I was answering a question on LinkedIn when it struck me to search Google for “Strategic Employee”… There were results about strategic employee surveys, strategic employee recognition, strategic employee communication, etc. Everything I found was a strategic way of dealing with employees. What I did not find was a single hit on the concept of a strategic employee. The idea is my evolution of the “Strategic Corporal” from an article written in 1999 by General Charles C. Krulak, (USMC).
In reality, the goal of any organizational development and/or employee engagement program is to develop and leverage the strategic employee.
The strategic employee understands, and is aligned with the company ethos – their actions and decisions reflect the organization’s vision and values. They make decisions that are “in-line” with the company’s expectations and goals. This is the keystone that enables them to do all the other things listed below.
The strategic employee is engaged in achieving outcomes – they are told the desired results, and constraints and are given responsibility to decide the best way to get there. This creates task ownership, demonstrates trust, and makes the employee feel like a valued team member rather than an interchangeable part.
The strategic employee innovates, and improves processes – who is in a better position to refine and improve processes than the people who are doing the work? Recognize and leverage their expertise in their respective functions by having them collaborate on developing, documenting, and updating “best practices” and solutions. Top-down business processes and policies should be reserved for ensuring compliance with legislative and professional standards – management can address any perceived deficiencies by having the employees develop a solution. Using a wiki-style approach to documenting best practices makes it easy to find information, add comments, suggestions and links to relevant policies.
The strategic employee makes management more productive – since strategic employees are empowered and engaged in achieving goals,and improving processes that achieve the executive’s intent, management spends less time directing and controlling, and consequently have more time to spend on forecasting, planning, coordinating and monitoring.
The strategic employee is a manager in waiting – they are already adding value to the company and demonstrating their ability to take on responsibility and produce results – they already know and support the direction the company is going. Where can you find a better qualified applicant than one who has already proven themselves in your own office.
If you begin developing strategic employees during on-boarding, and continue with a program of periodic professional development sessions there is no reason that you cannot create strategic employees within their first 2 years of employment.
Also see: The Leader-Leader Movement – A leadership development/consulting firm that is already advocating a similar concept.
robton 