Talent Management – The Big Questions

If you want good answers, you have to ask good questions. If you want compelling, potentially life or business changing answers, you have to ask huge questions. I refer to these, simply, as the “big questions.” What are big questions? They’re questions that assault the status quo. They undermine preconceptions. They rattle you. They make you really dig deep. They require answers that provide new context. Obviously, smart, high-performing people are required for any organization to be successful. We have a tendency to consider the recruiting, selection, performance and development of people within a group of very confining, incremental questions like “What does a good performance appraisal contain?” or “How do you conduct a counseling session with a poor performer?” Those are necessary questions to be sure, but they are derivative; they are not big questions. I believe that the following five, externally focused questions must be asked and answered for any organization to successfully leverage their most important resource.

• What knowledge, skills, attributes and talents are required, and in what amount and combinations, to create and sustain value for buyers?
• How will you recruit, select, develop and leverage relevant knowledge, skills, talents and personal qualities to create value for buyers?
• What will you do to translate people’s competence into performance?
• What will you do to integrate individual performance into a cohesive “whole?”
• What will you do to maximize individual and collective contribution to the achievement of planned results and value creation for buyers?

Marinate in these questions and answer them in a detailed way. I believe that your human capital strategies will have a better shot at creating value. Copyright 2012 Rand Golletz. All rights reserved.