REFLECTIONS ON
EXECUTIVE TALENT AND POTENTIAL
DR. PRAKASH.V.BHIDE
“In future
TALENT will be a big differentiator between companies that succeed and those
that don’t. One organizational competency lasts. The ability to create a
steady, self-renewing stream of leaders. Talent is the edge.” (Ram Charan –
Talent Masters)
I find that
there is a lot of confusion on the meaning of TALENT and POTENTIAL in
organizations and even among many HR professionals. The meaning also changes
with context.
It is
surprising that the definition & concept of TALENT eludes description.
Different thought leaders view talent in entirely different ways. Many
organizations do not define what they mean by talent and use it rather
loosely. Economist (2006) reports
“Companies do not even know how to define talent, let alone manage it.” Some
use it to mean people like Aldous Huxleys ALPHAS in the “Brave New World”-
those at the top of the ‘Bell Curve.’
Talent as a noun – is a natural aptitude,
skills, a marked innate ability for a natural endowment or ability of superior
quality. Other synonymous words are gifted, aptitude, ability, faculty, genius
and capability leading to a consistent and far superior performance. Names of
Lata Mangeshkar (singing), Sachin Tendulkar (cricket), Tiger Woods (Golf),
Michael Jordan (Basket Ball) and Amitabh Bacchan (Acting) immediately come to
mind.
The word
‘Talent’, in Latin, means ‘a variable unit of weight/money used in ancient
Greece, Rome and Midde- East. Indian Vedas say that every person has some
unique talent and potential.
अमंत्रो अक्षरो नास्ति
नास्ति मुलंश औषधीम्
अयोग्यः पुरुषः नास्ति
योजकः तत्र दुर्लभः
There is no syllable which cannot be turned into a mantra. There is no
root of any tree which cannot be turned into a medicine. There is no person in
the world who does not have a unique potential and capabilities. The leaders
are rare who can spot such unique potential.
Marcus Buckingham defines talent as “Talent is
the naturally recurring patterns of thoughts, feelings and behavior that can be
productively applied in practice. Talents, knowledge and skills combine to
create strengths”. He recommends that each person should discover his own
talents and strengths, develop them and sculpt his/her career and vocation
around these strengths. This will bring the greatest success, happiness and
enjoyment. They will be enjoying the work so much that they will really never
have to work any day in life.
Many
organizations define talent as ‘a person with superior performance in the
current job and having potential to grow into more senior roles, usually at
least two levels above.
David Clutterbuck recommends to delete the requirement of ‘Upward Progression’ in the definition of
talent. He defines talent as “A superior performing employee who has the
potential to contribute significantly more, by developing his/her skills,
knowledge & experience and who is motivated to do so’. He recommends
organizations to be open to the possibility that lateral movement & job
rotations can be as important and valuable to the organization as the upward
movement and promotions.
I strongly recommend that each organization should define talent in
alignment to its Business Strategy & Industry Context. The definition
should not be very narrow as it will be less flexible to accommodate changes in
the leadership requirements in future. On the other hand, it should not be so
broad that almost every employee in the organization is considered as talent.
Differentiation is the mother’s milk for Business Excellence. And we need to
define “Talent” in this context.
In IT, BPO/KPO/ITES sectors,
talent is viewed as all employees who have the right skills and can perform the
job adequately. Their business strategy requires a large number of client
facing and backroom service associates. These are not easily available in the
market due to large gap in demand & supply, huge attritions of more than
100% per year and hence significant challenges of retention. These companies
call all of them as ‘Talent’ as each headcount generates revenues & profits
for the company. The more the number of headcount, greater the profit and
greater the strength & ability of these companies to undertake outsourcing
work from developed countries like USA, Europe etc. Many companies in this
sector have grown by 30 % year on year and made huge profits over the last
fifteen years in India. We hence find specialized positions with fancy
designations such as ‘Head of Talent Acquisition’, ‘Head of Talent Retention
& Engagement’ in companies like Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Accenture and many
other ITES & BPO companies.
Many companies define talent as the employees who are high on both
performance & potential on the 3X3 matrix of performance and potential.
Some other consultants recommend that only 5% of top High Potential employees
should be considered as’ Super Keepers’ as they contribute substantially to the
company profits. Authors such as Richard Beatty have researched and recommended
that “Strategic Talent” should be differentiated and determined starting with
finding the ‘A’ positions which contribute to the business “Competitive
Advantage” in line with Business Strategy to create Customer & Economic
Value. ‘A’ players occupying such ‘A’ positions and servicing ‘A’ customers are
called Strategic Talent. The identified successors for such positions are also
included in the Strategic Talent Pool. Interestingly, these strategic positions
are only 5 to 7% of the total positions in the company and are located at all
levels including frontline levels. (AAA concept – ‘A’ positions, ‘A’ players
for ‘A’ customers.)
Many companies regard talent as ‘RIGHT STUFF’ i.e. they consider the
end state CEO/CXO leadership qualities to be present in a primitive or
disguised form in the young talent. Because it is already present inside, they
put these identified talent in challenging assignments and situations. If the
young talent does well and survives, they put them in more and bigger
challenging assignments to prove themselves. ‘The survival of the fittest’ is
the methodology to find the ‘RIGHT STUFF LEADER’ to rise to senior levels and
top of the organization. (Morgan McCall – High Fliers)
A simpler way of identifying talent as per David Clutterbuck is people
who demonstrate:
1. Significant continued investment in their own development.
2. A track record of assisting the development of others. E.g. through
coaching and mentoring.
3. Ambition to achieve greater responsibilities.
4. A high motivation and ability to learn.
POTENTIAL
Potential is defined as “Latent; capable of coming into being” (Oxford
English Dictionary). Potential derives from the word POTENT or STRENGTH. One
way of defining potential is ‘The ability to achieve or contribute more by
building upon personal strengths or aptitudes, while managing relevant
weaknesses’.
A practical definition of potential from Talent Management perspective
is ‘The capability of an individual to build upon existing strengths, knowledge
& experience and improving on major weaknesses, so that they do not become
derailers, to perform effectively at higher levels of responsibility within an
appropriate environment’
Potential is the latent future capability of the work one can do in
future. Ram Charan recommends three categories of potential for succession
planning:
1. TURN POTENTIAL – able to do the work at the next level of
leadership pipeline in three to five years or sooner.
2. GROWTH POTENTIAL – able to do the work of bigger jobs at the same
level in the near term.
3. MASTERY POTENTIAL – able to do the same kind of work currently
being done, only better.
Corporate Leadership Council defines HIGH POTENTIAL in terms of three
major components which need to be simultaneously present –
1.) Aspiration
2.)
Engagement
3.)Ability
David Clutterbuck has another pragmatic way of looking at potential as
an equation given below:
Potential = Ambition + Learning Orientation/Maturity + Self Awareness
– Fatal Flaws.
Ability to realize potential heavily depends on the context and the
environment. Potential as an Olympic Swimmer is unlikely to be realized if they
live in a desert. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book ‘Outliers’ says that as per his
research, OUTLIERS such as Bill Gates, The Beatles and many top Ice Hockey
sportsmen of Canada (were found to be born in a particular month of the year)or
in fortunate environment and fortunate time. The Outliers also put in practice
of more than 10000 hours in the particular field to hone their natural talent
in the particular field.
Morgan McCall in his book ‘HIGH FLIERS’ is of the view that many of us
make a serious mistake of trying to find the END STATE capabilities and
behaviors(RIGHT STUFF) of a successful CEO, in a budding young High Potential
Talent. As per him many of the qualities and abilities cannot be observed in
the young talent as these are not present but can be developed by experience,
reflection, grooming & nurturing. He is of the view that the focal point in
early identification of potential is the assessment of LEARNING ABILITY.
Several thought leaders have added dimensions of learning agility, learning
orientation, proactively seeking feedback, learning from criticism etc.
My own experience & research shows that high Fluid Intelligence/IQ
is an excellent indicator of Learning Ability and hence potential in the front
line and middle management levels. At senior levels, this has to be
supplemented by Emotional Intelligence – particularly Self Awareness and Self
Management. At very senior levels and for successful life, Spiritual
Intelligence becomes important.
TALENT
AND POTENTIAL:
Many people use Talent and Potential interchangeably. This confusion
is also enhanced as organizations do not clearly define Talent & Potential.
In fact some definitions of Talent include the word ‘Potential’ adding to
further confusion.
As per me, we say someone has TALENT, when we see the person in action
and observe outstanding performance and results on a consistent basis.
POTENTIAL, on the other hand, is latent, virtual and implies the possibility of
being developed and expressed in future .All will agree that much of the latent
potential in ourselves as well as all human beings, does not flower due to
various reasons.
My experience of assessing potential of more than 2000 High Performers
in organizations at various levels, collaborates with the latest research, that
only about 30 % of High Performers are found to have High Potential to excel at
two levels above. High potential individuals need to be groomed and nurtured as
per the 70:20:10 formula. 70% of the
development and learning takes place through structures and planned job
rotations/developmental experiences helped through reflection, executive
coaching and mentoring. Humility to accept and learn from others, own mistakes
and setbacks, is critical for flowering the potential.
In future blogs, I plan to explore how to identify potential and
develop future leaders.
THE END
