75% of Companies Don’t Know If They Have The Talent Needed To Create Value. Do You?

6 Questions All Executives Should Be Asking Themselves

1. Does everyone on my team and in the organization know our strategy and are they aligned and committed to do what it takes to execute it successfully?

2. Do  I have the right talent in the right places (in the world as well as in the organization) doing the right things to successfully execute our strategy today and in the future?

3. Do I know if we are operating at maximum organization capacity? Do I know the breakthrough and the breakdown points?

4. Do I have succession plans in place that ensure a continuity of leadership, product development  and productivity?

5. Do I have the leadership bench-strength we need to continually attract, develop and retain key and very expensive talent?

6. Do we have an integrated talent strategy that ensures that we always know the answers to these questions and have a proactive plan?

Should You Fire Your HR Leader?

HCI (The Human Capital Institute) and Taleo conducted a study and found that less than 25% of organizations could answer these types of questions about the talent they needed to sustainably create enterprise value.  That is a 75% failure rate. I don’t know any executive who would tolerate that kind of performance.

If you have an HR Leader who is not relentlessly asking you these questions and providing the tools and metrics to measure how effectively the organization understands and has solutions to these talent issues, you may want to think about replacing him/her.

Why so harsh? Because until you can answer these questions affirmatively and have integrated talent programs in place to ensure maximum performance and joint success between the organization and the people who make it up, instead of money you will be  taking one thing to the bank: under-performance.

The Upside Potential

A good talent strategist and good talent intelligence will give you the opportunity to quickly and positively impact:

• Revenue, top and bottom line
• Stock performance
• Productivity e.g. revenue per employee
• Ability to hire the best talent
• Innovation across the organization
• Value creation: financial, emotional, intellectual and social

What value would you be creating in your organization if you could increase each of these metrics by 5, 10, 15 percent?

The What And The How

We all seem to agree and understand “what” needs to be done to generate value for an organization and its stakeholders.  We know we need great hires, high levels of engagement, wonderful corporate cultures etc.

The “how” is where things go a bit sideways. The fact is that “how” is as much of an art as it is a science. It requires a strategic understanding of business, a visceral understanding of people (whom I have continually said are the most complex technology in the world) and the wisdom to optimally navigate the complex inter-relationships that have to come together to create success.

Did Someone Say “Cake”?

Other than that, it’s a piece of cake! But just in case you might want some help, Madden Coaching & Consulting is here to serve you. I have developed a stream-lined tool that ensures the following:

1. CEO and exec level team visibility into the level of alignment of talent to strategy
2. A simple tool through which each senior leader and their teams discuss and define needed skills, identify gaps and formulate proactive action plans
3. The ability to identify and develop high potentials and create needed leadership bench-strength
4. A staffing roadmap that will allow proactive candidate and pipeline development
5. A way to measure the quality and productivity of new hires

Let me know if you would like to talk about how this tool and process can help you accelerate value creation for your organization.

Sheila Madden is the CEO of Madden Coaching & Consulting where she coaches and consults with leaders of high growth companies, individuals wanting to live an extraordinary life and new college graduates who are ready to launch their careers with competence, confidence and character.

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