Learning Matters

Getting external expert help better manage internal "talent"

In the last few years we have heard much about the need for better “Talent Management” practices so that we can not only keep  our best people in a given enterprise but so that we can ensure that the best people are given the right opportunities to progress when they are ready to do so. In the not too distant past, the Human Resource department performed much of this role, at least within medium to large-sized organisations. However, as numbers of people in HR departments have significantly reduced, this function has become hugely stretched and often now needs external help. The sort of help needed is typically as follows:

•     Individual “Career interest data collation

·         One-to-one interviews with all people-responsible managers

•     One-to-one interviews with all identified “high-potentials”

•     Group meetings with human resource managers to discuss talent issues

•     Career development data assembly on an individual and departmental basis

•     Career development data summarising and trending

•     Career/Talent management presentation meeting attendance at all levels

•     Summary action plan notes from each “departmental/divisional” meeting

•     Assembly of written reports in all of the following areas:

• Organisational Transfer/Promotion/Movement Action Plan
• Organisational Career Development Training/Coaching Action Plan
• Organisational Recruitment/Talent Acquisition Action Plan
• Organisational Succession Plan

The value to any organisation which is serious about talent management in seeking external agency help is two-fold:

1.   The external agency replaces the time that an internal human resources person would need to dedicate to data gathering, analysis, interpretation and summary for talent management purposes. This also ensures that talent management data gathering is minimally disruptive to business operations (by keeping all line meetings short and focused).

2.   This is core expertise for an external specialist talent management agency. This “core-expertise and the value it brings is as follows:

·         Helping to keep good employees that otherwise might leave a company

·         Supporting an organisation in optimising recruitment and selection decisions

·         Assisting in better targeting training/coaching and other development effort

·         Offering advice on job or organisational design to create better operational outcomes and/or reduce problems/conflict (between individual or within particular teams)

·         Helping to device better/adapted employee talent and engagement approaches

·         Being better able to help recommend employee moves or promotions (especially when people are less visible and known in terms of interest/competence).

In summary therefore Talent management does not have to be either under-resourced or avoided altogether by most organisations, if the HR department invests a small amount of time in looking for expert external help. If this search is well-specified, the contribution to creating a high performing people team can be enormous.

Dr Jon Warner-www.ReadyToManage.com and jon@OD-center.org

The web site www.ReadyToManage.com aims to help all individuals who want to become more adept in their leadership (and Talent Management) ability at all levels. Visit the web store to see all the resources we offer to help individuals including self-assessments questionnaires, skill development books and booklets, e-learning programs and many other tools and resources.

Make New Year Resolutions Stick-seting well crafted goals

With an old year behind us, for many people the year ahead suddenly "looms large" and we resolve to do several things a little (or a lot) differently. For some, this may even mean jotting down a few possible vague commitments or making some relatively loose verbal statements to family, friends or colleagues that we wish to engage in some changes of some kind. For others, the intention to change is a more private affair (but nonetheless has just as much personal commitment to the cause).

Whether specific or vague and open or not, all of these "brave intentions" at the beginning of a New Year do not easily translate to action. We therefore need to put some "hard" process into the equation if we want to be successful in our planned changes and this means setting so-called "tangible" goals.

Most people will know what setting a personal goal is about but very few actually do this effectively (or make it real or tangible). Stating, for example, "I will do more network marketing" is a reasonable intention but does not qualify as an effective goal statement, because it is too loose to be useful. "I will spend an hour a day engaging in network marketing" is better because it adds in a firmer commitment (every day) and an estimate of the resources needed (in this case time) of one hour. A still better statement might be "I will spend an hour a day engaging in network marketing so as to increase my web site traffic by 20% in the next year". In this case we have added in the end outcome we are seeking and therefore now afforded the possibility to measure our progress (monthly or quarterly perhaps).

The simple point here is not to focus on the particular goal a given individual may set, but to suggest that the more time and effort we devote to crafting our written goals the better. When it comes to personal development in particular, this means that our chances of actually achieveing some real and beneficial change are greatly enhaced. We may consequently actually become a better listener, more creative thinker, or more adept project manager, rather than intend to achieve these ends but somehow lose our way only a few weeks after we started (letting other priorities quickly get on top of us).

There are a range of good books, resources and other tools available to help individuals with personal goal or objective setting efforts, and many of these can be found by visiting the www.ReadyToManage.com web store at the link below. This includes the Goal-setting Effectiveness Self-Assessment which allows an individual to think about many more of the issues which are critical to success in crafting any objective and includes a considerable amount of caoching guidance in the interpretive report once the questionnaire has been completed. In the meantime, I'd suggest that each person takes 15 minutes of quiet time and start by writing out at least 4 or 5 personal goal statements on paper for the 12 months ahead just to get the ball-rolling.

Dr Jon Warner-www.ReadyToManage.com and jon@OD-center.org

The web site www.ReadyToManage.comaims to help all individuals who want to become more adept in their leadership ability at all levels. Visit the web store to see all the resources we offer to help individuals including self-assessments questionnaires, skill development books and booklets, e-learning programs and many other tools and resources.

Being Ready to Manage

Well its a New Year and we all have new opportunities to make some firm resolutions about how things might be different or better for us in the months ahead. Many of these personal goals will be about specific changes in our lifestyle, the way we communicate, who we listen to or what we will and will not do in the future. However, perhaps we should think a little harder about how we manage ourselves in an overall sense and ask the question "are we really ready" to make any change in the future. I am not suggesting that this assessment is some vague or general exercise that we do in a few seconds of idle thought but instead is a rigorous assessment of our own strengths and development needs in terms of how well we are able to manage ourselves and others. This deeper reflecton should produce a list of characteristics, traits or competencies which you can perhaps deploy more often and a list of characteristics, traits or competencies that may be in need of development. In both cases, we now have a basis for action in the next few weeks and months.

Dr Jon Warner-www.ReadyToManage.com and jon@OD-center.org

The web site www.ReadyToManage.com aims to help all individuals who want to become more adept in their leadership ability at all levels. Visit the web store to see all the resources we offer to help individuals including self-assessments questionnaires, skill development books and booklets, e-learning programs and many other tools and resources.