Keeping talent dynamic
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Your main objective when developing talent should be to create a culture in which people are responsible for their own development. They should be self-directed and drive their development forwards themselves. However, what can happen is that people who have so far been progressing quickly and choosing their own career moves come onto a programme and stop taking the initiative. They begin to wait for their talent team to guide their career and find their next opportunities. Ultimately this leads to people shifting from being self-reliant to “HR reliant”.
Here’s four steps you should consider to ensure your employees retain their sense of responsibility for their own careers:
- Make the person accountable. From the first day, explain that you are a resource to support and guide them, but that you are going to let them drive their career forward. You are not going to do it for them. This ‘tough love’ may surprise them, but is healthier for them in the long term.
- Give them access to contacts and feedback they would not have otherwise received. Often you’ll find that talented individuals are really good at their job, but they aren’t aware of the wider impact they’re having or of other people’s views of them. Facilitating this process and helping them get access to feedback is one of the best things you can do for them. For many talent teams this is your bread and butter work – and the people you are working with will have never have received this type of input before. Remember that your access to a broad range of contacts across the organisation is a hugely valuable resource for them. You have access to a much wider source of people that they wouldn’t normally find easy to connect with.
- Realise and recognise that you can’t keep up with their expectations. No matter how hard you try, your talented people’s expectations will be more than you can deliver. Not least because their invitation to join a talent programme will have undoubtedly caused their expectations to rise sky high – even if they say it hasn’t! The important thing is for you to be comfortable with the fact that you won’t be able to keep up with everyone’s career journey. Once you accept this, you can stop trying to run along with them and shift your energies into helping them set up opportunities and get going, and then “check in” with them throughout their journey to make sure it’s on track.
- Help them set up a plan for their development. If your employees don’t have a development plan they’re going to be directionless. They will expend a lot of energy with little by way of return. It’s your role to help them develop a sense of direction, and a plan of action. Then make sure the execution of those actions are down to them – for instance, if they want a mentor, help them work out how to identify the right person and how to contact them, don’t arrange the mentoring for them. It’s key that you always put the ball back into their court and let them drive their development forward.
If you’re in a talent role, you need to think about how to use small packets of time to provide contacts, ideas or direction that open up opportunities. It’s up to the high fliers to run through the door!