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Businesses have been warned that if they
lose the war for talent, then their company will die. Granted, human
talent is a large, risky and expensive asset that must be managed well.
But concentrating on talent development without equal attention to
business strategy and management infrastructure is likely to backfire.
At The Clarion Institute, we believe that, while particular approaches
may come and go, any successful business must have an operating model
that aligns three core business components: business strategy,
management infrastructure, and organization behavior. Our premise is
that a focus on one component to the exclusion of the others will
undermine business performance.
And that’s our concern about the recent emphasis on talent
development as the primary route to a company’s success. Instead, we
believe that the real challenge is to both develop strong talent and
reward actual performance and also to create an inclusive culture
buttressed by systems and disciplined management that bring out the best
in people. Ultimately, this challenge falls squarely in the lap of the
CEO.
Driven by CEO,
not Human Resources
Many successful CEO's have come to realize that they play a key role
in the quality and career progression of their people, a role that
requires their sponsorship, active involvement, and articulation of the
business need. Those CEO's most involved in grooming company leaders
claim to spend 30-40% of their time in this endeavor, interviewing all
senior manager hires, teaching in some of the management development
programs, and participating in quarterly succession and high talent
planning sessions. |
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One organization that has sustained talent
development over time is General Electric where CEO Jack Welsh was
personally involved in the hires of the company’s top 300 executives.
GE’s talent development process features stretch assignments,
performance feedback from multiple sources (360o feedback), and targeted
executive education.
A CEO-driven approach to talent is a clear departure from the days
when Human Resources led the company’s talent charge. Yet, experience
has shown that when someone other than the CEO (typically Human
Resources) has been the stimulus, efforts falter. Managers might comply
with the process for one cycle of activity but gradually opt out of
attending talent discussions, interviewing yet another candidate for a
senior position, or having lunch with yet another high potential
employee. Eventually, HR has a harder and harder time getting executives
and managers to provide the information needed to keep the process
going. Not surprisingly then, such efforts acquire a “program du jour”
reputation and are apt to fade away into oblivion. Even with CEO sponsorship, talent development is not without its
difficulties. Company managers complain about the paper-intensive
process involved in assessing employees. And even though moving people
into different company positions often provides a good development
opportunity for a talented individual, it can leave a manager
short-handed and a department in confusion. So, given these
difficulties, why are some companies so focused on talent development?
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