Talent Management Articles

Do Organizations Set Managers Up For Success?

1/31/2012

Countless organizations talk about how much they value their employees or their “human capital.” They espouse how important their people are to the success of their business. While there certainly is good intention in their words, actions may not always line up when it comes to setting new managers up for success.

According to a 2011 Careerbuilder study, nearly 60% of managers reported never receiving management training. This is an alarming statistic when you consider the stress associated with being a mid-level manager. Often individuals at this level within an organization are caught between the frontline (i.e., customers and client interactions) and the upper-levels of the organization (i.e., implementing strategic initiatives).

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Why Most Managers are Illogical

12/20/2011

You as a manager or leader are illogical. While not ill-intended, the way in which you interact with your direct reports often disregards the rules of logic and weakens your organization. Here’s a test of logic: taking inventory of the amount of time you spend with your team of direct reports, how much time do you spend with your “low performers” and how much time you spend with your “high performers?”

Those of you that tend to spend more time with low performers are illogical – here’s why:

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Steady Contributors – What Comes Next?

12/8/2011

Recently, I outlined several questions to consider to further develop high potential talent. The concern is that we often go through a talent review process, identify high potentials, and then fail to take additional action. We don’t do anything differently than if we had never gone through the time and effort to complete a talent review. It is important to develop specific plans for the high potentials—so they are further developed, remain challenged and engaged, and contribute in ways that add value.

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First Steps for Further Developing High Potential Talent

10/19/2011

One of the biggest concerns clients’ share about their talent management efforts is that “nothing happens” after the talent review. They do a good job identifying talent and are confident in the list of “high potentials” generated. The shortcoming seems to be in further developing those high potentials and ensuring that they are satisfied and engaged. We’ve put together a series of questions that are useful in determining next steps for each high potential identified during the talent review process.

For each high potential, answer the following (provide specifics, seek feedback and verify as need be):

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Identify Your Top Talent – Performers and Potentials

8/23/2011

One of the key aspects of an organization’s talent review process is the identification of top talent. While organizational leaders are often adept at identifying outstanding performers, there can be difficulty identifying employees with the most potential, thus resulting in an incomplete picture of top talent. By creating organization-specific definitions of high performance and high potential, leaders have a standard to assess their talent against. These definitions will help facilitate deeper dialogue between leaders during the talent review process and will provide insight about which employees are top talent.

For clarity, we often use the following definitions:

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