Welcome to week two of our Talent Optimization and Development series. Talent Development is your first approach to keeping your key players. It helps you cultivate the skills your business needs to remain competitive. After all, you can look outside for that purple unicorn – but none will be so sparkly as one cultivated within your business.
Optimize the Climate for Talent Development
Developing people effectively means aligning your people with your business strategy and culture. This will help you understand where you have been. It will also help you define where you are going. Only from here you can achieve the organizational buy-in to achieve your vision.
Engage your employees to gain their perspective. If you have an internal Organizational Development team utilize their expertise. Alternately you can work with an external firm with expertise in this area, like The Hire.
To do this effectively from the start, plan wisely. Gain the approval and support of your organization’s formal [and informal] leaders. They are your evangelists for change. Your front-line advocates. Build a plan to support and develop them. Then watch as they inspire results.
Ask employees what they think is working. Find out what could be better. Get their input on what they need to strengthen their performance. Then make your plan to upskill and hire.
Customize Leadership Development
While many organizations talk about the value of developing leaders, few have found the secret sauce. This is because they often try to apply generic or “cultivated” solutions to a problem that is complex. But generic models are only a starting point. You must dig deeper.
You must examine the environment and approach to development systemically. Give leaders the opportunity to be successful coaches. Ensure they can focus on developing their team. When you do that, they will be able to effectively bring work and learning together for others. Then they can foster a culture of high performance, because…
- Leaders develop Leaders and,
- High performers help you meet your business goals and surpass the competition.
Prioritize Development Opportunities for Everyone
Start at the Beginning
Developing people means first defining what the organization intends to achieve (Strategy) and how (Culture). From there you can define the competencies and skills needed. Only then you can determine the state of those skills in the workforce and determine employee sentiment, and capacity, for change.
If this sounds like a lot, fear not. You likely have what you need to start. Things like your company’s goals, the Vision/Mission/Values, Job Descriptions, and subject matter experts on your business.
Following are some guidelines to get you thinking:
- Be transparent. Communicate what you are doing in a way that makes it relevant to ALL employees.
- Be authentic. People can see when you behave differently from the norm. This is not a show. This is your work. Play to your strengths. Interact in a way that is both effective and natural.
- Talk to people directly, even if over a web conference or phone, one-on-one.
- Create more intimate settings, like sponsored lunches or regular small team meetings, with specific work groups.
- Consistently ask for employee opinion.
We can help you take a closer look at your culture. The key is to engage your employees at every level. That way you will be in the best position to attract, hire, and retain top performers. Come back next week when we continue the series with the Talent Acquisition pillar of your people strategy.
