Promoting A Culture Of Leadership Development

Magali Nahon, Human Resources Director Pandora, Western Europe

Today’s leaders need to adapt very quickly to organisational and cultural changes and to challenging situations. They manage teams, most of the time with hybrid set-ups, with an ever-growing workload and in complex contexts. Expectations from business keep extending.
Our role as HR professionals is to provide ongoing development opportunities to all our leaders across the organisation so that they can be the best version of themselves while leading their teams.
HR can support them in becoming more than a manager, but a leader who inspires their teams and who offers growth opportunities for each employee. Most of the leaders miss the point that their role is not about themselves anymore, but towards others. Their role is to unlock the potential of each team member and develop a dynamic within a group of employees to achieve a great outcome together as one team.
Talent attraction, internal mobility, engagement, succession, and retention should constantly be on every leader’s mind and not just on HR’s mind. So then, how do you ensure as an organisation that you deliver on your leadership development agenda?

The first step to support leadership development is to make sure the organisation agrees on its shared vision of leadership. Then, you can start working on how to accompany leaders to grow in a consistent way. Last but not least, upskilling your HR team to position them as key partners for leadership development will enable you to accelerate this process.

Defining a clear vision of leadership

When thinking about what “leadership” looks like and what it is, usually everyone has their own vision and definition of it. This is the situation we initially faced at Pandora. Our company grew so quickly overtime that the focus switched to day-to-day execution rather than on building the future.

"Defining Your Own Leadership Model Requires The Key Stakeholders Getting Together And Agreeing About The Soft And The Hard Skills Expected, As Well As The Values And Expected Behaviours To Bring Those Values To Life."

So, how can you ensure that your leaders are equipped to deal with today’s and tomorrow’s challenges if everyone has their own definition of leadership?

As an organisation you need to set a common framework of what you expect from the leaders to ensure consistency across the organisation. This way, everybody speaks the same language and is aligned towards the same goals. People reviews, evaluations, and other people processes become much more consistent and when it comes to employee experience, it also becomes similar throughout the company.

However, it does not stop here. You’ll have to ensure your leadership model evolves overtime to stay relevant in your organisation and in the industry you operate in.

How do you define what leadership looks like for your organisation?

Defining your own leadership model requires the key stakeholders getting together and agreeing about the soft and the hard skills expected, as well as the values and expected behaviours to bring those values to life.

At Pandora for example, we have organised several workshops globally and formalised leadership behaviours based on the company’s purpose and on each of our values: We Dream, We Dare, We Care, We Deliver.

Pandora’s leadership model:

It took us several months of workshops and alignment at all levels in the organization to define this model. This is the most important phase as your leadership model should be rooted in the company’s DNA from the beginning. If you have specific goals for diversity among leaders, make sure to take this into account before. Think about how your leadership model fits the underrepresented groups. As part of its sustainability engagements, Pandora has a goal of 1/3 women in leadership roles by 2025 and a full gender parity by 2030.

Is your definition of leadership consistent with your diversity goals? Is it inclusive enough?

If leaders in your organisation are expected to be available 24/7, not only will this create health and a wellbeing issue, it also will exclude a lot of women, as in the European society, women are very often primary caregivers and primary income providers for their families.

Creating conditions for leadership development

Once you are clear about what leadership means in your organisation, next step is bringing it to life! Training and Change Management will be the core piece of how to get there. Today, learning management systems (LMS) offer huge libraries of trainings.  You can create your own collections of relevant courses to make them available to your leaders. You will also be able to track easily the completion rate and other key indicators, to follow-up or to adapt the training materials. The training courses can be pushed to targeted audiences through these systems, but it can be tough to find existing ones that fit exactly your leadership model.

This year, Pandora launched a global leadership programme, called “RISE”. The first phase started with gathering participants across the organization from various functions (retail, manufacturing, marketing, etc.) In the second phase, all people leaders with at least one direct report were invited to the programme.

Three different audiences were identified and adapted content for: people leaders, managing at least one-person, executive leaders, and members of high performing teams.

The programme provides clarity on how to inspire, develop and coach for high performance in your team. It's important that leaders feel empowered to be the change drivers and to create the best conditions for employees, to enable the realisation of the organisation’s strategy.

Pandora’s leadership programme is hybrid: in-class and live sessions. This mix of formats enables leaders to meet with peers and share best practices. The programme, was translated in 19 different languages to ensure inclusivity and access for all leadership teams worldwide.

LEVELING UP HR professionals TO key partners in leadership development

Many articles today are underlining the role of HR as a business partner. It’s a trend as everyone wants their seat at the table. However, have we clearly discussed which table we are referring to? I would not be willing to sit at a table where my insights would not be valued.
To my point earlier, it makes sense for HR to have a seat if the HR function is already positioned as a leadership development partner. If it’s already the case, then great! It means there is a room for feedback, coaching and challenging status quo. HR can be at that table!
Now we are at the table, how do we make sure our voice is heard and is impacting business decision making?

Pandora’s leadership framework and the development programme were designed and rolled out by the HR teams for every leader to enrol. But we often say that the cobbler's children have no shoes. And we did not want this to happen in Pandora.

Thas is why beside the leadership program dedicated to all people leaders; Pandora has launched its HRBP Academy for all HR professionals in business partnering roles across the globe. This program is dedicated to grow the business partnering skills of our HRBPs so they can coach, challenge, provide insights and feedback more seamlessly. The program includes a suite of modules, such as organisational design, and others. Additionally, Pandora offers 6 elective courses that are open to all HR professionals irrespective of their role. It is an opportunity for HR business partners to go deeper or for other HR professionals to grow in a specific area of their choice.

From the day we announced this programme, there has been a strong interest from the HR teams. I am convinced this is an essential step to make sure HR stays motivated, always at the top of the trends and continues to actively develop their own capacities to drive the leadership development.

In conclusion, drafting a good-looking leadership model isn’t enough. It needs to be rooted in the organisation’s culture and to be reviewed and challenged to stay relevant. The right training programmes must be set up once the leadership framework has been created. Finally, to ensure that HR drives the leadership development and provides the right level of support, don’t neglect the development of HR leaders and teams. These are the keys to success.

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