One of the key pillars of organization success is creating the assurance there will be a steady flow of talent coming into the organization that will develop in capability to assume increasingly more complex roles over time. CEOs and senior leaders need to be able to assess the potential in their talent pool and then actively develop that talent to the full in order to meet both the business need for the logical replacement of people in roles (succession) as well as to satisfy the needs of individual employees for career progression and work satisfaction. In a recent blog my partner, Len Nanjad, spoke to the importance we place on of the construct of Three-tier Management and the work of the Manager-once-Removed in this space. We believe our clients want and need different thinking to acheive different results.
It is a fact that individuals differ in their potential for advancement to more complex work and roles. As such, it is important to effectively identify and assess those individuals with higher potential and develop them effectively in order to create and hold a competitive differentiator in today’s business climate. At COREinternational we believe that strategic talent management is a critical component of an organization’s management system. We define the process as follows:
The activities and processes that involve…
- the systematic identification of key positions which differentially contribute to the organization’s sustainable competitive advantage,
- the assessment and development of a talent pool of high potential and high performing incumbents to fill these roles,
- the development of a differentiated human resource architecture to facilitate filling these positions with competent incumbents, and
- ensuring incumbents’ continued commitment to the organization.
Much work has been undertaken in the field of competencies and assessing the degree to which individuals do or do not possess them and what must be done to help people develop for both their own and organizational success. We find many of the current approaches lacking. Our belief is that it is first essential to define the strategic organizational work required and the related competencies involved and then, and only then, implement processes to asses and develop the talent pool. We have tried to differentiate our approach in this regard. Please see COREinternational Assessment Differentiators to better understand our view on this critical component to organization success.