What is talent?

There is a big difference between having a talent, for example, being able to do mental arithmetic and being considered as “talent” by an organisation. This is because the definition of talent has two aspects to it. Firstly, a talented employee can only be talented if they apply their “talents” in a useful way, and secondly talent has to be considered in the context of an organisation. For example, a doctor may be a talented surgeon but put him/her in a garage and they will probably struggle to repair a vehicle that has broken down.

Context is therefore a key part of defining and subsequently identifying talent. Some organisations use the criteria “being capable of working at two grades above their current role” as a simple means of defining and identifying talent, while others use more complex means.

Whatever definition an organisation chooses to use, it is vital that it has a system in place to identify and develop talented staff for its own future success. With declining birth rates, there will be a huge shortage of people to replace current management roles within the next 20 years. To protect themselves, organisations must have a clear strategy of finding and developing the replacements for their key managers. Those that fail to do this will ultimately not survive.

Are you training your talent?

Racing people call it “training on” and it’s precisely what doesn’t happen to many individuals who are identified as “talented” or “having potential”.

“Training on” is the process of turning promise into achievement, turning immaturity into maturity.

In horses and in people, the process is similar, it is as much about internal mood, nature and temperament as it is about skills and knowledge. A horse that trains on changes its view of the world, settles down, becomes more confident and assured and more effective at the business of producing its best on the racetrack.

So how should you help your talent to turn promise into achievement?

· Provide them with a mentor who can give feedback and guidance on how they can improve their performance and effectiveness.

· Find both on and off the job opportunities for them to gain specific experiences. For example, can they lead a business improvement project, or alternatively a local community or charity activity? Generally people learn most from being taken outside of their comfort zone.

· Offer opportunities for secondments to different parts of the organisation and/or different countries to broaden their horizons and experience.

· Encourage them to network with people from other businesses and organisations to gain different prospectives.

By providing your talent with the right opportunities, guidance and support, will enable them to “train on” and turn promise into real achievement.

However, it is important to continually monitor their progress, as some may choose not to use their experiences to help them change and mature.

A wise man once said “If a man is no different at 50 than he was at 20 then he has wasted 30 years”.

Who is Responsible for Talent Management?

Over the past thirty years businesses have had to continuously improve what they do and reduce how much it costs them to do it. The result of this is that many large businesses have much flatter organisation structures, with managers who have much broader roles and many more demands on their time, than previously.

Because of this, managers sometimes want to hand over Talent Management to ‘specialists’ in HR. If this is combined with a Chief Executive who believes that Talent Management is an HR agenda, responsibility can soon slip away from line managers and managing talent becomes a ‘tick box’ activity.

While HR have an important role to play, active Talent Management needs an engaged Chief Executive with line managers who are prepared to take the long term view about the skills the business needs in the future and those who are best placed to meet them.

HR needs to provide the appropriate processes and frameworks to enable Talent Management to work effectively, but it is line management, who are ultimately responsible for identifying, nurturing and developing talent. After all, as a line manager, do you not want a say in who your successor will be?

Continuing your success as a Leader

Being a successful leader with valuable leadership skills can a be difficult role to maintain. Success can be a step towards stress and burnout as the pressure of being a high achiever drives us to try even harder. Here are a few ideas to help maintain balance and survive your own success.

1. Learn to relax. Give yourself a break and take time out to relax and enjoy your success – you deserve it!

2. Know your limitations. It’s important to remember that success doesn’t mean perfection. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and trying to be good at everything can water down your impact.

3. Don’t be paralysed by indecision. Decisions lead to consequences and action, but not making decisions will lead to inactivity and organisation paralysis.

4. Give yourself a pat on the back. Leading a team can be a lonely experience and so it’s important to validate yourself. Note down your achievements and read them whenever you can to reinforce successful behaviour.

5. Learn to fail. At some point you will take a “fall” – this is inevitable. However, have confidence in your abilities, learn from it and move on.

6. Be a mentor. Establish yourself as a coach or mentor to others. Some may be jealous of your success as a leader, but by helping them to achieve will reduce their negativity towards you.

7. Don’t micro manage. Your success as a leader will not last if you over control your team’s tasks. It is vital to trust other people to do what you used to do. Delegate and give them freedom to achieve.

8. Have a laugh. A sense of humour is very important, particularly in difficult or stressful times. Being able to smile lifts others and shows your self deprecating style.

Maintaining success as a leader is difficult, but achievable by following these few simple tips. If you wish to find out more about how to be a successful leader try the following books:

• The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner.
• Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters by Jeffery Somerfield and Andrew Ward.

Developing Leadership and Creative Thinking Skills

Do you wish to improve your leadership and creative thinking skills? Do you or your organisation struggle to come up with new or innovative approaches? If so try out some of the following development ideas listed below. The list is not meant to be exhaustive but if put into practise they will enable you to improve your creative thinking and leadership capability.

· Regularly practice brainteasers to help you get into the habit of challenging your assumptions.

· Approach problems with open mindedness. Use questions such as why, what, where, when, and how when approaching problems.

· Believe you are an innovative person.

· Create time for you and your team to think creatively and in an innovative way. Consider going off site away from day to day distractions and interruptions.

· Critically look at your personal behaviour. How do you promote creativity? Do you use creative techniques in your meetings, such as Brainstorming techniques, 6 Thinking Hats, etc?

· Do you create an environment that encourages rather than criticises new ideas? Think about the last idea a team member came to you with.

- Did you agree with it?

- Did you support it or were you critical?

- What happened to the idea?

Use the insights in to your own behaviour to identify improvements and make a plan.

· In what ways can you reward creativity and innovation in your team? Identify 3 different ways and action them.

· Identify organisations that display excellence in innovation. Arrange visits for yourself and colleagues. Identify 3 actions you can implement in your organisation or function.

· Undertake a SWOT analysis of your function/organisation with your colleagues. Find at least one key recommendation to action.

· Allow yourself quiet time to think and reflect. Plan time in your diary and keep it.

· Read material different from the kind you usually read. Read biographies of great artists, scientists or engineers. What can you learn from them?

Alternatively, if the above ideas don’t give you what you need try reading one of the following books:

· Six Thinking Hats, or Lateral Thinking, by De Bono, Penguin, ISBN: 0140137793

· Learning Maps and Memory Skills: Powerful Techniques to Improve Your Brain Power, by Svantsesson.

· The Creative Edge by Miller.

· The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy.

· How to be Better at Creativity by Petty.

Should you do your management training with the actual team?

There are a number of factors to address within this question.

Firstly are we talking about a manager and the team of people reporting in to them, or are we referring to a group or team of managers? For the purposes of today's article I will assume that we are talking about a team of managers. The second consideration is about whether or not and how much the individuals managers see themselves as a team and how much they interact, cooperate and rely on each other to do their work effectively as opposed to operating in a largely independent and sometimes even competitive way. I am assuming that the management team members in question do need to work cooperatively together and that the success of one manager's department or function can be significantly influenced by another manager's team doing their work effectively. It does not matter at this stage of the discussion whether or not all of the managers in the management see the need for this cooperation or indeed that do actively support one another. In fact if some or all of the managers do not see that this cooperation and support is essential for them all to be successful then this in itself is a strong enough reason to run a management training or development event for all of the team together.
Clearly a strong influence on this decision is based on the need for the training event.
The following circumstances would suggest that you run a management team development event with the full team:-
- to introduce or induct new team members
- to agree and develop a new vision and strategies for the business
- to implement change strategies effectively
- to address key marketplace, financial problems or operational difficulties
- to help resolve tensions or fractured relationships between the team members or with the team leader.
There are of course other circumstances which would indicate that you should run your management training courses with mixed or cross-functional groups of managers and I will look at those in my next article.

When should you train your managers in cross-functional groups?

There are a number of circumstances when it is appropriate to train your managers in family groups which I described in my last article. Equally there are also other circumstances and factors which would lead you to organise your management training in mixed, cross-functional groups. These are the factors for you to consider:-
- the objectives and content of the programme eg how much is it aimed at one consistent message and theme that you want to get across consistently to all participants, regardless of functional specialism or level of responsibility and experience
- is it a specific skills programme eg presentation, negotiation skills where all of the participants are attending with this specific development need and could help and support each other
- is it a programme where you want managers with different backgrounds, experiences and responsibilities to share their experience, perspectives and ideas with each other
- are you aiming to increase cross-functional understanding and teamwork across different functions and departments and therefore by definition need mixed groups
- if it is a management skills programme about personal, leadership or management styles and it would inhibit participants to talk about their individual experiences and issues in front of peers who they work closely with ie where both openness and confidentiality is a key requirement of the course

All of these factors combined with the practicalities around availability, travel time and costs and getting an optimum and efficient number of participants need to weighed up when you decide whether to organise your management training in cross-functional or family groups.

When coaching someone how can you assess their personality?

Before answering this question we need to consider some other factors, for example, is personality an important factor, why would we need to know bout it, how can it be measured, what can it add to the coaching sessions?

1. Yes personality is often an important factor in coaching a person because it has an influence on a number of key aspects of a person such as their motives, their styles, their ways of responding, their ways of learning and most crucially their behaviors. It is also helpful to me as a coach to have some insight into a coachee's personality to help me to understand more about them as a whole person and to adjust my questions, style and challenge to them in a way that I judge to be most effective. It is also useful to set their personality alongside mine and to think about how my styles, personality and learned behaviors may need to be assessed and modified in order to bring out the best in both me and in the person that I am coaching.

2. Why do we need to know about it? Well there is no absolute rule in coaching that states that a coach must know and understand a personality in detail before they can start to coach them. But in my experience it is an important factor to understand about a person and therefore in most coaching situations I will make this assessment either intuitively or in a more scientific way.

3. How can personality be measured?
We can and do make assessments and judgments about a person intuitively, whether we like it or not. We infer things about them from what they say about themselves, from their language and use of it and from their body language and cues that we pick up using our senses.
We also get information about them from their goals and objectives for this coaching that they explain to us, compared to those set out by their sponsor and from the issues, barriers and potential actions and approaches that they explain to us.
We can also measure a personality more scientifically using one or more of the psychometric tests that are available on the market for BPS (British Psychological Society) Approved testers. The sorts of personality profiles that I sometimes use when coaching people are the following, depending upon the objectives and needs of the individual coachee:-
16pf, Myers Briggs, Team Management Systems Roles, Belbin Team roles, Schein's Career Anchors. I would only use any one or two of these profiles with the open agreement of the coachee and I would give, explain the reasons for its use and go through the details of this profile and its mechanics, advantages and limitations to the coachee.

4. So in summary the understanding of a coachee's personality has a number of benefit's for both the coach and coachee's point of view and very few disadvantages - providing that the coachee readily give their agreement to it, that it has a purpose linked to the coachee's goal and objectives and that appropriate confidentiality and professionalism is adopted with respect to the use of any psychometric profiles involved.

How important is note taking at a coaching session?

Taking notes of the key aspects raised at a coaching session is an important feature of the coaching service that I provide. This is because it provides a number of benefits mainly for the coachee such as:-
- a note of the key themes and issues discussed
- a list of the options that have been considered
- key actions to be taken by the coachee are highlighted
- they serve as a reminder to the coachee of what was important to them at their coaching session which often serves to reinforce their commitment to taking action
- it also reminds the coach of what was discussed at the last coaching session and helps us to prepare for each new session appropriately. The next area to consider is who should take these notes - the coach or coachee or both and whether or not it is appropriate to take notes whilst the session is in progress.
On the first point I feel that I should take the notes as the coach and then I commit to get them typed up and sent on to the coachee within 3 working days. Some of my coachees also keep their own notes - particularly of actions that they plan to take, which in my view is a very positive step towards them taking those actions. I still send them on my copy of the notes because they may read slightly differently and because the coachees really seem to value them. I have yet to encounter a coachee who didn't want to receive a copy of their notes!
However there are some potential drawbacks to taking notes during the coaching session. These include:-
The coach cannot be attending and listening properly to the coachee if he/she is also taking notes at the same time.

A coachee doesn’t want to spend the entire coaching session talking to the top of my head.

The Benefits

The notes produced from the session are often a very helpful reminder to the coachee of the content of the coaching session:

particularly of the actions and commitments made by the§ coachee
it brings back to them the sense and atmosphere of the§ session
it acts as a check list for them and a reminder for me§
§ it means that they are more likely to take ACTION and DO IT
they act§ as a basis for catching up at the next coaching session
they round§ off the process

BUT I don’t write them out when I am coaching every person:

some coachees (a small minority) don’t like it and find§ it off putting
some subjects require me to feel completely in tune§ with the coachee. I usually recognise this and put my pen down immediately and symbolically.
some coaching environments e.g. lunch/dinner make§ note taking
difficult

There are only 2 copies of the coaching notes – mine and theirs. I never send a copy on to anyone else. HOWEVER – I do always write up my coaching notes as soon as possible after the coaching session and send them back to the coachee within a few days of the session.

I send them by e-mail or “snail mail” to the coachee’s home or work – it is their choice from a speed, convenience and confidentiality point of view.

Coaching and Mentoring is there any difference?

These two terms are often used in the same sentence as if they are one and the same thing – but they are different processes and the experience and approach that you need have to be effective in either role are quite different as I shall go on to explain.

There are some similarities such as:-
- they are based on a 1 to 1 relationship between two people, one of whom is the subject and object of the process and the other of whom is the guide.
- they have broadly the same end result in mind – helping the subject to learn, gain satisfaction from their work and achievements and ultimately to perform at their best.
- these relationships usually have a time scale and dynamic that goes through the same upwards learning curve and eventually plateaus or declines in value – especially for mentoring where one of the long term success aims for a mentor may be to see their protégé move past them in terms of knowledge and expertise and performance.
- both coaches and mentors are drawing on the same set of inter-personal and communications skills to establish that committed relationship and focused discussions that will lead to the subject thinking and acting differently as a result.

There are also some key differences for example:-
- a coach does not have to be an expert in the subject area, job or knowledge field of the coachee, where as a mentor does.
- It is crucial for a mentor to have had experience in the organisation, industry or marketplace sector that their protégé is working in. This is less important for a coach and it is often helpful for the coach to be innocent and naïve about the organisation – which allows them to ask those idiot questions and not to feel hamstrung by what has gone on before.
- The mentor uses their previous experiences and knowledge to help guide their protégé by giving them examples and input from their background which can help them to move more quickly up the learning curve for their role. The coach is less likely to be focusing on their past experiences and more likely to have a predominant focus on their coachees experiences, problems and issues.
- The mentor may make important introductions to Institutions or to key people who he thinks could be a useful source of knowledge, expertise or sponsorship for their protégé. The coach is less likely to do this.

Is there therefore room for a person to have both a coach and mentor at the same time?
Yes I think that there is because each provides something different to the subject’s learning, development and performance.

What are the alternatives to Management Training?

Depending on what you need to learn there are a range of alternatives to attending the ubiquitous management training course. Firstly think about what it is you need to develop by asking yourself some simple questions, for example:

- To do all aspects of my current job well, what do I need to be better at?

- I would resolve an ongoing problem if I improved my skills and ability in the following areas?

- In my appraisals and other feedback (e.g. from my team) I have been told that I could improve the following?

- In my next likely roles I need to be good at?

Take the example of improving your self management and planning skills. Rather than going on a management training course on time management consider the following:

· Prepare a personal vision for yourself. Many people who struggle to manage their time because they are not clear about their own priorities. Your vision should be an expression of your preferred future, something you feel passionately about. Write it down and break it down into key goals and timings. Include a small activity each week in your diary to take you towards your vision.

· Use ‘To Do’ lists and prioritise the urgency and importance of the task. Cross tasks off once complete.

· Use a diary more effectively. Record your time for 2 weeks. What does this tell you? How much time did you spend reacting to events? How much time was spent on planned events? How can you plan your time differently?

· Demonstrate commitment to yourself and your development by making time for yourself every week to reflect on what you have learned and what you want to focus on next.

· Do not take responsibility for other people’s roles. Be clear with them what you are responsible for and what they are responsible for.

· Do not completely fill your diary keep slots free for unplanned events.

· Spend 5 minutes every day visualising yourself obtaining your goals.

· Be proactive. Listen to your language and the language of those around you.

- How often do you use or hear, ‘If only’, ‘I cannot’, or ‘I have to’?

- Work on ways of eliminating negativity from your language. Act as a role model to others.

· Read a book such as The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey or Self Defeating Behaviours by Cudney, Milton and Hardy.

By thinking more deeply about what it is you need to learn you will be able to identify some simple actions that you can take on a daily basis to improve your management skills. While a management training course may ultimately be the right approach, don’t simply assume that it is the answer to all your development needs.

Management Training Course, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching
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The Role of Leadership Assessment

How can an organisation identify its future leaders today?

Identifying future leadership potential is a complex issue; however there are a number of steps an organisation can take to improve its ability to identify its future leaders. The first step in the process is to define the characteristics needed by future successful leaders.

Some of this information may be collected by looking at the characteristics of successful leaders in the organisation. These characteristics may include:

- Thinking style, capability and intelligence

- Personality trails

- Behaviour and interactions with others

- Experience

- Self motivation

- Ability to learn.

Once the characteristics have been identified a number of different techniques and activities can subsequently be used to assess them, for example:

- Critical thinking, numerical and verbal reasoning tests can be used to ascertain an individuals thinking capability and potential. The results from these tests can be benchmarked against other successful leaders.

- Psychometric profiling instruments can identify an individual’s personality traits, likely communicating and leadership styles. How do these fit with what the organisation needs?

- 360° feedback tools are valuable for assessing an individual’s performance and behaviour in the workplace. While not a guarantee, historic performance behaviour will be a guide to how the individual is likely to perform in the future.

- Assessment Centres during which an individual undertakes a range of group and individual leadership tasks can provide a good deal of information about an individual’s personal motivation and how they lead themselves.

- Personal challenges, for example by leading a business improvement project or charity/fund raising activity that will take the individual outside of their comfort zone and give the organisation a view of how they handle new and unfamiliar challenges.

While the above techniques will not guarantee identification of the leaders with the greatest potential, they will provide the organisation with a good deal of objective information on which decisions about leadership potential and leadership training and development can be based.

Management Training Course, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching
Developing People offer first class management training and development, with a business training course for every level of personnel, helping you increase productivity through employee training, leadership training

So what are the benefits of Management Training?

Businesses that invest in management and leadership training and development will find that they are a range of financial and non financial benefits to be gained from it. For example recent research has demonstrated that:

- Firms with high levels of HR practices demonstrate up to 200% greater profit per employee (1, 2)
- Sustained management & leadership development improves organisational performance (3)

This arises from the fact that good leaders and managers have the skills to obtain ‘discretionary’ effort from their staff, which means that their staff will go the extra mile for example to win new business, give outstanding service to a customer, or to ensure that costs are properly controlled.

In addition, there are the real benefits in terms of reducing turnover of staff. People want to work for a good boss and are less likely to be tempted away by a few extra pounds if they feel that they get what they need from their work and their manager. The cost of a new hire can be anywhere between 1-3 times their annual salary by the time all of the associated costs are taken into account. These costs can include:

• The cost of training the organisation has invested in the leaver.
• The cost of lost productivity while the position is vacant.
• The cost of externally advertising the job.
• Recruitment agency costs. (these can be as high as 20-30% of annual compensation).
• Costs of internal or external assessments
• Costs associated with any external medicals, checks and other references.
• Costs associated with the time taken for a new employee to become ‘fully productive’.

There are also real benefits for the individual in terms of improving their own ability to manage conflicting demands on their time, improve performance of their team and as a consequence gain greater satisfaction from their work.

There is also evidence of less direct business benefits. Regular management training and development is seen as a sign of professionalism and helps to create a positive image for the business in its market place, which is an important selling point when recruiting new employees.

Whatever the benefits, it is important that an organisation is clear about the objectives of any management or leadership training and development. Ultimately they should ask themselves, ‘What is it that I want to see differently from this person or group of people?’ In this way it is possible to monitor the impact of training on individual performance and also on the company's bottom line.

References:

(1) Smarter Ways of Working Professor D Guest. Sector Skills Development Agency 2006.
(2) Commonalities and Contradictions in HRM and Performance Research. Boselie, Dietz and Boon. Human Research Journal, 15, 3,67-94. 2005
(3) Management Development Works: The Evidence. Chartered Management Institute January 2005.

Leadership Development | Developing Leaders | Programme Developing People offer first class management training and development, with a business training course for every level of personnel, helping you increase productivity through employee training, leadership training