Talent Management - November 2008 - (Page 44)

tential. But when these two activities are combined successfully, great leadership potential can be unleashed. Leadership Is Not a Skill One of the most profound and potentially controversial things revealed in the Epoch study is that organizations should focus less on skill sets and more on identifying great leaders and moving them around the organization. Promoting talent mobility enables high-potential leaders to experience challenges in related or perhaps Modern business leaders not only seek their own success but increasingly want to invest time and resources to help others — especially members of their own teams — to achieve their potential, as well. Since the newest generation in today’s workforce is actively looking for mentors to help them achieve their full potential, they too will thrive working with these new leaders. Managing talent with this new leader in mind helps promote fully engaged work teams and unleash any group’s full potential to drive business results. And at the end of the day, that is what talent managers are responsible for doing: driving business results and increasing shareholder value. Further, if talent leaders can do that and motivate individuals to seek out ways to accelerate their leadership savvy, they can create highly dynamic and highly functioning organizations to which great talent will be drawn. At a time when it is anticipated that all organizations will be facing tremendous talent gaps — the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a labor shortfall of 10 million people during the next two to three years — the ability to acquire and develop great leaders will be an important differentiator for organizations looking to attract and retain the best talent. What’s Next? First, for organizations seeking to hire great leaders externally, talent managers should embrace the tools available in today’s marketplace to help identify the presence of key leadership behaviors and motivators. Combine those tools with traditional interview practices to help ensure the acquisition of great leaders. If, on the other hand, it is more effective and efﬁcient for an organization to look internally to identify individuals with great leadership power and potential, consider two things. First, organizations should use some of the tools available to evaluate leadership potential. Second, once the assessments are done, if great leaders are available, an organization should start moving them around. Their natural behaviors and motivators will transcend disciplines and the organization’s culture, and more importantly, the organization’s business results will beneﬁt enormously. Business leaders are evolving. They are not abandoning successful leadership criteria that worked in the past, but the requirements for success have become far more complex in today’s global, multigenerational environment. Talent managers’ ability to seek out these new leaders and integrate them effectively into an organization can have tremendous value and help organizations realize their strategic business goals. Linda Stewart is CEO, president and founder of Epoch LLC, a provider of independently employed ﬁnancial service executives and professionals. She can be reached at editor@ talentmgt.com. Effective leadership has as much to do with the presence of the right behaviors and motivators as it has to do with skills and experience. completely different areas of the business, broadening their perspectives and expertise, and thereby increasing the value they can bring to an organization. Great leaders can transcend disciplines. Some top performers have led a number of disciplines within their organizations because they have great leadership skills, not because they understood the skills required of any one particular group or role. A great leader can surround him or herself with talented direct reports who possess the right skills, but leadership itself is not necessarily a skill. Leadership is a combination of key behaviors and motivators inherent to an individual. Some successful executives surveyed were in operations or marketing roles before moving into seniorlevel HR or talent management positions. Some began their careers in HR and then moved into line business roles. Development opportunities can help, but again, their success likely transcended their disciplines because they were great leaders to begin with. The progressive organizations that recognize that successful leaders are transferable will create great companies and be able to successfully motivate and retain great leaders. Further, the trickle-down effect in the organization will act as an effective performance motivator and retention tool for these leaders. 44 November 2008 talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com http://www.talentmgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talent Management - November 2008

Talent Management - November 2008 Editor’s Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Learning Connections Recruitment & Retention Assessment & Evaluation Compensation & Benefits Performance Management Learning & Development Succession Planning Insight Dashboard Application Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources Full Potential

Talent Management - November 2008

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