Talent management fails, unfortunately!

Have you ever tried to boil an egg without water? Would it help if instead of cooking on gas you started cooking on electricity or induction still without putting water in the pan? Obviously no!

For many years Talent Management has been embraced as a key success factor for career development, branding, retention and most of all for thriving business into a profitable future. Young graduate -, Young professionals-, High Potentials or Top performer programs have been installed as a part of talent management. Talent acquisition units merged like mushrooms on corporate soil. Talent managers are appointed to dedicate their agenda to developing a ‘Talent strategy’. Apparently there is awareness, urgency or even a necessity to manage the imperative need for talent management.

But what does it bring is a big question.

In popular rhetoric it’s reinforced that one should be able to work from and on one’s core talents, one should not be hindered from stretching and experimenting, one should not be afraid to go against the established order, one should be creative, innovative, unique and divergent. One should be free in a way he or she likes to work and collaborate. One is challenged to find alternative information sources and ways to share knowledge. One should mainly focus on developing one’s talents.

I am sure there are more and even greater one-liners, but is this our reality?

Is it not a fact that without demonstrating that you are talented by performing according to KPI’s, following procedures, meeting milestones and deadlines set by others, working harder (or at least pretend) than others, being present from 8.00 till 19.00, giving away ownership and success to managers, staying ‘inside’, being political and particularly never questioning management (decisions) one does not stand a chance to be selected for a talent program and step up the ladder.

Do you recognize this cognitive dissonance?

Let’s take the contribution and the role of Leadership / management into consideration. Based on my personal experiences I have come across many cases where ‘talents’ are softly killed by their leaders and managers in spite of their best intentions.

The chain of flaws starts with the selection of talents. What or who is considered to be a talent? Is it the outperformer, the university Graduate, the youngsters? Is it intelligence, attitude, aptitude or an appreciative image? Without solid criteria it becomes arbitrary for management to recognize and acknowledge an individual as a talent.

Secondly, does one really ‘know’ the individual talent and have a clear understanding of what drives and motivates the candidate, what the best conditions to blossom would be and what the main challenges are? In other words; how does one ‘tick’? No……… then how should work, development and performance be aligned? How on earth should you as a manager calibrate the rules of engagement, the playfield and the mandate for your talented employee with the business objectives?  

Next to this, the lack of ‘effective’ engagement is also considered as a downer or even a showstopper according to employee satisfaction surveys. Time is the new currency and there is always a shortage. Studies indicate that leaders would like to spend 50% of their valuable time with their team. Reality shows that their agendas are filled up to 80% with getting the job done, 10% on converting strategy into operations and 10% on interacting with staff. It’s no surprise that involvement is minimized to the level of ‘telling’ how it could or should be done and as such taking away ownership, instead of engaging, sharing experiences and providing constructive feedback.

What about the team members? Is talent management just meant for the happy few, the top performers? Is the ‘rest’ of the working population then qualified as ‘untalented’ or less important? How do you align the untalented with the talented? Do you really think this will work? That this will stimulate team synergy and accomplish the best results.

What is this André you might ask? It’s your business to provide talent management solutions and you are ‘just’ sharing pitfalls instead of best practices. Where is this heading for?

Well let me share this with you. STOP thinking that people and their talents are ‘makeable’ with a scientific management approach. Please start with getting truly acquainted with the people you are working with. Start to create a setting where you engage and contribute. Enable all people (talents) to collaborate by providing the right working conditions. Use an act on your ‘human interaction skills and standards’ to make things happen. Provide constructive feedback when it’s appropriate instead of ‘once a year’ when it’s time according to the HR-life cycle. Calibrate activities & expectations. Provide appropriate conditions for experimenting and learning. Act as a good family member just like at home. In other words, be ‘the water’ in the pan to boil an egg instead of ticking the boxes in a sophisticated talent management suite.

I want the best for my 4 beautiful daughters and I am driven to do my utmost so that they can discover their talents and passion. I want them to blossom in life and I know that I have to be really present and compassionate otherwise my contribution will be meaningless or even deconstructive. Not even the best talent management system in the world can ‘do’ this for me. It’s my personal attitude that can make a difference. I just have to have the means how to identify and recognize their talents and share that with them.

 Enjoy the presence of all talents,