4 Questions Every Leader should be Able to Answer about Talent
As a business leaders, we have a lot to think about: cash flow, marketing, competition, changes in technology, and the list goes on. on the list, somewhere, is talent. We realize that it’s important to have a clear business strategy, but do we spend as much time thinking about our talent strategy? Without the right talent, fully engaged, working on the right assignments with the right support, business strategies cannot succeed. Here’s a key question:
If I woke you up out of a dead sleep, and asked you to tell me about your talent strategy, could you do it?
Is your talent strategy at the top of your mind? If it is not, perhaps it should be. As business leaders, this is our job – to think about talent. The distinguishing characteristic of leadership is accomplishing results through others. It is not enough to be personally proficient. We have to attract, engage, align and deploy human capital. The better we become at talent strategies, the further our careers can advance.
Talent management can seem complex, can’t it? And, sometimes it seems that it even comes with its own language: succession planning, talent reviews, talent acquisition, employee engagement – if we are not careful, we can begin to think of talent management as the purview of our Human Resources departments – but it should not be. As business leaders, it is our job to develop and deploy talent strategies.
In my experience, when it comes to talent, there are only four fundamental questions that every business leader should be able to answer, however, unless we have been thinking about them, we probably cannot. Here are the four questions:
- Do I have the talent to execute against my strategic plan?
- Why would anyone want to work for us, or for me?
- How do I keep and energize top talent?
- How do I grow and export talent?
Or, to put it another way, how do I plan, attract, acquire, engage, retain, develop and deploy talent throughout the enterprise?
So, what about it? Can you answer these four questions with confidence? In this article, we’re going to explore each of these four questions. For each question, we’ll look at the talent planning processes available to us and discuss how to best deploy them.
Note: Free Prizes Inside!
Before we explore these four questions, I want to point out a couple of free tools that are available. If you prefer to see this information in PowerPoint, you can view the presentation here. once there, you can view the presentation or download the PowerPoint files for later.
My company, CultureShift has also developed a free self-assessment so that companies can set priorities to improve their talent management capabilities. You can obtain this free tool simply by filling out the request for here. (Did I mention that it is free?) The self-assessment is in a Beta form, and so we would appreciate your feedback.
Editorial Note: If you are not a fan of the word “talent,” feel free to substitute your own word or phrase: people, team members, human capital, etc.
Now, let’s look at each of these four talent questions. Fair warning though, each of these four questions lead to more questions. In the end, we’ll explore solutions.
Do I have the talent to execute against my strategic plan?
The first key question that we as leaders have to answer is, “Do I have the talent to execute against my strategic plan?” As with any good process, Talent Management begins with planning. Before we can acquire, engage or develop employees, we need to know what kind talent and how much talent we need. Talent planning closely follows strategic planning and organizational design. (See this previous posting regarding strategic planning and organizational design.) The strategic plan should inform us of the unique corporate capabilities required. Organizational Design categorizes the work and describes the processes and linkages. This should help us to understand the unique talent required to execute our strategy.
Here are some related questions:
- Do I know who the successors are for key leadership roles and critical technical roles?
- When was the last time I sat down and looked at each one of my direct reports (and their direct reports) to think about their potential next role and what we need to do to develop them?
- Do I have diverse perspectives on the team? Do they know that I value that?
- Who is ready for a promotion? How will I ensure the transition is smooth?
- Have I picked a few individuals with high potential to invest in? How do I know I’m betting on the right ones?
- Do I have a plan for moving the right people to the right role, location and assignment? Are they ready to move?
- How many of my sales representatives and sales managers are in the right role that matches their talent and interests?
- How many of my people will retire this year? Next year? Am I ready for that? What happens to their knowledge?
- Am I providing the right combination of rewards and recognition? Is it fair?
The first of our four questions, and the related questions above, are answered through the following talent management processes:
For a brief description of each of these processes, see the appendix at the end of this article.
This brings us to question number two.
Why would anyone want to work for us, or for that matter, for me?
The second question, “Why would anyone want to work for us, or, for that matter, why would anyone want to work for me?” gets at the need to attract and acquire talent. Your brand as an employer is felt far outside of your firewall. Top talent outside of your company have an impression of what it must be like to work for your company. Talent attraction also is related to your personal brand. Are the best and the brightest hoping to land on your team? If I’m really honest with myself, I have to be able to ask and answer the second half of that question, why would anyone want to work for me?
Here are some related questions:
- What is our company’s reputation in the talent marketplace? What about my department, function or region? Are the top performers anxious to come to work here? If I read our reviews on Glassdoor, would I be proud to work here? Where are we going to find the best talent, even if they don’t yet know they want to work for us?
- Do the best people want to work for me? Am I a talent magnet?
- What is my recruitment strategy?
- How am I going to screen potential job candidates to make sure I’m finding the right people for the right role?
- What are the best practices when it comes to interviewing candidates?
- What are the inputs to the decision process for hiring new people and how am I going to make a hiring decision?
- Once we decide on which candidate to hire, how do we make sure that our offer is fair and that they accept?
The second of our four questions, and the related questions above, are answered through the following talent management processes:
As we’ve already mentioned, there is an appendix with a brief description of each of these talent management processes at the end of this article.
This leads to our third question related to engaging and retaining talent.
How do I keep and energize top talent?
Our third question is related to engagement and retention. Or, more simply, engagement. An engaged employee is a retained employee. Engaged employees give extra, or discretionary effort. They go far beyond what is required of them. Employee engagement begins during the talent acquisition process and continues into full-time employment. Employee engagement is an outcome. Business leaders cannot create engagement – they simply create the conditions that lead to engagement.
Here are some related questions:
- How do I engage new employees, even before they start their first day on the job? How do I make sure they quickly assimilate into our culture while bringing their unique perspective?
- How do I make sure all work activities are aligned to the strategy? How do I align recognition and rewards to the right effort done the right way in alignment with our shared goals?
- Does our unique combination of compensation, bonuses, benefits, work-life balance, development opportunities and career growth opportunities provide ample motivation for my top talent?
- How does my top talent want to be recognized?
- How engaged are my team members? What metrics am I using to measure engagement? Do I have a concrete action plan, based on employee feedback, to increase engagement?
- What am I doing to ensure the success of new leaders and the teams who have new leaders?
- How are we doing as a team? Is everyone aligned on our purpose, goals, roles, processes? Do we have healthy interpersonal relationships?
- When was the last time I sat down and listened to my indirect reports – the ones who report to my team?
- How am I capturing lessons learned from departing team members?
The third question, how do I keep and energize top talent, is answered through the following talent management processes:
See the appendix to the article for further details.
This brings us to our fourth and final question, “How do I grow and export talent?”
How do I grow and export talent?
Many of the business leaders that I speak with understand the concept of growing talent. We’re used to the concept of training. However, growing talent goes far beyond training. However, what confuses some business leaders more is this concept of exporting talent. Talent, like fresh water, has to be fluid and mobile in order to be healthy. The worst managers are hoarders of talent while the best leaders are exporters of talent. They bring new talent into the organization, develop the talent and then export the talent to the rest of the organization.
Related questions include the following:
- Do our employees know the career growth opportunities available to them in our company? Do they know one or more potential next roles?
- Do we know the behaviors, knowledge, skills and attitudes (competencies) that lead to success in different jobs, roles and tasks?
- How are we utilizing standardized, validated assessments to objectively measure the job fit and development opportunities of our team members?
- Do my team members have a one-page resume that leaders can use to understand their talent and potential?
- How are we ensuring today’s leaders have all of the competencies they need to succeed? How are we preparing tomorrow’s leaders?
- Are we taking full advantage of stretch assignments? Are we using real business problems as a learning laboratory? Are we harvesting lessons learned from work activities?
- Are our team members clear on how they are doing? Are we giving clear feedback? Do our managers know how to coach? Does our top talent have someone more experienced that they can learn from?
- How are we systematically training our people? Are we taking full advantage of informal and social learning?
These questions are all answered through the following talent management processes:
Now that we’ve looked at all of the individual processes of talent management, let’s take a systemic look at the Total Talent Management system.
Total Talent Management
So far, we’ve been exploring the components of talent management. The picture below a systemic view of the Total Talent Management system.
Underpinning the system are the talent management strategy, philosophy processes and procedures. Metrics and measures are included as is a communication plan and a change management plan. Of course all of this is supported by integrated human capital management systems.
I recognize that all of this might be a bit overwhelming. Remember, however that, as business leaders, this is our job, to think about talent. Also remember, that we are not alone. We have our Human Resources partners to support us and to facilitate these processes. While it is important to not relegate responsibility to HR, it is equally important to engage them at the appropriate time to support us in talent management.
How Do I Know where to Focus?
Talent Management is a comprehensive process and, if done right, it requires much of our attention. However, talent management cannot take all of our attention. We still have a business to run. We have to make sales and budget and production and quality goals. We still have shareholders, customers, competitors, regulators, boards of directors and communities that need our time and attention. So, how do we choose where to focus?
To help you prioritize your talent management efforts, my company, CultureShift has created a free self-assessment to help you prioritize your talent management efforts. You can click here, fill out the form, and, after submitting, click the link provided to download the self-assessment. It is simple to download and complete. The free self-assessment is in Beta testing, so we would appreciate your feedback and input.
Who Can Help?
Your HR Business Partner can help you answer the four key talent questions:
- Do I have the talent to execute against my strategic plan?
- Why would anyone want to work for us, or for me?
- How do I keep and energize top talent?
- How do I grow and export talent?
If you need further assistance, feel free to reach out to me.
Appendix: Description of Talent Management Processes
Below is a brief description of each of the talent management processes listed above.
Process | Description |
Plan: Do I have the talent to execute against my strategic plan? | |
Succession Planning | A process for identifying successors (usually but not limited to current employees) with the potential to fill key business leadership positions and critical functional roles in the company. |
Talent Reviews | A talent review is a meeting or series of meetings intended to discuss the individuals within a department, function, region and/or across the enterprise. While the talent review is generally facilitated by Human Resources professionals, they are intended to be led by the business leaders who are there to present and discuss the individuals in their organization. The managers / executives leading the meeting review and evaluate talent profiles, performance, next potential role (NPR), assessment data, development plans, goals and compensation data for individuals within the organization. These meetings raise awareness of talent within the enterprise and calibrate the ratings of individuals to ensure consistency and equitable treatment. |
Workforce Planning | Workforce Planning is forward projection of business performance and the required human capital (talent or workforce). Workforce planning can be helpful in planning budgets, headcount and span of control. |
Diversity & Inclusion | Respect for and appreciation of unique perspectives based on culture, ethnicity, gender, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, education, and religion. During talent reviews and on an ongoing basis, diversity & inclusion is discussed and plans are created to ensure inclusion, diversity and engagement at all layers of the enterprise. |
Promotion & Transition Planning | During talent reviews and from time to time throughout the year, individuals will be earmarked for promotion. This can create a cascade of other moves throughout the organization. Transitions are planned for the leader moving into their new role and for his / her new team and former team. |
HiPo Identification | During Talent Reviews, some individuals may be designated as High Potentials (HiPo). These are the employees who have the best chance to rapidly grow their skills and advance rapidly in the company. While they can be identified through a 9-box exercise, most advanced talent management practices today incorporate assessments or even executive assessment centers to ensure the proper criteria is used for selection. HiPo individual most often receive preferential treatment for leadership development and stretch assignments. Companies usually overinvest in these individuals when compared with the employee population in general. |
Talent Mobility | Talent mobility is the ability to rapidly and transparently move people from region to region, role to role, function to function, and business to business in order to tackle critical business challenges. In the past, this discussion might have been limited to long-term, multi-year expatriate assignments. Today, talent leaders think more dynamically and broadly about the need to rapidly move talent throughout the enterprise. Mobility is often a subject of discussion during talent reviews. |
Sales Talent Audit | A sales talent audit uses an assessment to identify distinguishing competencies in each sales role and predicts the likelihood of success of individual sales representatives across multiple roles (e.g., account manager, key account manager, international sales manager, etc.). The result of the sales talent audit is a visual dashboard indicating high, medium and low likelihood of success in different roles. A sales talent audit assists sales leaders in creating effective systems for candidate selection and staff development. It provide tools for more effective and standardized interview and coaching processes. |
Retirement Planning | While the term "retirement planning" can be used for personal financial planning, in this case we mean the predictive analysis of the potential for retirement of employees creating both a potential interruption of services and a loss of corporate knowledge. |
Compensation Planning | As part of a Total Rewards system (and the employer brand), total compensation is planned. Companies decide on strategies and philosophies for compensation that aligns with the unique capabilities sought by the enterprise. on an annual basis, the executive team, advised by Human Resources representatives, devise an annual compensation plan, including budget, bonus structures and criteria for release of bonuses. |
Attract and Acquire: Why would anyone want to work for us, or for that matter, for me? | |
Employer Branding | The reputation and image of your company in the minds of current and potential employees. The employer brand can be important in attracting, engaging and retaining top talent. |
Sourcing | Sourcing is the proactive identification, assessment and engagement of top talent, especially passive candidates. Sourcing is the finding and initial engagement of potential employees, even if those individuals have not applied for employment. |
Recruiting | Many people use the terms recruiting and sourcing interchangeably. In this case, we use the term "recruiting" to mean the engagement of job candidates who have been sourced to match them with existing positions. |
Screening | Screening is the process of sorting job candidates to either qualify or to disqualify them. This can be done through screening of written resumes, interviews and assessments. The goal of screening is to find the best candidate that fits the open position (and for whom the role is a fit). |
Interviewing | Interviewing is the back-and-forth question and answer process of screening candidates. Interviews can be via technology (e.g. phone or Skype) or in-person. Most companies today practice a form of behavioral interviewing in which the candidate is asked about specific work situations and the individual is able to respond by describing the situation, the obstacle they had to overcome, the actions that the took and the results. Interviews can be one-on-one or can be group interviews. |
Pre-Hire Assessments | Assessments are usually written examinations / surveys that predict the skills, behaviors, motivation, and attitudes of job candidates. Assessments can be extremely useful to inform hiring decisions, especially as a hiring manager is confronted with two or three equally qualified candidates, however, they should not make up more than 30% of the hiring decision. |
Selection | Selection is the decision-making process when candidates have been screened, interviewed and assessed. While input from multiple sources are helpful, in the end, it is up to the hiring manager to select the right candidate for the role. |
Offer | Once a candidates has been selected for an open role, an offer is extended. From a technical perspective, the offer includes the details of an employment offer, such as compensation, benefits, start date, terms of employment and other job details. However, extending an offer is an act of negotiation and requires a delicate balance of showing genuine interest and good faith, which helping the candidate to understand the flexibility of the offer and the urgency of decision making. Initial job offers may be extended verbally, but most companies provide a written job offer. Most job offers also contain an expiration date for the offer. |
Engage and Retain: How do I maximize my team members' performance? | |
Onboarding | Onboarding is the process of bringing new employees into the organization and indoctrinating them into the culture. onboarding begins upon acceptance of an offer of employment. It provides initial and ongoing information, training, mentoring and coaching throughout a transition period. |
Performance Management | Performance Management is an operating mechanism that aligns individual employee performance with the larger department and enterprise initiatives. Performance Reviews are the formal process of feedback and coaching between a supervisor and an employee regarding his or her goals. While feedback and coaching should be ongoing throughout the year, Performance Management formalizes and documents the feedback. Employees set performance goals at the beginning of the year. These goals are reviewed and agreed upon between the manager and employee. From time to time, for example quarterly or twice per year, the employee and the manager review the employee's goals and measure how successfully the employee is meeting the goals. |
Total Rewards | Total rewards are the tools available to an employer to attract, motivate and retain employees. Total rewards may include compensation, bonuses, benefits, work-life balance, recognition, development opportunities and career growth opportunities. |
Recognition | Recognition is the reinforcement of desired behaviors, based on emotional needs while rewards reinforce behavior based on rational needs. Both are important. When behavior is managed poorly, the organization is confused, change initiatives stall, behaviors are misaligned, employees leave, we fail to meet expectations and therefore, shareholders are dissatisfied. However when behavior is well managed, the organization is clear, change initiatives soar, behaviors lead to results, employees are engaged, we achieve our results and therefore we create shareholder value. |
Employee Engagement | Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee feels for the organization and its goals. This commitment motivates employees to use discretionary effort - to put forth more than the minimally required job performance for the sake of the company and the goals. Highly engaged employees are usually retained employees. |
New Leader Assimilation | New Leader Assimilation is an onboarding" process for leaders who have taken on a new role or a new team. New Leader Assimilation usually takes place around 60 - 90 days after the new leader has taken his or her position on the team. The goal of New Leader Assimilation is to accelerate the formation and normalization of the team. The process is usually facilitated by a neutral third party, such as a Human Resources Business Partner. The facilitator gathers the questions, feedback, needs, beliefs, worries, expectations, plans, prejudices, values of the team and summarizes this information for the incoming manager. The assimilation process usually includes a feedback session and a question & answer session with the manager. |
Team Building | Teams require a clear agreement on the purpose, goals, roles, processes and interpersonal relationships (P-GRPI) in order to function clearly. Team building activities address breakdowns in any or all of these areas. Team building consists of team interventions that enhance social relations and clarify team norms. |
Level-Up Meetings | Level-Up Meetings, also known as Skip-level Meetings are held between an upper level manager and an employee or group of employees who are more than one level below him or her in the organization. The senior leader meets with the employees either in a group setting or one-on-one. Often a neutral facilitator is used. Level-up meetings can be either formal or informal. |
Exit Interviews | An exit interview is an interview or survey (or both) conducted with an individual who is leaving employment. Exit interviews can yield lessons learned that can, if applied, improve the employer brand. |
Develop and Deploy: How do I grow and export talent? | |
Career Paths | A Career Path is a series of potential next roles from any single other role. For example, an Engineer I role, may move to an Engineer II (more technical) role. However, it could also lead to a Sales Engineer role or to an Engineer Supervisor role. Career paths sometimes are horizontal in an organization, with ever-increasing responsibilities like climbing a ladder, however, a path can also be lateral and non-linear, hence the word "path." A career path may entail moving from a functional role to a people-leadership role, though it might also include an ever-increasing set of technical / functional responsibilities. To understand a career path is to understand possible next positions and to map-out prerequisite knowledge, skills, personal characteristics, and experience required for that role. |
Competency Mapping | Competency Mapping is a process of identifying the knowledge, skills and attitudes, or competencies, required for a role or a series of roles. Competency mapping can involve job analysis, in which tasks are identified, and task analysis, in which, for each task, behaviors and competencies are identified. Competencies are utilized through all talent processes from job interviews to performance management, to learning and development. |
Assessments | Assessments are not just used for pre-hiring. They can also reveal job fit and development opportunities throughout an employee's career. There are many types of assessments including for example, cultural profile, emotional intelligence, personality, learning agility, competency, leadership assessments and 360-degree feedback. For senior executives or for candidates for senior leadership roles, an assessment center may be utilized. Assessments are often used as part of talent reviews. They can also be used to uncover individual and organizational training and development needs. |
Talent Profiles | A talent profile can be thought of as a one-page resume that includes the individual’s experience, education, performance review scores, assessment scores (e.g., 360-degree feedback or learning agility scores), retention risk, language skills, relocation availability (talent mobility), diversity, career goals, next possible roles and a development plan. |
Leadership Development | Leadership development is comprised of a series of events that include an assessment (often a 360-degree assessment) with feedback; coaching and mentoring; a formal education or training process; and active learning in the form of stretch assignments or group work that attempts to solve actual business problems. Though formal training is often an important component of leadership development, it certainly is not the only component. |
HiPo Development | HiPo Development is a specific and intentional set of leadership development activities or events that are intended to accelerate the development and careers of individuals who have been identified as High Potential through the talent review process. |
Action Learning | Action learning is an approach to solving real-world problems through taking action and reflecting upon the results. The learning that results improves the problem-solving process as well as the solutions the team develops. Stretch assignments, as long as they include reflection time, are a form of action learning. |
Coaching/Feedback | Feedback is information about a person's behavior, performance of a task, or their impact on others that can be used as a basis for improvement. Coaching involves a coach-coachee relationship in which the coach observes work in real time and then provides feedback. The GROW model of coaching can be helpful, in which the coach reaffirms the shared Goal; contrasts that with the Reality of the current behavior; obtains the coachee's perspective; brainstorms possible Options for improvement; and finally ensures there is a Wrap-up in which the coachee agrees to next steps for improvement. |
Mentoring | Mentoring is a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. |
Learning & Development | Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior, cognition, or attitude brought on by a development opportunity. Development is an experience, study or instruction, the purpose of which is to bring about learning. Note that Learning & Development can be formal classroom training or formal education, however, it is just as often the outcome of stretch assignments or other experiences. |