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 DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast, the state of internal coaches, speaking the truth to power, and seven principles for developing leadership talent. As bonus, I’m pointing you to knowledgeable posts from the Economist Talent Management Summit.
“Leadership development, processes and practices need radical transformation, if organisations are to meet the increasingly rapid pace of business change, according to DDI’s 6th Global Leadership Forecast. The forecast, from Global Talent Management Company DDI, paints a worrying picture for organisational leadership capacity. Responses from more than 12,000 organisational leaders and 1800 HR professionals, across 74 countries, indicate that leaders rate themselves poorly, do not possess the skills necessary for business in the future and do not have a sufficient pipeline of talent within their organisation.”
Wally’s Comment: This will certainly get a lot of press and discussion, as anything from DDI should. Terms like “radical transformation” are likely to increase the discussion level. The pointer is to the news release announcing the forecast. You can get your own copy of the forecast, titled “Time for a Leadership Revolution” in PDF format.
From Training Zone: Internal coaches suffer inadequate training, study reveals
“Despite the benefits that coaching can bring, all too many organisations select internal candidates on an informal basis and then fail to provide them with adequate training or support, a study has revealed.”
Wally’s Comment: Good news: many more organizations are adopting coaching as a way to enhance leadership development. That should be unalloyed good news, but it’s not. It turns out that many of those companies are using their own people for coaching. That could be good news, but it’s not since too many companies are selecting coaches the same way they select people for their first leadership position: for the wrong reasons, with no real process, and without training and support.
From Mike McKinney: 7 Guiding Principles for Developing Leadership Talent
“People deliver numbers. If you want the numbers, you need the people. As a leader you need to know how to judge raw human talent. In The Talent Masters, Bill Conaty and Ram Charan explain how to do it.”
Wally’s Comment: Michael McKinney extracts principles for leadership development from the book, The Talent Masters, by Bill Conaty and Ram Charan. Bill Conaty spent 40 years with General Electric, 15 of them as SVP for HR. He not only knows what he’s talking about, he’s put his principles into practice. Ram Charan, the seemingly ubiquitous consultant and co-author, has a rare ability to illuminate issues and practices which makes them a great team.
From Right Management: Speaking to the Top of the House
“CEOs sometimes forget that people are the only real sustainable competitive differentiator. It’s up to HR to ensure the CEO realizes the value of these assets and commits to investing in a talent strategy aligned with business objectives. Lack of a talent strategy is the number-one impediment to executing on business plans. It is HR’s role to step up and convince the C-suite how to do this. Why? Because there are countless examples of how the business strategy falls down and goals are missed if talent is not aligned.”
Wally’s Comment: Someone simply must tell the emperor about those clothes!
Bonus: Jon Ingham’s Posts on The Economist Talent Management Summit
Jon Ingham is one of my favorite bloggers. He recently attended The Economist Talent Management Summit and posted about what was happening there. He reports on presentations and panel discussions and adds value from his own store of experience and knowledge. Here are pointers to four of Jon’s posts.
Future Proofing the Business (Strategic Workforce Planning)
