11/11/10: Top Talent Development Posts this Week

Every week, I review blogs that cover talent development to find the very best talent development posts. This week, you’ll find pointers to pieces about metrics that matter, emotional intelligence, how companies become “best places to work,” the career lattice, and performance reviews.

From Profitability through Human Capital: 7 Ways to Tell if Your Metrics Matter

“Many times when we are working on metrics projects, we are asked the question, “Which metrics should we be focusing on?” In other words which metrics are the ones that are tightly linked to measuring the desired business results? It is a valid question, but a difficult one. I have a passion around HR Metrics but this discussion can apply to any organizational metrics, as I have had conversations with marketing, operations and sales professionals that struggle with WHAT to measure. Below is a list of questions we have asked in the quest for making metrics matter.”

Wally’s Comment: Cathy Missildine-Martin writes about a subject she knows well. She shares seven questions you can ask to help identify and use your most important HR metrics.

From i4cp: Emotional Dimwits Need Not Apply

“You know the type: brilliant spreadsheet jockeys who crave leadership positions but who are so arrogant or even petulant that they constantly offend others. In the past, these bellicose bullies in Armani have sometimes found their way into top executive levels. In the future, they’re going to have a tougher time of it.”

Wally’s Comment: Mark Vickers shares some research which indicates that “emotional intelligence” has moved into the top rank among competencies that executives from large companies think will be most important in the coming decade. There’s some helpful discussion of definitions and distinctions here, too.

From Thomas A. Stewart on Bnet: How Companies Really Become “Best Places to Work”

“Three financial services companies, one cliché. You might have been forgiven for thinking that a time-machine had plunked you in front of a black-and-white TV to watch “To Tell the Truth.” But I heard these comments at a conference of HR executives in Chicago just over a week ago. The three chief executives, each the leader of a company that ranks high on one or another best-places-to-work list, spoke before several hundred people who like people businesses.”

Wally’s Comment: This post maintains that whether a company is truly a “best place to work” depends on the strategy of the company and its culture. In other words, some people will thrive in one company, but not in another.

From the Chicago Tribune: Weaving a rewarding career path, no rungs required

“Increasingly, companies are recognizing that climbing the corporate ladder isn’t a top priority for all employees, said Molly Anderson, director of talent for Deloitte Services LP and co-author with Cathleen Benko of the new book, “The Corporate Lattice: Achieving High Performance in the Changing World of Work.” Instead, many firms are looking for ways to retain and reward high-performing workers who value flexibility, autonomy and personal development.”

Wally’s Comment: Not everyone, not even every high potential, wants to climb the corporate ladder to the rarefied air of the C-Suite. In addition, a person’s preferences will change over the course of a life and a career. The high performers you want to keep may be looking for a variety of things and pursue career paths that go in directions other than up.

From the Wall Street Journal: Human-Resources Executives Say Reviews Are Off the Mark

“About 58% of human-resources executives graded their own performance-management systems a C or below, according to a May and June survey of 750 HR professionals conducted by New York-based consulting firm Sibson Consulting Inc. and World atWork, a professional association.”

Wally’s Comment: Like me, you may be thinking that performance appraisal is like the weather. Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. As with most articles on this, the focus is on the annual appraisal dance and not on the performance management that should happen every day. Among the reasons cited for the dreadful state of annual performance appraisals are that HR does not have “total control of the review process,” that managers “don’t have the courage to give constructive feedback,” and that there is a “lack of consistency in manager ratings.”

Wally Bock

Wally Bock is a coach, a writer and President of Three Star Leadership.