Teeth to Tail
“Teeth to Tail†is a military term for looking at the ratio of combat soldiers (teeth) to support troops (tail). In the world of business, it would compare the number of people doing the core work of the company with all support staff.
Today’s companies are very different from even a few years ago. The number of core workers is dropping and the number of different kinds of support staff are increasing. Tomorrow’s leaders will have to develop skills to make sure the work gets done in a very different kind of company.
Leadership development for leading core teams
Most of the core work of companies will get done by teams of employees. Leading teams and groups of teams will be a foundational skill.
Leadership development for leading support staff
Support staff are people employed by the company who support the work of the core teams. Many of those people will be working virtually perhaps spread across several time zones. Leaders will need to learn to use technology and social skills to develop and maintain team effectiveness and overcome the dangers of distance. Leaders must also learn to bridge the distance between headquarters staff and virtual or branch office staff.
Leadership development for business process outsourcing
Contractors do much of the support work in today’s corporations. Leaders will need to learn how to determine when outsourcing is the right choice and when the job should be done by employees. They’ll also need skills in coordinating mixed teams of contractors and company workers.
