Big Talent Questions No4
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 fourth way – “how do you assess talent?” This one generates five short, sharp lines of enquiry:
Question 1
Do you use multi-source assessment? What are the sources and how are they brought together?
Question 2
How good are you at tracking past accomplishments? Are these the only factors that you use? What about the situation where the next role requires a significant step up in complexity (accomplishments in role tell you more about what someone might do in the context of a next role that is different in degree rather than in kind)
Question 3
How well do your competency models work? Has the area of competency become too complex and process-orientated? In my experience, many have!
Question 4
What the critical competencies and personality traits in your organisation: (accountability; need for achievement; leading large teams; motivating and inspiring others; creativity; strategic thinking; mental toughness/resilience; follow-through; influencing skills; planning skills; emotional intelligence…..)? Are these all understood widely and deeply?
Question 5
Do your best performers always get promoted? Do you ever advise people to move out of a part of the business when they are doing well?
The last perspective we will take will involve questions about what should always follow on from assessment – the question of carefully targeted development.