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 successful leadership and talent development strategies, learning in today’s workplace, “Must Haves” in hiring, distrust of talent development programs, and spotting those high potential leaders.
From HRM Today: Building Successful Leadership Development & Talent Management Strategies
“Mr. Thomas (TJ) Hammond is the Director of the Leadership Institute at the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). He provides strategic and operational program direction and guidance for workforce initiatives and development. TJ joined USSTRATCOM in July 2004 as a member of the training division. TJ answered a series of questions, written by Marcus Evans for the forth coming 7th Annual Talent Management & Leadership Development Conference. All responses represent the view of the Mr. Hammond and not necessarily those of the United States Strategic Command.”
Wally’s Comment: There’s good material in this post on the design of leadership development programs and also on the current state of those programs.
From Stephen J. Gill: The Course Catalog Is (Should Be) Dead
“The competency model, which provides the underlying theory of event-based training, is doing a disservice to the current needs of organizations. Training and development professionals seem to believe that if they can identify the competencies that people need in order to do their jobs and then offer courses to teach those competencies, employees will be more productive and successful. The problem with this way of thinking is that performance has as much (if not more) to do with work culture as it does with job competencies. To be successful, employees need supervisors and co-workers who are supportive of learning and performance improvement, they need a supervisor/boss/mentor who talks to them regularly about learning and results, they need the opportunity to apply new learning and to receive feedback, and they and the organization need to be held accountable for learning and results. If there is this culture of learning, employees will continually improve performance.”
Wally’s Comment: Learning on demand has become more and more important and Stephen J. Gill argues that we’ve reached the point where it’s time to jettison the old course catalog altogether.
From Art Petty: Send in the Clones. The Abuse of “Must Have†in Recruiting and Hiring
“Aside from a few obvious technical and vocational roles, there are very few positions in most organizations that absolutely “Must Have†someone who has held the identical role in the same industry with the same job. Nonetheless, the use of “Must Have†remains a staple in recruiting and hiring. It’s too bad, because over-reliance on “Must Have†can lead to a chronic case of mediocrity or worse, a terminal case of recycled bad ideas from industry participants.”
Wally’s Comment: Any good idea carried to the extreme tends to become a bad idea. Art Petty suggests that if you’re loading too many “must haves” onto your searches, you’re probably passing up on some of the best candidates.
From Talent Management: Leadership Programs Often Seen as Unfair, Study Finds
“Corporate programs to identify and develop certain employees for future leadership positions are often seen as unfair and political by other workers, according to an online survey of more than 500 senior managers and executives conducted by AMA Enterprise. “One-quarter of employees in the U.S. and Canada tend to regard talent development programs as less than equitable,†said Sandi Edwards, senior vice president for AMA Enterprise, a specialized division of American Management Association that offers advisory services and tailored learning programs to organizations.”
Wally’s Comment: The reason that many employees consider high potential programs as unfair is that many of them are. If you base your identification of “high potential” on anything other than performance, you’re probably creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. A person identified as “Hi Po” receives training, coaching, and development opportunities and does well, thus proving that you wisely picked the best person to lavish attention upon. I like behavior and performance measures to determine who’s got a big upside.
From Mary Jo Asmus: A Bird’s Eye View of High Potential
“The leaders I’ve known who are “high potential†have distinctive characteristics. Many of those characteristics have helped them to get promoted to greater levels of responsibility. If I may be so bold to make a few generalizations, this is my “bird’s eye view†of the characteristics I’ve observed in the “high potential leaders†I’ve worked with:”
Wally’s Comment: Hmmmmmm. Did I say, “behavior and performance measures?” Why, yes I did and here are some. Former executive and successful executive coach Mary Jo Asmus suggests eight things to evaluate when you’re trying to decide whether a person is a high potential leader.
Carnivals, Lists, and Such
