The Talent Masters Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers Bill Conaty, Ram Charan Review by Andre Marafon

The Talent Masters

Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers

Bill Conaty, Ram Charan

Review by Andre Marafon

Are you an entrepreneur?

Are you an HR officer?

Are you a C-level executive?

Do you aspire to be any of these?

If the answer is yes, then you should buy this book and give it a go. There is written and unwritten knowledge that can help you become the so-called Talent Master. If the answer is no, yet you still believe that behind numbers there are people, I recommend a quick read, focusing specifically on the last few chapters.

The book came highly recommended by a friend, which had been recommended to him by one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Brazil. On the cover you will see praise from Jack Welch and A.G. Lafley. The pedigree of both Bill Conaty and Ram Charan is unquestionable. Bill Conaty engineered GE’s talent management concept and application, and advised successful companies such as P&G, Boeing, and Dell. Ram Charan is a recognized writer, successful advisor, and board member for several Fortune 500 companies.

So, why did I not like the flow of the book? Seemingly, every time I picked up the book and read just a few paragraphs – and there were many times – I closed it. Exiling it back to the ever growing pile of unread material, that I once had high hopes for. This time, however, out of pure respect for my friend, I exercised my humility and persisted.

Let me share with you some of the insights the authors delivered in the book and will help you become a talent master. In a nutshell, the acumens of the book were delivered through different stories that show that ‘only one competency lasts. It is the ability to create a steady, self-renewing stream of leaders. Money is just a commodity. Talent supplies the edge’. If the insights followed the 7 article structure of the constitution – of talent management – they might be something like this:

Article I – Legislative. Fight for meritocracy. ‘Differentiation breeds meritocracy; sameness (the failure to differentiate people) breeds mediocrity’.

Article II – Executive. A company must constantly develop opportunities for its talents to work on. Without opportunities there is no development. A big statement for growth and innovation. ‘By breaking people out of their comfort zone, it develops, and provides an unmatched opportunity to build relationships with a wide variety of people from different backgrounds and cultures’. It is even better if a given talent grows within the organization diagonally, through different departments and responsibilities.

Article III – Judicial. Talent management should be as rigorous as financial management. Every company should merge its business/ P&L reviews with the people behind it. ‘People sessions start with a business overview, since business results come directly from the people involved. Business reviews always start with an assessment of the leadership team’.

Article IV – States. A leader can never forget that role modelling quickly spreads down the chain of command. Walk the talk. An interesting suggestion that the authors shared with us is that a company should spread the financial rewards of its team throughout the year. From 2x to 4x per year, instead of 1x. Ultimately, it is all about the amount of pressure you want to apply. To put it simply, more points of contact mean less stress.

Article V – Amendment. Talent management demands process and intimacy. It is, as most successful flywheels, a continuous learning effort. The leadership of a company must deeply understand its talent base and have safeguards in place to guarantee the talent management process. Ask these following questions routinely:

‘Is the talent management process delivering the desired output?‘

‘What is bothering me and eating my inner energy away?’

‘Why was I supressing a specific issue and not getting a clear solution?’

‘Am I using the old success formula for a new situation and becoming overconfident?’

‘Which of my core values is getting in the way of shaping the right solution?’

Article VI – Law. People management must follow the same rules of financial management. Rigor. Discipline. Candor. It is imperative that the leaders of the company move from whom they know best, to who is best. The authors suggest that leaders should create a software that register inputs from all personnel. With their contributions. Projects. Feedbacks. Career path. Hobbies. So on and so forth. With easy to access data for the whole talent base. A great way to fix Daniel Kahneman’s so called availability or affect heuristics[1]. Put simply, a system for talent management.

Article VII – Ratification. Succession must be planned years ahead. Every leader should have someone to replace themselves, and prepare them well in advance. ‘People have to know beyond a doubt that they are expected to search for and develop other leaders’. Henceforth, leaders should put the same effort, determination, and accuracy into replacing themselves as they put into running their business. Another remarkable piece of advice from the authors is to ask the leaders of the company to write a personal letter to the CEO. Stating their contribution and key challenges for the year ahead. A great way of exercising Robert Cialdini’s commitment and consistency bias.

I am the first to admit it. I was wrong and the reading paid off. When I realized, the book had taken my thoughts to interesting places, and stoked ideas that have started to materialize. I found the necessary anecdotes to make a few changes on how to improve talent management. Bringing fresh ideas to discuss with my partners. Somehow, the authors became a sounding board for ideas and instincts on how to build, manage, and develop a talent pool. Just like the never-ending pursuit of perfection, you know to be unattainable, and yet you never give up trying.

In the end, as the authors put it, we must understand that we should take our work seriously, but don’t take ourselves too seriously.

Thank you Bill. Thank you Ram. I now feel encouraged to defend a sharper focus on people management, and on having better tools to understand how to take it to the next level. It definitely paid off persisting through the pages. It is a bit of a boring read, however if you manage to make it to the end, you will walk away with a better understanding of managing people in the workplace.

[1] Availability heuristic. ‘Process of judging frequency by the ease with which instances come to mind’.

Affect heuristic. ‘The dominance of conclusions over arguments is most pronounced where emotions are involved. (…) People let their likes and dislikes determine their beliefs about the world’.