Here is an article written by Stuart Crandell for Talent Management magazine’s “Perspectives” series. To check out all the resources and sign up for a free subscription to the Talent Management and Chief Learning Officer magazines published by MedfiaTec, please click here.

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There’s more to organizational success than simply surviving.

Now that the economy has begun its slow ascent from the ashes of the Great Recession, leaders are turning their attention to excelling, which requires the most pivotal talent available.

Now more than ever, organizational leaders realize that the right talent in the right roles will lead to operational and business success. Since resources are still constrained, talent managers are focusing their development spending on high-potential talent. A recent PDI Ninth House study found that nearly two-thirds of global organizations planned high-potential programs in 2010, which makes sense considering that high-potential talent pools are breeding grounds for successful leaders.

However, talent leaders at forward-looking organizations are going a step further. They are identifying pivotal leadership roles within their organizations and using their high-potential and succession planning processes to ensure the right people are deployed into these roles in order to realize more immediate, tangible and positive results.

Pivotal leadership roles are vital to an organization’s success or failure. These roles are readily identifiable because a change in a pivotal leader’s performance will have a significant impact on an organization’s performance. Weak performance in a pivotal role can create great risk for an organization’s mission, objectives or results, whereas high performance in a pivotal role often provides greater competitive advantage and improved operational results.

Important Roles vs. Pivotal Roles

To identify pivotal leadership roles, talent leaders must understand the difference between important and pivotal. Important roles are necessary to carry out key business processes or operations. Pivotal roles also are necessary, but they are utilized specifically when performance improvements can significantly impact a company’s strategic, financial or operational results. The purpose of identifying the most pivotal leadership roles is to understand where talent management investments will have the greatest impact on an organization’s performance and bottom line.

To understand the difference between important and pivotal roles, managers need to understand the company’s strategy. Consider the following hypothetical scenario involving two companies in the airline industry. The first is a budget airline whose strategy is based on efficiently and rapidly turning planes around in order to fly more routes per day. The second is a more traditional full-service airline whose strategy is to control high-value, long-haul routes across continents by locking up gates at major international hubs.

For the budget airline, the ground crew roles are likely the most pivotal, since they are essential in getting the planes ready for the next departure as quickly as possible. Although the ground crew roles are important for the full-service airline, they are not pivotal. Instead, the roles involved in negotiating gate access would be the most pivotal because this airline’s strategy is based on having more access to more gates at key hubs.

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Stuart Crandell, Ph.D., is a senior vice president for PDI Ninth House.