The ‘star performers’ in your organisation today are not the same as they will be in 3 years time. Nor the same as they were 3 years ago. Being a ‘star performer’ is not an enduring trait of a person. Rather, it is a balance between the role and the capabilities of the person; the balance of factors such as challenge, capability, reward, ambition, constraints, and resources. The right person in the right role ignites star performance, but it very often doesn’t last. The organisation changes. The person changes. Balance is lost.
This is why so many organisations are wrong to identify their current “star performers” as future leaders, and invest too many eggs in the wrong development baskets. Strategic talent management should be about so much more. It should be a process by which an organisation puts the right mechanisms in place to deliver competitive advantage through the effective management and growth of its people.
Why is it important ?
How many times have you read “our most important asset is our people” ? The phrase has become such a cliché that its inferred consequences and opportunities are often overlooked. And yet, any aspect of an organisation – its ability to implement a competitive strategy (eg: use of technology or reputation for excellent service), its financial results, its resilience to competition, its ability to innovate and thrive – all are dependent upon the qualities and capabilities of its people; particularly its leaders and managers.
Payroll is typically the largest business cost. Payroll to an ill-led, poorly-managed workforce is even more costly. This is all about competitive advantage.
So, where can talent management go wrong ?
Four classic examples of talent mis-management will be explored in this feature; two today and a further two later this week.
Direction and misdirection
The first is an easy trap to fall into: taking the identification of ‘star performers’ as a starting point and fast-tracking them into leadership. The issue is not who your stars are now, but what kind of leaders you will need in order to deliver the organisation’s strategic intent in future. The starting point for effective talent management – and, consequently, for future organisation performance – is in decoding the vision, strategy, and long-term corporate objectives; “If we aspire to X then what would that look like in the leadership behaviours and capabilities at all levels ?”
The next step is then to measure current capability to establish what the gap looks like. And that includes those ‘star performers’. In the light of what will be required, they may not shine so brightly.
The planning horizon for talent management must be across five or ten years so, for many SMEs, the difficulty can arise where HR provides a supportive functional role; where the time-horizon is counted in months, not years.
Lesson 1: the executive board must recognise the strategic value of its people, and of HR. Equally, HR must tether talent development to the organisation’s future direction, and not today’s stars.
The problem of promotion.
We’re all familiar with the cliché of The Peter Principle; that in a hierarchy people are promoted to the point of their incompetence. With star performers this can have a double-whammy. The organisation loses someone highly effective in the current role and gains an ineffective manager. As leaders are required to achieve results through others, today’s frontline stars must develop and use very different skills and behaviours than those required to achieve results from their own effort. Otherwise they will quickly find themselves promoted into incompetence. I have observed this most often in sales where the very qualities which make an outstanding sales-person often make for an abysmal sales manager or team leader. But if the organisation has a clear picture of what their ideal next-position qualities should be, and the individual is willing to learn, then the future looks a lot more positive.
Lesson 2: the organisation must identify the behaviours behind outstanding performance at all levels (not just the best they have now) and should work with future leaders to consider how their current behaviours match those required for excellence in the next potential role.
I will continue this exploration of talent management in Part 2, to be published here in the next couple of days.
If you have any thoughts or comments to add in the meantime then do click on “Add Comment”. I would welcome your perspective.
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