How do you share talent insights with decision-makers?

1 Know your audience

Before you share your talent insights, you need to know who you are sharing them with and what they care about. Different audiences may have different goals, perspectives, preferences, and levels of understanding. For example, senior leaders may be more interested in the strategic implications and the return on investment of your insights, while managers may be more focused on the operational and practical aspects and the action steps. You need to tailor your message and your format to suit your audience's needs and expectations. You can also use empathy and storytelling to connect with your audience emotionally and intellectually.

2 Define your purpose

Another key step is to define the purpose of sharing your talent insights. What do you want to achieve by sharing them? What are the main points or messages you want to convey? What are the recommendations or solutions you want to propose? How do you want your audience to react or respond? Having a clear purpose will help you structure your presentation and highlight the most relevant and impactful insights. It will also help you align your insights with your organization's vision, mission, values, and goals.

3 Choose your methods

Depending on your purpose and audience, you can choose from a variety of methods to share your talent insights. Reports are written documents that provide a comprehensive analysis of your talent data, while dashboards are visual displays that show key metrics and indicators. Presentations offer an oral or online summary of your talent insights, while stories provide real-life examples, scenarios, or cases. Conversations are informal or formal discussions that invite feedback or questions from your audience. You can use one or a combination of these methods, depending on the scope, complexity, and urgency of your talent insights. Additionally, you may use different methods for different stages or levels of sharing - such as a report for reference, a dashboard for monitoring, a presentation for overview, a story for engagement, and a conversation for collaboration.

4 Use data visualization

Data visualization is an effective way to share your talent insights, as it transforms data into visual elements such as charts, graphs, maps, or icons. This process can simplify and clarify complex data, highlight patterns and trends, compare and contrast different groups, show relationships, proportions, or distributions, emphasize key points or messages, and attract and retain attention. However, careful planning and design are necessary when creating data visualizations. You must choose the right type of visual element for your data and purpose; for example, a bar chart for comparison, a line chart for trend, or a pie chart for proportion. Additionally, best practices must be followed such as using colors, shapes, and sizes consistently and strategically; labeling axes, legends, and titles clearly and accurately; avoiding clutter or distortion; and providing context or explanation.

5 Tell a story

Telling a story is a powerful way to share your talent insights, as it connects your talent data with your audience's emotions, values, and experiences. Crafting a compelling and coherent story requires skill and creativity. It should follow a structure, such as introducing the characters, setting the scene, and stating the problem or challenge; describing actions, events, and conflicts leading to the solution or outcome; and revealing the solution or outcome, explaining its impact or implications, and calling for action or change. Additionally, you can use anecdotes, examples, or testimonials; metaphors, analogies, or comparisons; humor, suspense, or surprise; dialogue, quotes, or questions to make your story come alive. Capturing and sustaining interest through stories can help build trust and credibility, inspire and motivate action, create meaning and relevance, and foster learning and retention.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?