Talent Development

Jeffrey Gandz, Ph.D.

Professor, Managing Director – Program Design
Richard Ivey School of Business

September 2006
 The Executive Leadership Role

ANALYZE THE
ENVIRONMENT
THOROUGHLY

FORMULATE
WINNING STRATEGIES
Perform in the Present

EVALUATE THEM EXECUTE THEM

SYSTEMATICALLY BRILLIANTLY

IMPROVE
ORGANIZATIONAL,
DEPARTMENTA, TEAM,
PERSONAL CAPABILITIES Build for the Future

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 Sobering Survey

Deloitte 2005 survey

of 1400 global HR
practitioners including
47 large Canadian
firms

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 Talent Shortages

Source: Deloitte Canada

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 Business Consequences

Source: Deloitte Canada

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 Three Critical People Issues

Source: Deloitte Canada

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 Realities of Talent Pipeline Development

• Talent is normally distributed.

• The “battlefield for talent” is in the top-tails of the distribution.
• Great companies compete in this small space for top-talent.
• Some are much better than others at:
– Talent spotting – inside, outside
– Talent recruitment and selection
– Talent development
– Talent deployment
– Talent retention
• Top talent can be a handicap unless it is utilized effectively and retained
in the organization.
• Because “top talent attracts top talent”, talent development and
management should be a sources of sustainable competitive advantage.

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 Imagine!

• No business opportunity is ever passed up because of lack of

talent, quality or quantity.
• You always attract the people you want and never lose “A”
players.
• Everyone with hi-potential for advancement is given the
opportunity to develop to his or her potential.
• Everyone who retires or leaves for other reasons is succeeded
by someone who is better than those they replace!
• Every person is on a personal, never-ending continuous
improvement program driven by their desires, encouraged and
assisted by the organization.
• The very best people are continuously deployed against the
best opportunities for the corporation.

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 Zero talent-outages
Succession not Replacement
Magnet for Talent

Leadership Brand
(Vision - Results – Behaviors – Competencies – Character - Values)

Pathways Programs Processes

A clear set of developmental Various development The seven, fundamental
moves designed to get programs; some focus on HRM processes that
people the essential knowledge, some on skills constitute the talent
experiences, coaching and
mentoring necessary to
+ and some on developing
the judgment to operate in
+ development process.

develop their potential into ambiguous and uncertain

outstanding performance. situations.

; Talent Development Architecture

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 Talent-Specific Development
• Each type of talent requires its own developmental P3
– Technical talent
– Creative talent
– Sales talent
– Leadership talent
– Etc.
• Talent development does NOT imply hierarchical
movement in the organization.
• Talent development is essential in no other reason than the
that the bar is constantly being raised.

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 Pathways
Senior
Leadership
Significant, STRETCH assignment(s)
with real chance of failure and success
Assessment

Major
Challenge(s)
Rotations
Assessment

Identification
• Between functions and roles
as Hi-Po
• Between industries and sectors
• Between practice and management
Assessment • With increasing levels of responsibility
• With increased “people leadership”
challenges
Recruitment to • With active coaching and mentoring
First Role

Experience 0-1 3-5 4-15 10-25 15-40

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 Programs
Leadership Development Programs

Extra-Organizational Experiential Program-Based

• Early life experiences: • Unaided, unreflective on- • Outside leadership

•Family the-job experience – the programs and courses:
•Scouts, Guides, etc. “school of hard knocks” •Case-based discussions
•School and university • Coaching based on real •Lectures
roles work assignments •Simulations
•Military service • Mentoring based on career • Custom designed programs
•Etc. aspirations and experiences and courses
• Not-for-Profit experiences • Systematic assessment and
•Churches feedback
•Golf clubs
•Orchestra, Opera, etc

Action Learning:
Course(s) + Project(s) + Reflection = Development

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 Integrated Processes

Career
Management

Recruitment Training
& &
Selection Development

Talent
Talent
Development
Development
Strategic System
Meta-System Performance
HR
Management
Planning

Compensation Succession
& Planning
Benefits

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 Pathways
Senior
Leadership
Significant, STRETCH assignment(s) with real
chance of failure and success
Assessment

Major Pathways, Programs and

Challenge(s)
Rotations Processes are necessary but
not sufficient to do the job of
Assessment

Identification
as Hi-Po •
•
•
Between functions and roles
Between industries and sectors
Between practice and management
talent development
Assessment • With increasing levels of responsibility
• With increased “people leadership”
challenges
Recruitment to • With active coaching and mentoring
First Role

Experience 0-1 3-5 4-15 10-25 15-40

Programs
Processes

Career
Management
Extra-Organizational Experiential Program-Based
Recruitment Training
& &
• Unaided, unreflective on- • Outside leadership
Selection Development • Early life experiences:
the-job experience – the programs and courses:
• Family
“school of hard knocks” • Case-based
• Scouts, Guides, etc.
• Coaching based on real discussions
• School and university
Talent
Talent work assignments • Lectures
roles
Development • Mentoring based on career • Simulations
Development • Military service
Strategic System aspirations and • Custom designed
Meta-System Performance • Etc.
HR experiences programs and courses
Management • Not-for-Profit experiences
Planning • Systematic assessment
• Churches
and feedback
• Golf clubs
• Orchestra, Opera, etc

Action Learning:
Compensation Succession Course(s) + Project(s) + Reflection = Development
& Planning
Benefits

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 The Talent Development Partnership

Pathways
A clear set of developmental moves
designed to get people the essential • Full talent
experiences, coaching and
mentoring necessary to develop
pipeline
their potential into outstanding • Zero talent-
performance.
outages
+
Programs Leaders Personally • No missed
; opportunities
Committed to and
Various development programs;
some focus on knowledge, some
on skills and some on developing
+ Engaged in Developing = • Sustainable
talent
the judgment to operate in Talent advantage
ambiguous and uncertain
situations.

+
Processes
The processes that constitute the
talent development meta-process.
When any or all of these. are not
functioning well, the talent
“pipeline” either leaks or gets
blocked.

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 The “Talent” Issues
Retaining senior people. When money won’t do it.
Countering competitive lures.
Retain
Pathways, Programs and Processes..

“Fit” between talent and task. “Using” versus

Develop
“developing” talent. Talent retention.

Reliable and valid selection criteria as they relate

Deploy
to performance. “Testing”.
Select

Attract
Employment value proposition. Top talent
challenges.
Spot
Seeing the talent within. Competitors’ talent.
Talent deployed in other roles.
Specify
Talent for present AND future. Performance AND
potential.

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 What Highly Talented People Want:

Highly Talented People Highly Talented People

Want: Don’t Want:
• To work in a “winning” • “Time in task” development
organization programs
• To work with other “top talent” • Routine work that offers
limited learning
• To be constantly challenged opportunities
• To be offered development • To be ignored or managed
opportunities on a “routine”
• To be individually recognized • To work with non-talented
and rewarded people

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 6 Practices of Top Talent Companies
• Specify their talent needs
– Based on strategic planning
– Based on understanding of the
people competencies and character
that drive the business
• Attract the right people
– Define the brand(s) of talent they
want in terms of results,
competencies and character
– Carefully qualify good sources of
talent based on experience and
research
– Invest in and maintain strong
recruiting networks in good times and
bad
• Select very carefully
– Seldom in bulk, seldom in haste
– Reliable and valid assessment
– Looking for “fit” as well as talent
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• Establish a talent development
culture
– Invest substantially and
continuously in talent development
– Promote “talent breeders”, demote
or remove “talent blockers”
• Corporately manage the talent
– Manage it (size, deployment, etc.)
– Measure it (results, processes,
dashboard)
– Fund it centrally
• Enable the talent management
process through HR systems
– Design and maintain an integrated
suite of HR processes that are
aligned with strategy and support
the talent management process.
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 Talent Developers
Talent Breeders
• Recruit and select high potentials
even if they’re hard to handle
• Coach for skills development
• Mentor for career development
• Give totally candid feedback on
performance
• Create stretch assignments
• Reward and reinforce success
• View failure as a learning
opportunity and help their people
learn from failure
• Surrender their high performers
for corporate challenges and
personal development
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Talent Blockers
• Recruit and select easy-to-
manage people
• Don’t coach or mentor effectively
• Lack candor in their feedback
• Fit people to jobs that are inside
their comfort zones
• Do not establish stretch goals
• Do not reward differentially for
success
• Blame people for failures
• Horde the people who get the job
done
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 Development

• Development = challenging job assignments + experiences +

programs + coaching + mentoring
• Learning doesn’t “just happen” – it must be extracted from
experience.
• Development must be integrated with personal career
management and organizational development.
• Development must take place when there is a felt-need for it:
just-in-time and in-the-right-place.
• Development of Hi-Pos must be on their time-track.
• Development should be corporately directed and funded
through “tax” or “levy”.

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 Why Don’t Leaders Develop Talent?

• It’s important but may not be urgent and time is at a premium.

• It requires giving excellent and candid feedback, often on very
sensitive, “personal” issues and people are reluctant to do this.
• It requires getting feedback yourself - and this may not be
welcome!
• It requires sacrificing talent you are employing in order to develop
it, often for others’ benefit.
• With Hi-Po identification comes Lo-Po, PoPo and NoHopeO
issues – and leaders often want to avoid those issues.

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 Common Mistakes in Talent Development

• Not identifying needed talent.

• Developing today’s talent for yesterday’s needs.
• Confusing knowledge and skill with judgment and wisdom
• Hiring mediocrity.
• False positives/negatives in assessment stage.
• Unwillingness to recognize burn-out.
• Staying too long with poor choices.
• Trying to make general leaders out of talented specialists .
• Failure to keep the talent pump primed.
• Failure to prune under-performing talent.

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 Key Roles in Talent Development

Executives HRM
• Talent Development • Benchmark truly best practices
Leadership • Show your executives what
• Commitment AND personal can be done and how exciting
Involvement it is to do it
• Living the talent development • Design and develop the
culture systems that enable the talent
• Consistency and constant development thrust to work
reinforcement

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 To Download a Copy of This Presentation …

• Please visit www.ivey.ca/executive/tal_dev

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