As technology and business processes continue to evolve at an unprecedented rate, IBM`s Ted Hoff strives to keep the tech conglomerate at the forefront of innovation by investing in time and resources to enable employees to stay ahead of the curve.
Leaders develop leaders. That`s IBM`s corporate mantra for its approach to developing its nearly 400,000 employees around the globe.
Ted Hoff, vice president of the Center for Learning and Development at IBM Corp., not only propagates this business model, he considers it integral to the success of raising up a new generation of leaders at the tech conglomerate.
"We bring IBMers in to develop other IBMers - and not just hierarchically; we also [have] peers developing peers," Hoff said. "We regularly foster approaches in which we bring leaders in to formally organized sessions - whether it`s in-person, face-to-face sessions or delivered virtually over technology. We have a proactive process of mentorship at IBM so that [an employee] can gain support from not only a direct manager but also from people outside [their] management chain."
This approach allows leaders to develop themselves even as they develop others, he explained.
Hoff`s multifaceted role at IBM has evolved since he started working at the company eight years ago, and it can be categorized under broad functions.
First off, he has assumed responsibility for the management of all leadership placement and succession planning, as well as the development of the benches and pipelines, which includes managing plans that are created to fill what he refers to as "critical gap leadership roles" and involves finding individuals with the right capabilities - either within the IBM family or externally.
Executive recruiting is another facet of the business that Hoff has taken on in recent years. "[It] logically fits within the overall responsibility of identifying the people who potentially may fill certain roles, so if we don`t have the right pipeline at IBM, we can go to the outside," he said. Hoff added that this also involves the "identification of places where we think we need increased diversity of thought or where we proactively want to bring in an outsider."
In addition, Hoff has full HR responsibility for all of the global support functions, including finance, legal, marketing and communications, strategy, human resources and the CIO`s office.
The learning and development function at IBM has served to facilitate processes such as leadership and executive development. In fact, during Hoff`s tenure at IBM, learning and leadership development have been completely integrated within the company.
"We start with the client: What does the client want? What do they value? We then go from that to asking; what kind of people do we need to serve the client?" he said. "We identify what kind of people we need and look at who we have and don`t have, and we have a managed process of defining the pipeline of people who could potentially fill certain roles. "We reach down throughout the organization to identify [individuals] who could potentially serve those roles and engage them in some guided suggestions as to how they can develop themselves to potentially serve those roles - and that`s where learning comes in." In keeping with its commitment to leadership development, the company underscores work-based opportunities at IBM.
"We`re constantly trying to help people see what kind of work opportunities they can get and what kind of support they can [muster] as well as what courses [and] e-learning modules they can take and what kind of virtual world engagement they can engage in," Hoff said. "We have a pervasive set of learning opportunities for [employees], but they`re all organized around people`s work and around what potential role [they] are likely to play in IBM."
Networking Learning Model
Over the past few years, the tech giant has moved over to a more network-based learning approach in order to better facilitate the sharing of knowledge among IBMers around the world.
After all, tapping into current IBMers, who are essentially walking repositories of invaluable knowledge, is a crucial component of learning at the organization.
IBM takes the position that people learn from their colleagues. "They learn through work [and] they learn through working with people who are doing similar work," Hoff said. "The company [has tried different] approaches for mentorship and support systems, but it has become dramatically more pronounced and enhanced [in our] recent history as we have sought to leverage the opportunities around social networking to have people learn from each other."
An example of this is an initiative known as the IBM Technical Leadership Exchange. "[It`s] an exchange of technical IBMers and deep technical thinkers who come together to understand what IBM can do to enable government clients to be smarter in the way they serve their citizens," Hoff said.
Leaders develop leaders. That`s IBM`s corporate mantra for its approach to developing its nearly 400,000 employees around the globe.
Ted Hoff, vice president of the Center for Learning and Development at IBM Corp., not only propagates this business model, he considers it integral to the success of raising up a new generation of leaders at the tech conglomerate.
"We bring IBMers in to develop other IBMers - and not just hierarchically; we also [have] peers developing peers," Hoff said. "We regularly foster approaches in which we bring leaders in to formally organized sessions - whether it`s in-person, face-to-face sessions or delivered virtually over technology. We have a proactive process of mentorship at IBM so that [an employee] can gain support from not only a direct manager but also from people outside [their] management chain."
This approach allows leaders to develop themselves even as they develop others, he explained.
Hoff`s multifaceted role at IBM has evolved since he started working at the company eight years ago, and it can be categorized under broad functions.
First off, he has assumed responsibility for the management of all leadership placement and succession planning, as well as the development of the benches and pipelines, which includes managing plans that are created to fill what he refers to as "critical gap leadership roles" and involves finding individuals with the right capabilities - either within the IBM family or externally.
Executive recruiting is another facet of the business that Hoff has taken on in recent years. "[It] logically fits within the overall responsibility of identifying the people who potentially may fill certain roles, so if we don`t have the right pipeline at IBM, we can go to the outside," he said. Hoff added that this also involves the "identification of places where we think we need increased diversity of thought or where we proactively want to bring in an outsider."
In addition, Hoff has full HR responsibility for all of the global support functions, including finance, legal, marketing and communications, strategy, human resources and the CIO`s office.
The learning and development function at IBM has served to facilitate processes such as leadership and executive development. In fact, during Hoff`s tenure at IBM, learning and leadership development have been completely integrated within the company.
"We start with the client: What does the client want? What do they value? We then go from that to asking; what kind of people do we need to serve the client?" he said. "We identify what kind of people we need and look at who we have and don`t have, and we have a managed process of defining the pipeline of people who could potentially fill certain roles. "We reach down throughout the organization to identify [individuals] who could potentially serve those roles and engage them in some guided suggestions as to how they can develop themselves to potentially serve those roles - and that`s where learning comes in." In keeping with its commitment to leadership development, the company underscores work-based opportunities at IBM.
"We`re constantly trying to help people see what kind of work opportunities they can get and what kind of support they can [muster] as well as what courses [and] e-learning modules they can take and what kind of virtual world engagement they can engage in," Hoff said. "We have a pervasive set of learning opportunities for [employees], but they`re all organized around people`s work and around what potential role [they] are likely to play in IBM."
Networking Learning Model
Over the past few years, the tech giant has moved over to a more network-based learning approach in order to better facilitate the sharing of knowledge among IBMers around the world.
After all, tapping into current IBMers, who are essentially walking repositories of invaluable knowledge, is a crucial component of learning at the organization.
IBM takes the position that people learn from their colleagues. "They learn through work [and] they learn through working with people who are doing similar work," Hoff said. "The company [has tried different] approaches for mentorship and support systems, but it has become dramatically more pronounced and enhanced [in our] recent history as we have sought to leverage the opportunities around social networking to have people learn from each other."
An example of this is an initiative known as the IBM Technical Leadership Exchange. "[It`s] an exchange of technical IBMers and deep technical thinkers who come together to understand what IBM can do to enable government clients to be smarter in the way they serve their citizens," Hoff said.
