The TALENT MASTERS

By: Ranjeeta Bonal

Talent masters put people before numbers for the simple reason that it is talent that delivers the numbers. Success comes from those who are able to extract meaning from events and the forces affecting a business, and are able to look at the world and assess the risks to take and the risks to avoid

Purpose

How to accurately judge raw human talent?

Understand a persons unique combination of traits and

develop that talent.

Convert what supposedly are "soft" subjective judgments about people into objective criteria that are as specific, verifiable, and concrete as the contents of a

financial statement?

"The Talent Masters" rests on three principles that characterize the Welch

approach to management:
A

focus on talent development. Mr. Welch and the other "talent

masters" in the bookwe also hear from folks at companies including Procter & Gamble and Novartisclaim that they spend more than a third of their time developing their people.

Cont

Differentiation. Talent masters create a meritocracy by constantly evaluating their peoplea process which, in Mr. Welch's case, was derided by critics as "rank and yank.

Candor. This is the ultimate Welch trademark: ruthless honesty in evaluating the performance of people and businesses.

How to take a business to next level?

Secrets of the masters. The specifics on how companies regarded as world-classGE, P&G, Hindustan Unilever (and others)base their stellar performance decade after decade on their systems for finding and nurturing leadership talent.

Intimate and systemic. Why deep knowledge and intimacy with your talent and a systemic rhythm of reviews are the foundation for creating a steady, self-renewing stream of leaders for all levels of an organizationfrom first-line supervisors to the CEO.

Conti

The competency that lasts. Financial results, market share, brand, and legacy products all have a half-life that seems to grow shorter by the year. Talent is the only competency that endures.

What to do Monday morning. The Talent Masters tool kit provides the specific guidelines for assessing and improving your companys talent mastery capabilities

Talent Mastery Tool Kit

Principles of Talent Masters

An enlightened leadership team, starting with a CEO who really gets it.

A performance-meritocracy, a willingness to differentiate talent based

on results as well as the values and behaviors behind those results.

Explicit definition and articulation of values, citing strong company

beliefs and expected behaviors.

Candor and trust, leading to better insights into peoples talent and potential, focusing on development needs to accelerate personal growth.

Talent assessment/ development systems that have as mush rigor and repeatability as systems used for finance and operations.

Conti

Human resource leaders as business partners and trustees of the talent development system with functional expertise equal to the CFOs.

Investment in continuous learning and improvement to build and continuously update the leadership brand in synch with the changing world.

Learnings

The ever-practical Conaty and Charan identify five

specific organizational How-Tos:

Get all senior leaders centrally engaged in talent

recognition and selection

Hire for demonstrated leadership, not just for credentials

Learn as much as possible about values and behavior before hiring

Conti

Be humble enough to hire outsiders but ensure

cultural assimilation

Be totally honest about who has greatest leadership potential

They also identify five specific How-Tos for the individual:

Make talent development an obsession
Drill down deep to the specifics of each persons talents and potentiality

Give frequent, honest, and specific feedback

Make talent development a core competency with accountability Provide intellectual challenges and opportunities fir additional growth

Assessing Leaders

Do formal reviews informally Use business reviews as people reviews and vice versa. Dont judge performance by numbers alone. Consider what the leaders leave behind.

Sort misfits from failures.

Recognizing and Retaining Leaders

Tell people how they fit in. Spread financial rewards throughout the year. Allow for judgement when compensating leaders. Differentiate