Discover your institutional capability and release your superpower!
Institutional capability seems to be an intriguing new concept C-suite leaders are talking about, and I’d love to share my thoughts about it in this Sirise Insights.
As an executive coach with broad cross-sector expertise I’m fascinated by the term, which focuses on finding that one thing that sets an organisation apart from others. This is a challenge I relish, and I invite you to consider what that could be…
I was reading a McKinsey article that got me thinking along these lines. It is entitled, What’s your superpower? How companies can build an institutional capability to achieve competitive advantage.
You will have doubtless thought about capability in terms of individuals, but perhaps less so at an organisational level. However, as you identify your core institutional capability, your organisation will discover what its business superpower is.
Find your institutional capability
Institutional capability is core to the future success of an organisation. It is the differentiator that enables you to consistently outperform others. And, the interesting thing is, it may not be performing optimally right now. In fact, it may even be a weakness, but one which is worth investing in so it can become that differentiator.
Your superpower might be something functional like an activity your organisation is fantastic at. It could be an excellent approach to sales and marketing that blows the competition out the water and consistently gains market share. It may be that you have excellent procurement and supply chain management that supports quality and efficiency and delivers a consistent competitive edge.
Alternatively, your superpower might sit within enterprise-wide capabilities – core cultural strengths that span your organisation. You may have a deep-rooted culture of being customer-centric, always putting the customer first in all you do, which shapes your entire operation. It may be that you're incredibly agile or innovative as an organisation.
Release your superpower
The McKinsey article sets out ways to help the release of institutional capability as a superpower. Clarity of vision is the most important.
We need to take a step back to see what’s really going to make the difference and get the whole leadership team on board. Whether a current strength or weakness, this factor is going to drive decision-making on all levels and require buy-in to make it happen.
It is also going to take a holistic approach to developing a workforce aligned to your superpower. It's not just about training and upskilling people. One needs to ensure that this is embedded in recruitment practices, performance management models and ongoing development, including coaching and mentoring.
There also needs to be a culture of experimentation. This requires an environment where you’ve moved your teams beyond the fear of failure to a place where colleagues are encouraged to try new ways of working. This is what enables organisation to make this shift and why Psychological Safety and high-performing teams go hand in hand.
So, how would you answer these three questions?
1. What's the one superpower that will determine your company's success over the next three years?
2. Are you aligned as a top team around the superpowers?
3. Do you have a clear vision for success?
If you would like to explore these questions with me, please get in touch. I’d love to work with more clients to help them discover their institutional capability, whatever their niche, be it commercial, public third sector. Call today and let’s harness your superpower!