As Dell continues to evolve as an organization, so too does its leadership development infrastructure. Today, the company’s efforts around leadership provide a model for maintaining leadership development systems that are consistently renewable, sustainable, and relevant.

Business sustainability and growth have always been a mix of art and science, a practice that requires leaders to bridge present and future, the aspiration with the possible. One may say that leaders create reality the way artists do: by applying specific techniques to creative work in a way that the outcome, useful and aesthetic, is also unique and powerful.

Similar to other global corporations, the priorities for Dell’s leadership development strategy are related to developing succession for most senior positions, making sure talent is lined up to cover future critical jobs in new markets and also take care of the basics: solid management across the world and leadership bench strength. What is unique for Dell at this moment is the renovation and reinvention of this corporation. We are changing dramatically in every aspect of the business while running the company at what is commonly known as “the speed of Dell.”

We start with the principles that guided the leadership model.

Dell’s vision is no different from many others in this function: to make explicit the connection between every aspect of development strategy with critical business priorities. This alone, however, is insufficient. Our experience demonstrates that developing the individual is a great payoff in the mid- or long-term, but dramatic results need something else; we must act at the level of the individual and the level of the organization. This also means supporting the evolving nature of the businesses and recognizing that any truly visionary priority is further ahead than the organization’s readiness to act on it effectively. So we do not expect that leadership development translates into organization effectiveness immediately. We chose not to leave that critical translation to chance. Our distinctive approach to global talent management is rooted in the ability to create the leadership that catalyzes change and increases organizational readiness for that change. That is why our organization development team is part of the talent management team. In other words, we support the business by acting in two dimensions: individuals and organization (teams). We support the development of leaders who are agents of change and at the same time increase the readiness of their organizations to deal with those transformations. Approaching solutions in this two-dimensional approach makes work integrated and collaborative among human resource (HR) professionals and makes it easier for clients to understand. The result is less complication and more impact.

This is not a story of the chosen few but rather a story about clarity, focus, and return on investment (ROI). For reasons that are well documented and researched in that literature and also because of pressures to keep the best and the brightest, most companies today have sophisticated processes to rank and differentiate their people. At Dell, we do all the right things most other serious talent-oriented companies are doing, but we chose to differentiate ourselves from others by being strategic at deciding what to do after the differentiation. Beyond the immediate and obvious rewards and recognition, the question is about investment and ROI. How do we allocate resources to keep the leadership development process (our own school of art) relevant for both apprentices and grand masters?

We expect regions to have total responsibility for certain grades of talent (midmanagers) and below and to own development decisions in general, providing this service to all business units in those regions; we call these groups regional leadership pipelines. We also expect the global businesses (all of them global organizations) to have total responsibility and own the development of the senior managers and above. In this way, they keep track of the senior-most talent globally; we call these groups global business pipelines. Both regions and global businesses execute talent management and leadership development processes that are defined centrally by the Global Talent Management center of expertise at the corporate offices.

We make decisions about content, processes, and developmental experiences based on our expectations of main accountability and the contribution of each major level in the organization. This is, managers in lower grades are responsible for aspects more related to execution and productivity of the workforce. As we move up in the levels, the accountabilities change from productivity to vitality of the organization; and at the highest levels, vice presidents are responsible for sustainability, long-term vision, and growth (Figure 16.2).

Since the beginning of this renewal effort, it was clear that the competency model needed updating because although Dell had changed, the leadership model had not. In five years, Dell had doubled its size and revenue and had gone through significant transformation that redefined the priorities for the entire organization. Major transformation requires new expectations of employees and managers.

To support the vision, we created the new Dell global leadership curriculum, consistent across all businesses and regions and designed to provide solutions for all managers and the top talent eligible for leadership acceleration. This program is a set of stimulating activities that use multiple learning technologies to enhance the learning experience.

Dell’s approach to leadership at the holistic level is an amalgamation of widely accepted best practices tailored to the needs of the company. This is a task that all leadership development practitioners must face, and one that is considered to be a widely accepted but rarely mastered best practice. Many understand that this critical challenge is dependent on a number of organizational variables—size, industry, global scale, budget, leadership priorities, and others—and cannot be generalized into a universal approach.

The audience for coaching at Dell consists of the top and high-potential vice presidents, directors, and, in limited cases, nonexecutives. Coaching is used to accelerate their development or, for leaders in transitional roles, general leadership performance. Coaching focuses on specific behavioral change: helping good leaders get even better.

We often joke about the “speed of Dell” because we move so quickly. People joining Dell comment that a few months elsewhere feels like a few days here. A leader is in a position just eighteen months on average before being rotated.

We have a strong worldwide pool of coaches, all of them external independent practitioners. Potential coaches are screened and approved by CoachSource and provided a telephone orientation. We then conduct one to three interviews with our learning development personnel.

To keep the worldwide pool of coaches updated and connected, calls with coaches are hosted quarterly. Dell news, learning and development updates, and coach feedback are generally included in each.

It is important that Dell is able to measure the effectiveness of this effort. Dell needs to know if we are achieving the desired results to justify our spending. Each assignment has two online metrics: the Coach Satisfaction Survey and the Leadership Effectiveness Survey, both custom designed.

“While it’s hard to isolate, I believe I’ve had tremendous business impact resulting from coaching. When I took this business over last year, it was a broken business. I had to step it up as a leader to figure out what was broken and lead the team to fix it. In the past year, we’ve gone from a 45 percent attrition rate to 20 percent. We’ve improved profit by three points. We’ve gone from single-digit growth to double-digit growth.”

“The team did bring in the bottom-line results. They had to implement a number of changes and work better together. Did result in more cost-effective team. Helped me work through a huge recruiting program. OPEX [operating expenses] improved. Asked to take over a very big, complex team across multiple sites with huge growth plans to double in three years. Bottom line? I got promoted!”

“I am now a better manager and can get the best out of my people. I can help them with communications and help the team better. Coaching has also helped me personally to reduce my stress level. It also was a factor in my retention at Dell.”

“I had always been able to deliver good results, but I struggled with taking on a challenge where I did not know how to do it: for example, $5 [million] of OPEX [operating expenses], I could see it but not sign up for more, not see the way to $12 [million]. Coaching gave me the confidence to say, ‘I will get there.’ Bottom line: we signed up for $38 [million] savings. After the first quarter, we are $3 [million] ahead of plan—OPEX plan $10 [million] and $2.2 [million] stretch. We are on track for plan and stretch as well. Customer satisfaction, we targeted to stay at 80 [percent] and no lower; now running at 85 percent.”

“Coaching enabled me to enter my new role in another country with a plan. My coach worked with me on a plan that helped me to assimilate into the culture quickly. I gained trust and respect upon arrival. We then focused on our culture. We focused on being a people-oriented culture. We worked on becoming more customer-service oriented. We did lots of things, including launching a big effort to focus on community service. I believe it was the single biggest factor in driving attrition down. We went from a 60 percent attrition rate to a 30 percent attrition rate within six months. We now hover at about 25 percent, which results in a significant cost savings and productivity improvement for the company.”

“My team has lower-than-average attrition, high morale, and people want to be a part of this team. This is a tough climate. I don’t allow my team to do a lot of non-value-added things. We do high-value-added things and have a positive work environment. My coach helps me by letting me vent and talk through situations so I can drive solutions. She helps me figure out how I can better lead my team and influence the direction of the company.”

Because this program has been so effective, coaching continues to remain a highly sought after development tool. To help Dell manage processes and coach spending, we continue to look for ways to streamline, create efficiencies, and make sure this program is as effective as possible.

The story about Dell leadership strategy and its success case around executive coaching illustrate a way in which large companies can deal with the complexities of global deployment, the use of the right concentration of expertise at the point of service, and an enhanced ability to drive and nurture a comprehensive development strategy. For Dell, it is very easy to determine how coaching is performed globally by having a single point of contact to do it. Our energy and time are better spent in ensuring that the right people are receiving this service, that top talent is selected according to the competencies with reliability, and that the future jobs these people hold are connected to those jobs that are most critical for business success.

Alejandro Reyes is the director of Global Learning and Development for Dell. He joined Dell in October 2006. In his twenty years of professional experience, he worked eight years for Motorola as director of leadership development and executive education, eight years at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico as dean of development for Monterrey Tech’s Virtual University, business development manager for South America, and head of the quality office. He holds a master of science in manufacturing systems and automation, won the Dana Corporation technology prize in 1992, and is the author of the book Quality Techniques and Models in the Classroom, which is being used in Mexico and Latin America for faculty development programs.

Ashley Yount is senior manager of global talent development and learning for Dell, responsible for the strategy, development, and deployment of accelerated leadership development and executive coaching. In her sixteen years of experience (the past five with Dell), she has engaged in creating and managing strategies, programs, and processes for executive development, talent management, and organization development. She holds an M.S. in organization development from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in psychology from the University of South Carolina. She is the author of “Leaders Teaching Leaders” in The 2007 Pfeiffer Annual Leadership Development.

Brian Underhill is the author of Executive Coaching for Results: The Definitive Guide to Developing Organizational Leaders (2007). He is an industry-recognized expert in the design and management of worldwide executive coaching implementations. His executive coaching work has focused on helping clients achieve positive, measurable, long-term change in leadership behavior. He has also helped pioneer the use of mini-surveys, a measurement tool used to effect behavioral change. He is the founding partner of CoachSource and the Alexcel Group.

Steve Sass is the managing partner and chief operating officer of CoachSource and president of Sass & Associates-Performance Consulting. His business career, which spans more than forty years, includes twenty-eight years with IBM in customer service and education executive management, four years as director in charge of the Center for Leadership Development for KPMG, and eleven years as an executive coach and consultant working with individuals and organizations to achieve their true potential. He also facilitates courses in the ASTD Certificate Program in human performance improvement. Sass received an M.S. degree in business policy from Columbia University.