Talent Conversations: What They Are, Why They're Crucial, and How to Do Them Right

Guidebooks Action Into Ideas

For The Practicing Manager

Talent Conversations

What They Are, Why They’re Crucial, And How to Do Them Right Roland Smith and Michael Campbell

Center for Creative Leadership

An Ideas Into Action Guidebook

Talent Conversations

What They Are, Why They’re Crucial, And How to Do Them Right

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks Aimed at managers and executives who are concerned with their own and others’ development, each guidebook in this series gives specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership problem.

Lead Contributors Roland Smith Michael Campbell Director of Assessments, Tools, and Publications Manager, Publication Development Editor Editor Design and Layout Contributing Artists

Sylvester Taylor Peter Scisco Stephen Rush Karen Lewis Joanne Ferguson Laura J. Gibson Chris Wilson, 29 & Company

Copyright ©2011 Center for Creative Leadership. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. CCL No. 449 ISBN No. 978-1-60491-093-3

Center for Creative Leadership

Post Office Box 26300 Greensboro, North Carolina 27438-6300 336-288-7210 www.ccl.org/publications

An Ideas Into Action Guidebook

Talent Conversations

What They Are, Why They’re Crucial, And How to Do Them Right Roland Smith and Michael Campbell

The Ideas Into Action Guidebook Series This series of guidebooks draws on the practical knowledge that the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) has generated, since its inception in 1970, through its research and educational activity conducted in partnership with hundreds of thousands of managers and executives. Much of this knowledge is shared—in a way that is distinct from the typical university department, professional association, or consultancy. CCL is not simply a collection of individual experts, although the individual credentials of its staff are impressive; rather it is a community, with its members holding certain principles in common and working together to understand and generate practical responses to today’s leadership and organizational challenges. The purpose of the series is to provide managers with specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership challenge. In doing that, the series carries out CCL’s mission to advance the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide. We think you will find the Ideas Into Action Guidebooks an important addition to your leadership toolkit.

Table of Contents 7

Managing Talent

10

What Is a Talent Conversation?

11

Knowing Your Talent

21

The ACS Development Model

23

Preparing for the Conversation

27

Delivering the Conversation

30

Last Words

31

Suggested Readings

32

Key Point Summary

Executive Brief

Talent management is the work of designing and implementing the strategies, systems, and processes needed for talent sustainability—an organization’s ability to continuously attract, develop, and retain people with the capabilities and commitment needed for current and future organizational success. Evidence from Gallup’s Q12 employee-engagement research shows that people want a relationship with those who lead them and that if they feel that their leaders and the organization overall care about their individual growth, development, and career success, they are more satisfied, committed, and engaged. Individual leaders can have a significant amount of influence over the development of organizational talent. One of the simplest yet most effective ways to achieve this is the talent conversation—a way of building on relationships that are based on rapport, collaboration, and mutual commitment in order to help the individuals you lead improve performance, focus development, and reach positive outcomes. From this guidebook you will learn how to prepare for and facilitate effective talent conversations by using the Center for Creative Leadership’s development framework of assessment, challenge, and support.

Talent Conversations

Managing Talent

Talented employees want to know where they stand in the organization now and their possibilities for the future. They want direction on what and where they need to develop, and they seek feedback and support in their efforts. If they are able to have honest, open, two-way conversations with their managers they will feel more engaged by their work and more valued by the organization. In short, they want a dialogue. As a leader you have a role in helping your organization achieve talent sustainability—the ability to continuously attract, develop, and retain people with the capabilities and commitment needed for current and future organizational success. You’re probably involved in talent management processes such as conducting annual performance reviews, participating in talent reviews, and evaluating talent. You may also be involved in developing others both formally and informally through coaching and mentoring. Most managers believe that they frequently provide feedback to employees on areas in which they need improvement and ways that they can maximize their strengths. However, in many cases employees see the situation differently (see Figure 1, “A Difference of Opinion,” on page 8). This perception gap between managers and employees regarding the frequency of feedback suggests that managers may not be as good as they think they are at engaging in the type of dialogue employees desire. The failure of leaders to provide sufficient feedback, recognition, and encouragement can have dire consequences. Consider the following scenarios: • Your organization has invested a significant amount of time and dollars in developing a high-potential talent, only to be shocked when that high potential suddenly leaves the organization for another opportunity.

7

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

• Your organization has a strong individual performer with great technical and intellectual capacity who has consistently produced great results. This individual has recently been passed over for promotions and other considerations and is now showing initial signs of disengagement and resistance to new organizational initiatives. • A high-potential talent in a new role for less than a year is beginning to ask about the next opportunity to move up or take on added responsibilities. This high potential has a good relationship with senior executives in the organization; however, her direct boss feels that the individual needs to stay in her current role longer to gain more experience and demonstrate an ability to get results. • A high-profile hire with an Ivy League M.B.A. and international experience has not met expectations since joining the organization two years ago. This individual is now asking about the next promotion, but before that can be considered he must show immediate and sustained improvement in performance.

Figure 1. A Difference of Opinion Employees receive sufficient feedback or advice on areas in which they need improvement:

Managers

Employees receive sufficient feedback or advice on how to maximize their strengths:

Managers

Employees

Employees

89%

57% 82% 49%

Source: DDI Survey: 1,800 managers and 1,800 employees from more than 200 companies. USA Today, 2003.

8

Talent Conversations

A high potential suddenly leaving the organization, a strong performer beginning to show signs of derailment, a high potential who wants to move too quickly into a role with more responsibility, or an individual who consistently underperforms—all of these can have a drastic impact on the organization. So can these scenarios be prevented from occurring, and if so, how? Many organizations have annual talent-management processes in place that tie together performance management and succession planning, development and career planning, and formal and informal training and development opportunities through organizational discussions between peers, in which top talent in the organization is identified and discussed. Regardless of the level of sophistication of your organization’s talent management process, you as an individual leader are in the best position to have a significant amount of influence over your talent. One of the simplest yet most effective ways to develop others is the talent conversation. Having effective talent conversations is both a retention strategy and a significant lever for increasing organizational performance. Effective talent conversations support your organization’s ability to: • increase the return on invested capital in preparing organizational talent • increase the capabilities of targeted talent pools and help talent achieve high performance in their current and future roles • reduce the cycle time in the development of high-potential individuals • increase the effectiveness of individual leaders in the organization at developing talent and leveraging the organization’s talent-management efforts • increase levels of engagement from talent • build employee trust in management, commitment to the organization, and engagement with the work 9

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

What Is a Talent Conversation?

Where organizational talent-management efforts often fail is at the intersection of the individual talent and the person ultimately responsible for that person’s success—the boss or supervisor. An organization may spend an enormous amount of time and effort on reviewing and assessing its talent, but all of that time and effort will likely go to waste if the conversation with the individual talent goes badly or doesn’t happen at all. If the conversation is done well, however, you may be able to improve outcomes for your organization. It may be possible to retain that high-potential individual in whom the organization has placed a significant amount of development investment. You might engage that strong performer so she will continue to exceed performance expectations and deliver top results. You could help reassure a high potential that she is on the right development track and that her efforts are being acknowledged by others. You may even be able to salvage an underperforming asset and enable that person to see and achieve his full potential. So what is a talent conversation? A talent conversation builds on a relationship based on rapport, collaboration, and mutual commitment, which engender trust and enable one person to influence another toward improved performance, development, and positive outcomes. Therefore, at its core a talent conversation is a mutual endeavor. A talent conversation is not done to someone, but with someone. The talent conversation is where talent development becomes real, where commitment to the organization and engagement with the work can be built, and where you have the opportunity to accelerate development and results. The conversation results are designed to help produce behavior that positively affects others, has a real impact on business performance, and helps expand potential or capacity for those you’re developing. 10

Talent Conversations

To better understand the impact of a talent conversation, you may find it helpful first to draw on your own experiences. Whether or not they were called talent conversations, chances are that during the course of your career you have had discussions with a superior about your performance or your career. Use the reflection exercise (page 12) to articulate your experiences with talent conversations—why they go right and how they can go wrong. Reflecting on a talent conversation you experienced during your career will hopefully lead you to realize that there are more- and less-effective approaches to having these conversations. In short, they have consequences. Leaders who want to successfully and effectively manage the talent in their organizations need to develop a set of skills and methods for talent conversations. In what follows, you will learn about the tools and insights needed to prepare for and facilitate formal talent conversations as part of your organization’s talentmanagement efforts, as well as how to have informal talent conversations on an ongoing basis.

Knowing Your Talent

Before you can know how to approach a conversation you must first understand who you are engaging. The overall message you convey will vary depending on the organization’s—and your—assessment of a person’s performance and potential. Organizations draw from many methods of measuring employee performance and potential. One of the most common is use of a talent assessment grid that helps evaluate individuals relative to their peers within a particular time frame. One of the most popular forms of these is called the nine-box, with performance as the y axis and potential as the x axis. Sometimes the performance dimension is referred to as the what (the results) and the potential dimension is referred to as the how (the skills and behaviors displayed by the individual in achieving those results). 11

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

Reflection Exercise

Think back over the course of your career about a talent conversation you had with a superior. The conversation could have been related to your performance or your career, but the subject of the conversation was you. Think about the following questions, then use the space provided to jot down your responses: • What went right in the conversation? • What went wrong in the conversation? • What did the superior do to make the conversation more or less effective? What Went Right?

What Went Wrong?

Most Effective Behaviors

Least Effective Behaviors

12

Talent Conversations

A talent assessment grid can help a group • differentiate individuals on the basis of results, displayed competencies, and capability to do work within and outside of one’s job role • provide a calibration of ratings across the enterprise to ensure consistency • provide a snapshot of the succession pipeline and leadership bench strength Even if your organization does not use a talent assessment grid, thinking about the current performance and future potential of your

Figure 2. The Talent Assessment Grid

HIGHER

4

2

1

MID

7

5

3

LOWER

Performance

A talent assessment grid categorizes individuals as high, medium, or low performers on one axis, and as having high, medium, or low degree of potential (for example, managerial or leadership potential) on the other axis.

9

8

6

LOWER

MID Potential

13



HIGHER

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

people will help you target the appropriate message you want to convey during the conversation. Rather than think about nine different types of talent conversation, you may wish to think in terms of four types of talent conversation. Each of these types of talent conversation has been mapped to a nine-box talent assessment grid in Figure 3. These four types of talent conversation provide guidelines to help you • prepare the key message you want to share with the employee • anticipate and prepare for the employee’s reaction • identify needed development areas • determine the types of support the employee will need to be successful

The Solid Performer Conversation

The Top Talent Conversation

The Underperformer Conversation

The Potential Performer Conversation

MID LOWER

Performance

HIGHER

Figure 3. Four Types of Talent Conversation

LOWER

MID Potential

14



HIGHER

Talent Conversations

The Top Talent Conversation

When having a talent conversation with an individual who has been identified as top talent in the organization, you should focus your efforts on how to invest in him or her. Top talent are individuals who • meet or exceed performance expectations and deliver superior results • demonstrate exceptional managerial and leadership skills • exemplify most if not all of the criteria and competencies required for executing the organization’s strategy • learn new skills quickly and take advantage of developmental opportunities • are ready for more responsibility During the conversation with top talent you should • recognize the person’s high performance level • share your and the organization’s perceptions of the individual’s leadership abilities and potential • focus on how to provide the person with the skills and experiences needed for future roles • discuss future aspirations and goals and desired development • find out what motivates the individual and what you and the organization can do to ensure that he or she stays with the organization

The Solid Performer Conversation

When having a talent conversation with an individual who has been identified as a solid performer, you should focus on communicating the value that the person provides to the organization and how he or she can maintain or improve that solid performance. Solid performers are individuals who 15

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

• meet or exceed performance expectations and deliver consistent results • have demonstrated technical or professional skills • may show some managerial or leadership potential • are seen as individual contributors and valued assets to the organization • could take on more responsibility within a line of business During the conversation with a solid performer you should • recognize the person’s solid performance level and accomplishments Case Study: The Top Talent Conversation Maya is a general manager in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region who oversees the most profitable business unit of an international corporation. For the second straight year this unit has experienced revenue growth and exceeded profitability goals. Besides running a profitable line of business, Maya has consistently received stellar ratings for employee engagement. She is interested in moving into a vice president–level position when an opportunity arises. During the talent conversation, Maya’s manager communicated to her that she is a top talent and essential to the organization’s future success. Maya’s performance and demonstrated leadership abilities are above and beyond what is required in a general manager position. The manager asked Maya about her career goals and what would motivate her to stay with the organization. Maya told the manager that she has strong personal ambitions to move up in the organization and that she feels ready to take on a more expansive role. The talent conversation then focused on identifying possible developmental next steps, such as increasing her expertise in a different business unit. The manager and Maya talked about how they should follow up the conversation. The manager closed by committing to advocating that Maya be placed in the next available vice president position in the EMEA region.

16

Talent Conversations

• convey that the individual is appreciated and well placed, with potential to grow in his or her current position • focus on how the person can improve in his or her current position, staying aware of new opportunities that may arise in the next one or two years • focus on how to best engage and retain this individual

Case Study: The Solid Performer Conversation Kung is director of a small engineering group in his company. Every year he meets or exceeds all his performance targets. Kung delivers consistently good results and is viewed as having a high degree of technical expertise in his field. He exhibits leadership skills that are appropriate, constructive, and aligned with the organization’s expectations and values. He is a good leader of his team and his employee engagement scores are above average. However, Kung sometimes struggles in working effectively with other teams and across other functional units. Because of this he is not in the organizational spotlight and doesn’t receive much in the way of rewards and recognition from the company. During the talent conversation, Kung’s manager reiterated the value that Kung brings to the organization with his strong performance. When the manager asked Kung about his leadership strengths and areas in need of development, Kung expressed some frustration that he had not been moved into a position of more responsibility and authority in the engineering unit. The manager helped Kung understand how he is perceived outside of his immediate group and how the organization needs leaders who are focused on having a greater impact across the entire organization. Kung identified some changes he would try to make in his leadership behavior, and the manager agreed to provide Kung with coaching and feedback on his progress. The conversation concluded with an action plan to help ensure that Kung continues to grow as a leader outside of his group.

17

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

The Potential Performer Conversation

Potential performers are people who may have been recently hired or promoted or who have been placed in their role within the past six to twelve months. They are individuals who • may not have had enough time in their role to show significant results • are expected to bring a lot to the role they are in and to perform at a high level • show indications of strong managerial and leadership potential • need to show results in their current role before they are ready for additional responsibility When having a talent conversation with an individual who has been identified as a potential performer, you should focus on the steps and investment in time needed to ensure a successful transition or coming aboard. During the talent conversation you should • identify performance concerns and share with the person your and the organization’s perceptions that he or she has high leadership potential • ensure that there is a transition or getting-started plan in place and discuss how to execute that plan effectively • focus on the steps that need to be taken over the next three to six months to ensure the individual’s success, identify how to provide support through an investment of your time, and discuss how to remove or mitigate any barriers to success.

The Underperformer Conversation

Underperformers need to take action to improve their performance. The action should focus on moving the individual from poor to solid performance or from solid to exceptional performance. Underperformers are individuals who 18

Talent Conversations

Case Study: The Potential Performer Conversation Ruben was hired by his organization as a director three months ago. He has an impressive pedigree in the industry and a demonstrated track record for results. During his short time with the company he has conducted a new-leader transition meeting with his team, met with his key clients, and begun working on new business development, leveraging contacts from his past work. Despite Ruben’s relatively disappointing performance thus far, the organization’s leaders remain convinced that he is a great hire and are eager to see how he grows and produces going forward. During the talent conversation his manager focused on making sure that a getting-started plan was in place and was being executed effectively. The manager worked with Ruben to define how success would be defined over the next six months and year. He assured Ruben that he plans to invest the time necessary to ensure his success. The manager also examined whether any roadblocks existed to Ruben’s success. They discussed the organizational culture and how Ruben could best align his style to ensure success.

• are not meeting performance expectations and need improvement • do not demonstrate the managerial or leadership potential expected for the position • need to focus on their current job duties • should not be given any additional tasks or responsibilities Conversations with individuals identified as underperformers should focus on the actions needed to improve their performance in their current roles. With underperformers, a performance-appraisal element needs to be added to the talent conversation. During the conversation with an underperformer you should • clearly identify concerns about performance and potential— be clear about why the individual’s performance needs to be improved in order to sustain his or her role 19

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

• focus primarily on performance issues before addressing concerns about leadership potential • concentrate on the actionable next steps required for the individual to be successful in his or her role over the next three to six months Case Study: The Underperformer Conversation Thomas is a director who has not met scorecard objectives for the past two years. Although he was close a year ago, this past year he was off target on key measures by 22 percent. Thomas’s employee engagement scores are merely average; he seems to work well with his staff but less consistently with his sales team. During the talent conversation Thomas’s manager asked him to assess his own performance on two specific projects. After Thomas outlined why he thought the projects had experienced problems, his manager asked Thomas how he would ensure that the problems didn’t continue. After discussing some possible solutions, the manager established clearly that Thomas would be held accountable for making the changes they had discussed. The changes were documented into a three-month performance-improvement plan with the objective of meeting expectations on three midyear scorecard metrics.

The four talent conversations provide general information for determining who you are talking to and what to talk about. An important question for you to ask is “What do these conversations look like in my organization and with my people?” To answer this question, use the following prompts to refine the four talent conversations: • What should be your key message to this person? • What does this person want from you? From the organization? • What information do you need from this person to help him or her develop? • What tends to go wrong in this type of conversation? • What should be the outcome if the conversation goes right? 20

Talent Conversations

The ACS Development Model

Through more than forty years of work in leadership development, the Center for Creative Leadership has found that experiences yield successful learning when three core elements are present: assessment, challenge, and support (ACS). Most leaders are great at challenging people and good at assessing people, but have room for improvement when it comes to understanding how to support people. Moreover, having a certain skill set in using these three elements in various combinations can drive results while improving the relationship between the talent and the boss and the talent and the organization. You can use these three key components to prepare for having a talent conversation. Assessment of your talent tells you as a manager what stage your people have reached in their performance and development, what their current strengths are, what developmental needs are important in their current situations, and what level of effectiveness they have achieved. The purpose of assessment is to create the clearest picture possible of the current reality and the future development needed for the person you are working with. You will have available to you a great deal of data about what the organization needs from this individual, information from others in the organization that has been gathered during the talent review process, and your own unique experiences with the individual. All this information needs to be distilled to a few key points. The assessment process will help you create a summary overview of the person you are working with. Challenge encompasses elements of developmental experiences that are new to individuals and that may call for skills and perspectives not currently available to them, or elements that create imbalance for them and provide an opportunity to question established ways of thinking. The process of challenging individuals should focus on the next steps in terms of their performance and development. The challenge needs to be based on how you and the organization have assessed a person as well as on having taken a closer look at that person 21

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

as an individual. The challenge should also take the person out of his or her comfort zone in order to increase the opportunity for learning and change. Providing support is the third component that is critical for having a talent conversation. Support involves elements of developmental experiences that enhance individuals’ self-confidence and provide reassurance about their strengths, their current skills, and established ways of thinking and acting. How a person perceives support is very individualized. You will need to be careful not to define support in universal terms and instead take the time to discover what the person views as most helpful. Support also includes accountability on both your part and the individual’s part, as supporting the person’s developmental goals is an ongoing process. Figure 4. The ACS Development Model

22

Talent Conversations

Preparing for the Conversation

At this point it may be helpful to think about someone with whom you need to have a talent conversation in the near future. Keep this person in mind as you go about preparing for the talent conversation using the ACS model.

Assessment

In preparing for a talent conversation, the first step for you as a manager is to begin pulling together all of the data and information you have about the person you will be talking with. You also need to take the time to consider how you tend to behave when facilitating a talent conversation. A good way to accomplish both of these goals is by creating a talent assessment summary. Use the worksheet on pages 24–25 to reflect on how you will approach the assessment element of the talent conversation. Use a journal or the space provided in the worksheet to write down your thoughts. Remember that talent conversations are mutual endeavors. They are opportunities for you not only to provide people with critical and valuable feedback about their performance and potential but also to learn more about what drives individuals’ engagement with their work and their commitment to the organization.

Challenge

The process of challenging your talent should focus on next steps in their performance and development. These next steps should be based on the assessment you just completed as well as on what you hear during the actual talent conversation. Challenging next steps that take people out of their comfort zones will increase the likelihood of learning and change. As you prepare for the talent conversation, think about what developmental experiences or performance actions might be appropriate 23

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

1. Which of the four types of talent conversations are you looking to have with the individual, and why? 2. Next, identify key data points you have about the individual that support the reasons you identified the type of talent conversation above. • What have you personally observed or documented about the individual?

• What observations and feedback on the individual have you obtained from others in the organization, perhaps from a talent review session? • What type of performance and development plans has the individual had previously? • What specific performance or leadership measures do you have regarding the individual? • What has been the individual’s past or current performance on developmental assignments? • What are the individual’s past and current career interests, and what have been the messages of any recent talent conversations? 3. Now anticipate how the person will react to your assessment.

• Do you expect that the individual will be surprised by the assessment? Excited? Disappointed? Neutral?

24

Talent Conversations

• How do you think the individual would assess himself or herself? • What does the potential gap between how you and the organization have assessed this person and how you believe the individual would assess himself or herself tell you about how the talent conversation will go? 4. Reflect on what motivates the person (if you don’t know, ask). • To your knowledge, what motivates this person?

• What is important to this person as an individual?

• How does the individual like to operate and relate to others?

• What are the individual’s aspirations?

for the individual. You can use the worksheet at the top of page 26 to document your thoughts. If you are struggling with thinking about appropriate developmental challenges for the individual, consider the resources on developmental assignments that are at your disposal. One is the human resource, talent management, or learning and development professionals in your organization. They may have ideas for both formal and informal developmental assignments as well as information about available training. 25

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

1. What developmental opportunities are available?

2. What opportunities are realistic?

3. What performance goals need to be met, and how will they be met?

4. How will the individual’s goals be aligned with the organization’s goals?

5. What obstacles do I anticipate the individual will have to work around or move through in order to achieve these goals?

Support

A key element of support is finding out what motivates the individual to take on the developmental and performance actions that you determine to be next steps. Reflect on what needs to happen to keep the person motivated and inspired to achieve his or her goals. Use the worksheet on page 27 to record your thoughts. To capitalize on the development opportunities and performance actions discussed during the talent conversation, you must be clear about how each of you will create shared accountability for meeting the next steps. During the talent conversation the individual will have committed to certain actions, and you will have committed to a plan for supporting the individual.

26

Talent Conversations

1. How can I help this person stay motivated to achieve development or performance goals?

2. If six months from now this individual has not achieved his or her goals, what will have been the likely reasons?

3. What resources can this person tap into besides me?

4. How will we create shared accountability for this person’s development?

Delivering the Conversation

At this point you should feel well prepared to have talent conversations with your people. Once again, the developmental process of assessment, challenge, and support provides a helpful framework for actually delivering the talent conversation. Effective coaching skills are invaluable in delivering a talent conversation, and you can use the ACS model to hone your coaching skills in order to ask the right questions, listen to understand, offer feedback, and identify goals. Incorporate elements of the following questions and insights (see page 28) in order to apply best-practice coaching skills to enhance the delivery of the talent conversation.

27

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

ASSESSMENT Clarifying the Goal What is the purpose of the conversation? What exactly does each of us want to accomplish? Exploring the Issues Assessing strengths, vulnerabilities, development needs, and performance expectations. Identifying motivation and career aspirations.

CHALLENGE Identify the Options Generate options and opportunities for development or performance enhancement. Set Expectations What do we want to do? Identifying the obstacles to goal attainment.

SUPPORT Motivate the Individual What can I do to support you? Identify other sources of support. Make sure the goals are meaningful to the person. Identify the Plan How will we know you are on track? How will we know when you’ve reached the goal?

Up to this point we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the person you want to engage in a talent conversation. One last bit of preparation you can do for the talent conversation is to reflect on yourself and your ability and effectiveness at developing others. Take a few moments to reflect on yourself and your behavior in develop28

Talent Conversations

mental situations such as coaching or talent conversations. Use the worksheet below to create some awareness about your strengths and weaknesses in delivering talent conversations, and don’t be reluctant to seek feedback from others on these same questions. Use these insights—and seek out others about your behavior as a developer of others—in order to have more effective talent conversations that result in positive behavior change and improved results. 1. Reflect on yourself—not in regard to your performance as a leader but rather in regard to your behaviors and tendencies during coaching or developmental conversations. • What do I need to know about myself in order to be effective during the talent conversation? • Do I talk more than I listen? • Do I offer solutions, or do I guide others to develop their own solutions?

2. Think about how you will help others celebrate small wins and manage setbacks in their development.

• Do I wait to give positive feedback only when the actual goal is achieved? • Do I provide genuine praise for small wins? • Do I help people learn to handle setbacks, or do I prescribe solutions?

29

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

Last Words

Regardless of the economic situation a company finds itself in, its top talent has choices. Even in a down economy, high-potential employees can and will go elsewhere if the new situation aligns more closely to their goals. Although 95 percent of high potentials say they are committed to their organizations, 21 percent say they are actively looking for another job just the same. If one-fifth of your best people are looking to leave and many more could be persuaded to do so, what are you to do? Talent conversations are critical to retaining high potentials. In addition, an article published July 28, 2010, on Forbes.com— “Strengthen Your Talent Pipeline Now”— identified three things that will help: Clearly identify your high potentials. Who is your top talent? How do you identify them, and what does it mean for them and your company when you do? How effectively is this communicated to them, and by whom? The transparency and formality of your identification of high potentials will affect how employees see themselves and the organization. Organizations that formally identify their top talent are less likely to lose valuable people. Only 14 percent of formally identified high potentials seek other employment. That number more than doubles to 33 percent for employees who are not formally identified as high potentials. Take a personal approach. Treating all high-potential employees the same is a common mistake. Large businesses and institutions, as well as any that are eager to formalize their talent-management and leadership-development processes, may be particularly susceptible. Systems and processes are important, but organizations should have a range of appealing and clear paths for high potentials. Knowing what is important to your high potentials in their day-today work is also important. Many high potentials constantly weigh the pros and cons of their experience. On the one hand they may value more responsibility, highly visible assignments, good money, and having a 30

Talent Conversations

job at a time when the employment outlook has been grim. On the other hand they may feel unappreciated, left in the dark about key decisions, or simply in need of a change. Add in long hours and having to accommodate a spouse’s career, and the cons may soon win out. Engage in the best strategy: reciprocity. Without the loyalty, guarantees, or assumptions of decades past, the employer-employee relationship becomes completely transactional. But when organizations factor in the view from the leadership pipeline and have effective developmental conversations with talent, they can establish relationships that are mutually beneficial. A reciprocal relationship means that high potentials receive the investment in development they want from their organization, and the organization receives a more committed and engaged group of leaders along with stronger performance and bottom-line results. Talent conversations are the vehicle for offering high potentials opportunities for career growth, learning, development, engaging work, and challenge. Having successful talent conversations enhances the development agility—the ability to coach, mentor, support, guide, and develop employees so they can fully capitalize on development experiences and opportunities—of both the individual and the enterprise. From a business standpoint, talent conversations represent a low-cost, high-return scenario for leveraging human capital assets and creating a culture of talent sustainability. From a human standpoint they provide an opportunity for relationship building and engaging talent. The bottom line is that it’s crucial to have talent conversations, do them right, and do them now.

Suggested Readings

Buron, R., & McDonald-Mann, D. (1999). Giving feedback to subordinates. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.

Campbell, M., & Smith, R. (2010). High-potential talent: A view from inside the leadership pipeline. At www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/highpotentialtalent.pdf. Center for Creative Leadership.

31

Ideas Into Action Guidebooks

McCall, M., Lombardo, M., & Morrison, A. (1988). The lessons of experience: How successful executives develop on the job. New York: Free Press.

McCauley, C. (2006). Developmental assignments: Creating learning experiences without changing jobs. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.

Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2002). Crucial conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Ting, S., & Scisco, P. (Eds.). (2006). The CCL handbook of coaching: A guide for the leader coach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Key Point Summary

As a leader you have a role in helping your organization achieve talent sustainability—the ability to continuously attract, develop, and retain people with the capabilities and commitment needed for current and future organizational success. Individual leaders can have a significant amount of influence over the development of organizational talent. One of the simplest yet most effective ways to develop others is the talent conversation—a way of building on relationships that are based on rapport, collaboration, and mutual commitment in order to help the individuals you lead improve performance, focus development, and reach positive outcomes. You can prepare for and facilitate effective talent conversations by using the Center for Creative Leadership’s development framework of assessment, challenge, and support.

Ordering Information To get more information, to order other Ideas Into Action Guidebooks, or to find out about bulk-order discounts, please contact us by phone at 336-545-2810 or visit our online bookstore at www.ccl.org/guidebooks. 32

Talent Conversations

Roland Smith is a senior faculty member at CCL’s Colorado Springs campus. He teaches the Leadership at the Peak program and several custom programs. He directs research dealing with global talent sustainability and senior executive success. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in instructional and performance technology from Boise State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Idaho.

The Center for Creative Leadership is an international, nonprofit educational institution whose mission is to advance the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide. We conduct research, produce publications, and provide a broad variety of educational programs and products to leaders and organizations in the public, corporate, and nonprofit sectors.

Guidebooks

Michael Campbell is a senior research analyst at CCL’s Colorado Springs campus. He conducts research on talent management and succession management, and manages CCL’s leadership assessment database. He holds a B.S. in business and marketing from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Action

Lead Contributors

Into

Individual leaders can have a significant amount of influence over the development of organizational talent. One of the simplest yet most effective ways to develop others is the talent conversation—a way of building on relationships that are based on rapport, collaboration, and mutual commitment in order to help the individuals you lead improve performance, focus development, and reach positive outcomes. Learn how to prepare for and facilitate effective talent conversations by using the Center for Creative Leadership’s development framework of assessment, challenge, and support.

Ideas

For The Practicing Manager