Any organisation intent on survival today must master the art of nurturing
“talent” – the people, in the words of the Chartered Institute of Personnel
and Development (CIPD), who can “make a difference”. But should you run
programmes in-house or bring in external professionals? Should you elicit
the help of a top business school? The stakes are high: get it wrong and
your best and brightest may move on, taking potential future growth and
profits with them.
Figures from the CIPD show that 95% of UK organisations rate in-house
programmes as the most effective method. Such programmes can include both
coaching, which focuses for short periods of time on specific skills and
goals – and mentoring, which tends to involve a long-term relationship with
an experienced senior colleague.
Standard Chartered Bank, for example, recruits 300 graduates a year from top
management and business schools. These recruits join a two-year intensive
programme, which provides training in technical knowledge, leadership
development, team-building and listening skills. Line managers work with
individuals and progress is regularly assessed. “Everyone gets development,
but ‘high potentials’ get more, and move through the company ahead of their
peers if they continue to perform well,” explains Geraldine Haley, the
bank’s global head of talent management and leadership development.
“Many organisations focus on helping with weaknesses,” she continues. “We
prefer to concentrate on strengths. Individual performance objectives are
agreed by each employee with their manager, and performance against these
objectives formally reviewed twice a year and linked to bonuses.”
Among the bank’s high-potential middle managers, the focus is on career
transition, developing strategic thinking and managing change. At the most
senior levels, high achievers enjoy the attentions of in-house coaches,
based in London and Singapore. “The aim is to develop their capacity to
think about the future, their motivation and their ability to lead and
deliver results,” says Haley. “The payback is fabulous. The results are
measured through feedback from participants – and the fact that they tend to
stay with the company.”
Claire McCartney, principal researcher at Roffey Park, an institute focusing
on leadership and management skills, recommends giving employees a
development plan and encouraging them to take responsibility for their own
careers. “Make sure that the learning you provide can be applied to the
individual’s work role, and that intellectual capital is shared with teams
and retained,” she advises. “One in three organisations fail to do this.”
Bear in mind, too, that emerging talent has a low boredom threshold. “If
Generation Y does not get what it wants, it will walk,” warns Hugh Evans,
director of corporate management programmes at Henley Management College.
“If the UK market goes down, they’ll go to Asia or travel for a year.”
So how do you set goals that will maintain their interest? “Talented people
need constant variety and challenge,” says Dr Maria Yapp, CEO of Xancam, a
business psychology firm. To keep up momentum, some business schools and
other course providers have shortened their development programmes from
three years to 18 months and typically balance learning modules with
challenging assignments and projects. “Some people think made-up projects
are okay,” says Yapp. “But the most talented people want to do real jobs,
with real risks and real benefits, such as increased market share.
“The most talented people have clear strengths,” she adds. “They’re not
interested in developing things they’re not good at. Some companies try to
round them out, but that’s a mistake.”
Hot talent expects to be fast-tracked. These days that may mean an
international assignment or high-profile project rather than a linear step
up the ladder. And even traditionally bureaucratic public service
organisations are learning to respond. The National Audit Office, for
instance, puts its newly qualified young talent through a two-year programme
– utilising workshops, coaching, networking and mentoring by senior managers
– to reach manager level more quickly. “Departments are encouraged to
advertise all jobs, and civil servants can apply for any post, including
those one or more grades higher than their current position,” says Helen
Dudley, director of leadership and talent management at the Cabinet Office.
There is a danger, however, of overtaxing the best young people. Ali Gill,
director of talent management consultancy Getfeedback, warns: “Beware of
asking high-flyers to do too much. They’re stimulated by pressure, but as
the jobs get bigger they inevitably have to make bigger compromises between
work and other interests.” Managers have to be sensitive to the fact the
even the best people will make mistakes, she says. They must be able to
distinguish between the talented person who occasionally “fails” and
“someone who simply isn’t going to make the grade”.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a professional services firm with more than
146,000 staff in 150 countries, nurtures talent in a variety of ways. “For
our very top-potential people we run a two-year programme to develop their
leadership skills through mentoring, team-building, seminars, group
workshops – and external projects to make them think about leadership in
different environments,” says Tim Richardson, the company’s director of
leadership and talent. “At partner and director level [the top two jobs], we
offer several development programmes, including one on responsible
leadership, where they explore their own understanding of themselves and the
wider aspects of leading in a responsible way. They then work on a community
project for four weeks.”
Coaching – by both in-house staff and external professionals – is offered to
people to address specific issues or at critical times in their careers,
such as the transition to partner. One hundred senior people at PwC act as
mentors, providing support and guidance informally over a lengthy period of
time. In addition, PwC has joined forces with the London Business School to
offer a diploma.
Among those turning to external professionals to help them nurture talent are
the clients of Lane4, a business consultancy. Through Lane4 these clients
can employ the services of Lee Fisher, a classical ballet dancer and head of
creative learning at Birmingham Royal Ballet, to help their rising stars
realise their creative potential. Fisher uses movement to help people
overcome inhibitions and to increase their awareness of how others read and
interpret the signals they give off. By enacting a story together, people
learn “to see the world differently and to realise that they can do things
they didn’t think they could do”, he says.
Whichever talent nurturing methods you choose, how do you judge their
effectiveness? PwC evaluates its programmes against several criteria: the
successful application of knowledge and skills to the job, the impact on the
employee’s performance, acceleration of its “talent pipeline” and employee
retention. Feedback from participants is assessed after each course, and
followed up three months later to evaluate the effect on the employee’s
work.
Senior partners across the business keep an eye on the “talent pipeline” and
report to the business leaders, so that people can be moved on and up as
soon as they are ready.
PricewaterhouseCoopers
SHAUN WILLCOCKS, 29, (pictured), is a senior manager in
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) risk assurance services, based in Manchester.
He is two and a half years into the PwC Business Diploma course, run in
conjunction with London Business School.
The course combines on-the-job learning with part-time study; participants
choose six modules. “The Managing Change module gave me access to managers
with varying experiences of what change management means,” says Willcocks.
“It helped me to understand how successful change depends on managing people
and communicating to the wider business.”
Willcocks, left, is now working on the Foundation Leadership module. “It makes
a distinction between a manager and a leader and helps me to explore the
qualities that are needed, such as the right level of gravitas and
self-awareness.”
Willcocks has support from his career coach, PwC partner Tim Brooke. “He helps
me to set my objectives for the course, identifies areas I need to develop
and directs me to opportunities in the business where I can do that.
“The course forced me to integrate my new learning. It challenged how I came
across, which helped me to be more in control. That enabled me to raise my
profile and in January I was made senior manager.”
Standard Life
YVONNE GILAN runs workshops to help shy executives deal with corporate stage
fright. The former actress employs techniques used in the theatre to help
develop confidence and express themselves clearly in public. “Some have
problems with the voice because they’re not breathing properly,” Gilan,
above, says. She invites participants to read stories aloud. “This engages
their imagination and brings warmth and expression.”
Evelyn Bourke, financial director at Standard Life UK Financial Services,
attended one session. “I’d noticed in meetings that women can end up
sounding high-pitched when making a point, which is not very effective. The
more I use Gilan’s techniques, the more skilled I become.”
UBS
ORGANISATIONS with a global reach have the need and the opportunity to develop
their people’s leadership and managerial skills by giving them international
experience. Maja Popp, head of learning and development for IT
infrastructure at UBS, joined an international mobility programme after
completing her degree at Zurich University 11 years ago. Graduate recruits
who completed the UBS scheme successfully were promised international
assignments, and as Popp was judged a success, she was sent to America
straight after the two-year programme.
As an HR specialist and deemed a high-potential individual, she has an inside
track on people development at UBS. During her time at the bank, Popp has
had access to both skills-based and managerial training. She has been
mentored by two senior UBS people with different perspectives to hers and is
currently based in the New Jersey offices on a “stretch assignment” that has
taken her from a position focusing on developing specific products to
addressing the needs of clients in different regions.
“The stretch element has to do with demonstrating your ability, but you’re
being given an opportunity to go beyond your comfort zone. You grow into the
position,” Popp says.
