Big Talent Questions No3
There has been lot of heat generated in the area of talent management but not a great deal of light has been shed on a complex subject. The result is that we have all sorts of perspectives ranging from a “war for talent”, which in truth is as difficult to grasp as the “war on terror”, to the intriguing idea of a “leadership pipeline”!
Metaphors aside, how about thinking about talent management by looking at it in just five ways? Here’s the third way – “what’s your attitude to risk?
This one generates four, big questions:
Question 1
Are these risks understood?
- Vacancy risk: the analysis of critical positions that are unfilled or are likely to be difficult to fill
- Readiness risk: knowledge of where designated successors are not yet ready to assume senior positions
- Assimilation risk: understanding of how good your organisation is at onboarding outside talent and encouraging it to stay
- Deployment risk: intelligence gained through performance management of how well matched your talent is to the role that they are doing
Question 2
Are mitigating actions in place?
- Vacancies: which people and positions are most critical to you meeting your strategy? Is effort being focused in these areas?
- Readiness: are your talented people being matched with developmental experiences?
- Assimilation: actions that are taken to allow fresh blood to fit in
- Deployment: accurate matching of people with project assignments/opportunities
Question 3
How good are you at assessing individual risks? Do you need to do more work to understand your talent in greater depth: experience, qualifications, skills, values motivators, abilities, personality,emotional intelligence, resilience etc
Question 4
Do you have processes in place that protect against individual risks and allow people to play to their strengths or do you continue to hope for superman/woman (better direct reports; individualising a role so that some elements are delegated to others; coaching)
The next perspective we will take will involve questions about one of my favourite subjects – assessment!