Retaining Top Talent - simple as 1,2,3 …simpler with 4,5 and 6

I am not fascinated by traditional “Best Employer” models that, at best, measure an organization’s ability to engage top talent. Many factors included in such studies have limited play in supporting career realization opportunities and in turn, superior business outcomes. Top talent, irrespective of geography, are naturally curious, consistent in their delivery, ingenuously innovative, resourceful, solution oriented and sometimes, attention seeking (irrespective of how they express it). If not managed optimally, these stars quickly regress into a world of organizational narcissists and over a period of time de-couple from existing loyalties – a regrettable outcome for all.

Effectiveness in enabling top talent development (and therefore retention) lies in the simplicity of the quality and transparency of leadership engagement in as much if not more than process and architecture of programs. While such talent is some of the smartest people in the areas that they operate in, they are, usually, no more armed than any other employee on how to build their own career – personal career planning to them is a big need but rarely an investment that they think about. It is not surprising to eventually see that their careers are what happen to them!

Here are 6 simple actions – the first three on planning and the remaining three on execution that I believe can arm Leaders to engage top talent and drive superior talent outcomes.

1.       Understand the annual talent calendar – Understanding your organization’s annual Talent management calendar helps you empower top talent to prepare for appropriate development and performance discussions/follow-ups. These opportunities to engage and plan purposeful career discussions are one of few available annually and not planning for them is akin to throwing good currency away. Make sure they make the best of these annual nodal opportunities that make or break careers over the mid to long term.

2.        Engage them on their career aspiration – it is amazing how mid and senior level top talent find it difficult to make a choice on a 5-7 year career destination. Discuss using your organization’s career framework on what options are available and how they align to their strengths first, their aspiration next. If you don’t have a framework, encourage them to engage leaders who have succeeded internally and support them in framing the discussion. A clear outcome of this step should be an understanding of the experience, skill and relationship to be secured for success in the next potential assignment

3.       Have them develop a blue-print – Help them establish the gap between the destination and the current reality. Break down the gap into a one year plan anchored around development experiences, skills to support delivery in the development experience and the relationships that are important to secure this learning (..and create visibility amongst the right group of internal stakeholders). Help them socialize the plan with stakeholders and open the doors for constructive challenge and alignment.

4.       Get a combination of an external coach and an internal mentor – Irrespective of level, I am an absolute believer of a coach / mentor network. I also have a bias against internal coaches especially when it comes to shaping ‘new age’ leadership behaviours. I worry about in-breeding and a missed opportunity to build new skills that help Organizations get ahead of the vagaries of the market. However, getting a combination of an external to company view through a coach and the ‘networking, cultural do and don’ts, how to drive decisions internally, how to effect change and therefore how to succeed internally” in-company mentor has always been a powerful combination to blend the best of the outside and inside. Usually given the learning agility of such top talent, they are adept to harness learning from this dual support rather quickly and deploy the best of the outside world internally with a degree of judgment.

5.       Timing of support and honesty is fundamental – Learning happens most when you need the skill / behavior to kick in. I always recommend the support of a coach / mentor combo to kick-start a new challenging assignment, especially in an area that is more alien or high risk to the leader. The learning and application cycle is tight and feedback is immediate. The other practice that I always encourage is to be transparent with such talent on progress being made, de-mystify the buzz about them and through this demonstrate that as an organization you are interested in their true development where honest and developmental feedback is at the core.

6.        Balance their drive – Top Talent is only successful when they balance drive with collaboration. I am amazed by how many talented leaders are befuddled when they want to come in prepared to engage a team in a productive outcome driven discussion and yet walk out of the meeting with passive resistance in the room and lot more noise outside the room ….which in turn creates the organizational or external to company buzz that no one sees but always hears. More often than not, their intent is pure but their process is naive. We often see such talent often get caught in a “never seen but always felt” web of nebulous buzz just based on this one factor – work with the culture and shape its evolution, don’t fight it. 

Knowing your top talent, their needs and fears and staging their progress will go a long way in building the talent pipeline that you are held accountable to. As markets & technologies consolidate and shift more rapidly, so will your talent. Use these levers to build the capability base you need to effectively deal with the new realities of our world economy.

Making career choices – The Fab Four

The day I left working for a big well known company and joined a hitherto unknown entity, my world changed on its head. Till then, I worked for a big brand, had a gargantuan resource pool and a team that was highly capable given that a strong brand attracted capable and ambitious talent. The brand opened doors professionally and socially but I still quit. That was almost 12 years ago. I still work for the company I joined then, like doing what I do, failing, learning and I don’t think that cycle of engagement is changing anytime soon!

As I roll back the years and peel back the layers of reason, it’s much clearer to me now as to why I made that decision then. It wasn’t necessarily only the immediate role, pay or title that mattered. I would be hypocritical if I say they were not elements of attraction; they helped get me in. What kept me in and going till today has been a constant reinforcement of the Fab four:

Sniff out the Values - When a company places its values square and centre in its company philosophy and business practice, it matters! Willy-nilly, the company has empowered you to hold them accountable to it if you experience something different. Lesson – your values don’t change, they define you, what you like and enjoy and what you detest. Find a company that appreciates or espouses something similar. You’ll experience the ease of fitting in right on day one!

Look for cultural cues – My current employer does not publish photographs and bios of its top management team, it never did.  Even though as superfluous as that might seem, this subtle yet deliberate act told me something about an important cultural fundamental in this company – Leadership humility! That was an attractive component of how I wanted to grow. Lesson – the tone at the top (subtle or otherwise) enables you to be effective and be recognised. Whilst there are always exceptions, a company that actively encourages humility amongst others, in this instance, gives away clues in the way it communicates and conducts itself. Look for signs and if you don’t get them, hunt to learn about the culture in advance!

Size matters and large is not always better - when I joined my current employer in a relative small geography, it was a seemingly odd decision. The local business was not performing, the brand was unknown whilst the market offered significant growth;  it felt counter intuitive and slightly crazy  - However, the local business was small enough not to impact overall company results meaningfully yet strategic enough not to be ignored on the possibilities. A happy situation - It was difficult to go wrong in correcting the course whilst enjoying the journey - Lesson - Size for impact matters. Know your strengths and where you can play successfully for impact. Having a role where you can leave a relatively clear thumb print will feed your need for achievement and hopefully, result in early recognition of the value that you can bring.

Diversity is king – Imagine working in a company with a very diverse portfolio with a majority of its sales outside its home country. In any given adverse economic situation, the company will be able to balance performance either within its portfolio or geographies. And this is a company that can offer you multiple businesses and geographies to build your career; not a small opportunity! Lesson – think through how will the new company respond when times are tough, understand the organizational appetite for moving talent and search for a diverse presence.  

The fab four have been the reasons driving my choice of why and where I work. What are yours?