JTA Blogs

Keeping Your Top Talent, Mistake #1

Practically every company these days wants to keep their top talent, no matter that others may be let go due to the economy.   The Harvard Business Review (5.2010) reports that programs aimed to keep top talent are often not very effective.
 
Mistake #1: Assuming that High Potentials are Highly Engaged.
Did you know that nearly 40% of internal job moves involving high potentials end in failure? Instead, here's what to do: 
1.  Identify who your High Potentials really are and give them lots of stimulating work, recognition and the chance to prosper. 
2.  Pay attention--give your top executives a quarterly list of your best and brightest with a few words about their strengths. When a young high potential gets a personal call many levels above their Boss they pay attention. 
3.  Don't delegate talent development to line managers. That only encourages hoarding of talent. Manage it at the corporate level.
4.  Don't assume high potentials will take one for the team or buy in to the idea of "run time". Offer A players differentiated compensation and exposure to key executives for mentoring. 

Do you have Beginners Mind?

So many of my clients are in the midst of corporate change (a new Boss, massive reorganization; either layoffs or lots of new hires coming in the door.)  The natural response humans have to change (unless they are the ones in charge of it!) is to resist.  Resistance is spending energy in ineffective ways trying to make sense of the temporary chaos that accompanies every change.  So how to allow that change to happen more effectively?
 
Imagine that you are a new employee in your company.

Do you expect yourself to know all the who’s, why’s and what’s of the company right away? No.  As a “beginner” at this company (Day 1 of the change), do you trust that you’ll figure it out as you go along? Yes. Do you rail against the new company’s policies or ways of doing business because they’re different from your last company? No.
 
Experiment a little with imagining yourself as “just arrived” and see how adaptable you can be.  Although you cannot change the outward events, you do have a choice as to how you perceive them.
 
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few.
                                         Shunryu Suzuki