TM - March 2008 - (Page 4)

[from the editor] by Mike Prokopeak I I On the Campaign Trail love presidential elections. stake that opponents drove through the heart of Democratic Senator John Kerry’s 2004 bid for president, a campaign that, for good or bad, made “flip-flopper” a part of our everyday vocabulary. A clear vision is no less important in talent management. A successful talent initiative requires goals — such as a challenging profit target or a statement of social impact — that are clearly articulated and communicated. call of duty and deliver dramatic results. Touch people at their core, and they’ll move heaven and earth to achieve your shared goals. It’s the magic formula for high performance. Performance is yet another parallel between political campaigns and talent management. Political candidates relentlessly monitor the numbers to see what they need to do better. Small armies of analysts slice and dice demographic trends and the latest polls to find the slightest advantage for their candidate. Similarly, successful talent managers grasp business analytics and actively use them to manage the performance of talent. Winning campaigns also build a flexible organization of workers at multiple levels, from national to state to local. It’s a remarkably effective team that operates under a national umbrella, one that makes continuous adjustments to the local context. That ability to rapidly respond to change is a hallmark of a successful campaign and a successful talent management initiative. Savvy political candidates and talent managers constantly have their ears to the ground and are ready to adjust to new trends and realities. Political campaigns very well may be one of the best models for a truly effective talent management function that delivers results through a highly engaged workforce. As for what happens once a candidate is elected to an office, well, that’s another story. What are you doing in your campaign for talent? Cast your vote by sending me a note at mikep@talentmgt.com. Every four years, we engage in a great national debate about the direction of the country. It’s a conversation that plays out nationally over the airwaves and on the Internet. But it also takes place in each of our homes through heated debates over dinner with family and friends. But as I watch the 2008 election unfold, I’m struck by the parallels between a successful political cam- That’s another key strength of winning candidates and sucSavvy political candidates and cessful talent mantalent managers constantly agers: communicahave their ears to the ground tion. They effectiveand are ready to adjust to new ly communicate messages to their trends and realities. internal teams, sensing moods and paign and an impactful talent man- adjusting communications approagement strategy. There are some priately. But they’re also focused on clear lessons talent managers can communicating to the external learn from the elections. audience, tirelessly shaking hands Besides an electable candidate, a and constantly making connections. successful campaign needs a Former President Bill Clinton was potent team of strategists, spokes- legendary for his ability to connect people, fundraisers and policy and empathize with voters. experts. These leaders make the many decisions that steer the candidate, primary by primary, caucus by caucus and state by state, to the White House. The parallel to talent management is clear: A successful talent strategy requires a capable executive team. Without it, even the best initiatives are doomed for failure. Just ask Fred Thompson, the Republican whose much-hyped 2008 presidential campaign fizzled out even before it seemingly started, in part because he and his team came into the race too late and too tentatively. An effective management team counts for next to nothing without a clear vision. In politics, it’s the candidate who possesses a compelling vision for the nation and consistently and persuasively makes the case for it who often wins. A lack of clear vision was the Successful political candidates also actively recruit voters, finding out their motivations and answering their needs. But recruiting is only one piece of it. The campaign season is a marathon, and candidates must engage people for the long haul. Candidates who motivate their supporters can create dramatic results. The history of politics is rife with broad movements that caught the interest of the electorate and swept a candidate into office. The Reagan Revolution remade the federal government and created landslide victories for Ronald Reagan in both 1980 and 1984. His name is still regularly invoked by Republican candidates in 2008. In talent management, an engaged and motivated workforce can be unstoppable. People who believe in the greater value of their work consistently go above and beyond the Mike Prokopeak Editorial Director mikep@TalentMgt.com March 2008 4 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - March 2008

TM - March 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance - The Paradoxically Gifted Leading Edge - Reverse Engineering: Shifting Focus to HR's Cause Learning Connection - Sharing Talent On the Hunt for Talent Unlock Employee Motivation Through Personality Testing HR Crucial to Executive Compensation Process Downtown Management: Surfing May Not Be Slacking Think Tanks Aid Government in Talent Management Creating Consistency: Enterprise-Wide Succession Plans Battle Retention Deficits With On-Boarding Sunbelt Rentals: A Mid-Level View of HR From the Trenches Butterball: No Chicken When It Comes to Talent Management Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources Full Potential - Choosing Change

TM - March 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.