Can we create an all-stars organisation?!.....

Having read so much on leadership and hiring leadership, one thought that occurs in me is this..... Is it really possible to build an organization with only star performers?!Am sure that this topic will be one that can be fiercely debated... You have to have just a handful of stars and they will lead the organization in its 'eternal growth trajectory...eternal provided you have well crafted succession plans in place'.

This said, it is also important for the HR function to have a continuous development plan (an aggregation of individual development plans (IDP's)), which map the current leadership matrix, and also time bound succession leadership matrices, with equal emphasis for all functional areas, like sales, marketing, strategic planning, board, human resources and recruitment.

It's the complete responsibility of the incumbent management to ensure a continuum in leadership in all functional areas, and address any gaps and work towards a clear plan that will facilitate and put in place any transition or lateral hire for leadership in the organization. It will be prudent to desist from unjustifiable moves from the performance and overall organizational hygiene perspective.

Leadership must be proffered to those who have a proven track record of performance, a level of consistency in performance over a certain time horizon, exhibited leadership of teams, and someone who has brought in the best out of the teams they had, and someone who is an undoubtedly effective people manager, and a great communicator - someone who is passionate about communicating externally and internally.

In this, my personal bias will be for excellence in people management, all other things being same. Be it a small, medium or large corporation, the ability to carry people and make them work for the goals of the corporation is by far the most critical attribute to success.

With a broad sprinkling of the above ingredients, we can make the first step in creating a winning organization... And a winning organization in which not all are necessary stars but in which each department has a host of stars leading from the front....!!