchored, consistent development support and a strong implementation engine are needed for employees and managers.

Painting boxes is just the beginning

Effective transformation projects change everyday working life sustainably: traditional services are abolished, familiar processes are innovated and the collaboration between employees continues to develop. A particularly popular signal for change in companies is a revised organizational chart. It makes it clear that the world of tomorrow will look different.

But organizational charts alone have little effect if roles remain unclear and people don’t know what is expected of them. It is not enough to name painted boxes – they must be understood and filled with responsibility. Lived, interacting structures are often the result of a transformation and the mere drawing of organizational charts is only the beginning.

Create transparency about the talent and skill setup

Before employees can be transferred to another team or roles filled, transparency must be created about the organization’s current talent and skill setup. What is needed is a clear look at your own existing team and also at your own “goldfish pond”: Who brings potential? Who wants to develop, who wants to lead? What does it take to make this possible?

Such questions cannot be answered solely with selective training or fragmented initiatives. Change doesn’t happen because someone attended a seminar. A systematic concept of personnel and management development is needed that makes potential visible and consistently promotes it. An internal “personnel development academy” offers the appropriate implementation tool for this.

Actively accompany transformation

The academy supports the filling of roles, specifically promotes talent and, above all, gives new management organizations a binding foundation. This creates orientation for “high potentials” about what development the company offers and what contribution is expected in return. The academy is intended to retain and develop key people and talents and turn them into promoters of the entire transformation. At the same time, employees who experience uncertainty are supported with tailor-made offers. As a central leadership development program, the academy interlinks the structure, staffing and development of the management team.

Internal academies as the heart of the transformation

Academies are often established from a position of strength and are used by successful companies to professionalize themselves and build structures that keep pace with further growth. But even in times of crisis, academies create significant added value.

Many medium-sized companies in Germany are currently in economically tense situations across all sectors. Global crises and international price pressure, customs disputes and infrastructure costs create uncertainty and often lead to an initial need to make savings. At the same time, demographic change is becoming increasingly noticeable: key resources are retiring, while young talent is missing in many places.

This is exactly where an academy comes in. It identifies potential at an early stage, enables structured knowledge transfer and creates transparency about future skills needs. At the same time, it uncovers organizational optimization potential and can thus slim down historically grown structures and thus effectively reduce costs.

From compulsory to freestyle

A practical example: A family-run company in the consumer goods industry wants to realign itself strategically and focus more on international markets in the future. It became clear that the historically developed and very “personal relationship-oriented” management structure represents a central risk factor: Due to the rapid growth in recent years, responsibilities were often informally regulated, roles were not transparently defined and leadership was strongly geared towards personal encouragement.

The central question was: How can you use your own position of strength in such a way that corporate development goals are also realistically planned in terms of implementation, especially against the background of several new key positions that need to be filled?

The academy provided a development basis with which transparency was first created and then a practical talent management and personnel development program was established.

Four key questions support the conceptual design:

1. Which roles need to be filled or rebuilt in the next few years – and which talents (from within our own ranks) can they take on?
2. How do we continually motivate these talents to perform at their best?
3. Which competencies and skills are particularly important for our future structure; also with a view to the next 10 years?
4. How do we ensure effective knowledge transfer for the continuous development of the management structure and impart new skills sustainably?

The academy is based on the established control mechanisms of the entire company and actively shapes their implementation. The remuneration models are consistently role-, result- and impact-oriented and thus support the desired management system. Targeted qualification and mentoring programs ensure a systematic development of skills and sustainably promote the transfer of knowledge.

HR takes on a proactive design and control role and is responsible for the process of linking structures, management/control instruments and personnel development models. And this organically and in keeping with the dynamic conditions of corporate reality.

The academy anchors leadership and development beyond mere formal structure; It actively shapes the company DNA and invigorates a new management organization. It ensures that role profiles actually provide guidance and do not just exist on paper. That potential is not just assumed, but systematically identified and developed. And that career paths in the company can be experienced as motivating, realistic perspectives – not as vague promises.

Conclusion: Courageously shape change

Regardless of whether you are a crisis/complexity beneficiary or a loser – change is on the agenda everywhere. But transformation only succeeds if it is accompanied consistently. Internal academies offer the opportunity to take employees on this journey and prepare them specifically for new tasks. They create space for learning, development and participation. This is how prescribed change becomes lived change.

Companies that rely on an internal academy today are investing in their most important resource: people. In doing so, they lay the foundation for not leaving excellence to chance, but rather for systematically building it up and securing it in the long term. The result: a motivated and sustainable organization that does not shy away from change but actively promotes it.

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