What should 2012 look like for leaders? If you were going to do one thing that impacts the engagement and energy they have for their work, what would it be? Here are three ideas for helping your people see work differently and get more excited about it (aka: talent management / employee engagement)
Talent management is not a form, or a process, but a commitment to a place where everything (or most everything) works. The job is great, people are getting what they need, people are owning their role, and teams are helping each other be successful. It takes great leadership, great followership, and most importantly it takes frequent and very open conversations. The one on one is the critical piece of this, and here is a form to help a one on one work well. The result is great talent management.
Everyone has a list of books that are favorites. Here is my list that encompasses leadership development, individual development, self-awareness, friendship, and making a choice to make a difference. Talent management for each of us is about chosing to continue to learn and to know what our foundation of talent, passions, and the rewards that mean the most to us.
What does effective leadership look like when you meet one on one with your people? What does good followership look like, and how do you ask the right questions of your leader and share with them what you need so they can lead? Talent management is about great conversations, and here is a template to make that happen.
Listening is not the lost skill of leadership, but it tends to take a back seat to getting work done when things are moving fast. A recent speech by a brain expert reminded me how little listening doctors do in the course of diagnosing certain medical conditions. Leadership and getting most out of the talent of a team (talent management) is, in part, about listening.
Leadership is important, but being able to be an effective manager is also important. Talent management (getting the most out of your people) does not happen without engaging people one on one, getting to know them, listening to what they need, and helping them. Here are 3 habits for any leader to help this to happen.
Why were you selected for a new leadership role? Simple question, and yet critical in aligning the right people with a situation and creating an effective transition plan. Based on David Baker’s book, Managing Right – For The First Time, this is a question all leaders should ask, when hiring or being hired. Talent Management is about great conversations, and this question is a cornerstone of a great talent management conversation.
Here is a quick learning activity for a leadership team. Tony Schwartz talked about myths that live in organizations that are destructive. Leadership development is about awareness first, and these points help leaders examine some myths that might be getting in their way. Use this at your next leadership team meeting, or around an examination of talent management.
Talent management is too often focused on putting in what was left out. Real change takes energy, and acknowledging that helps the performance evalutation and professional development focus take on more significance. We need to ask up front “Are you ready?” and then the leader needs to ask “How can I help?” Leaders need to remember that their role in talent management is to help define the what and how – – then support in the journey to a new place. Great followership involves making a choice to go to a new place.
David Baker wrote a book to help new managers make their transition successful. As I read Managing Right For The First Time in preparation for writing a review, I will share things that make me go Hmmmm. Some thoughts are around leadership development, while some are just about self awareness or individual development. This is about starting your development before you lead.
There is a special section today around talent management in the Wall Street Journal. The great thing is that it is written for business leaders in their language and it opens the door for you, as an HR leader to help them process and apply some of it in your own company. A great read . . .
A question from SHRM 2011 in Wisconsin around development plans. Talent management needs a plan, and for the individual this is it.