Courage in the face of extraordinary talent: Why talent management has become a leadership issue
| Published date | 21 October 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390980000998 |
| Pages | 24-27 |
| Date | 21 October 2007 |
| Author | Marcus Powell,Guy Lubitsh |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
24 Volume 6 Issue 5 July/August 2007
ALENT MANAGEMENT HAS moved rapidly
up the corporate agenda in recent years. Some
regard it as the new holy grail, or the silver
bullet, and it’s now a central theme driving
strategic human resource management. Recognizing the
importance of taking a strategic approach,
organizations across all sectors are investing heavily in
their talent management systems, bringing in new and
sophisticated software, undertaking reviews and
utilizing assessment centers, devising new development
plans and restructuring their approach to career
management and succession planning.
In a global survey of over 9,000 executives, the
supply of talent was ranked as the most significant
managerial challenge.1Yet from an individual’s
perspective there has been a shift away from a
psychological contract that provides job security and a
mutual employment relationship, towards one where
employees have the luxury of picking and choosing
employers who offer them the right form of currency,
such as work/life balance or developmental activities.
Now, as never before, talented people are a force to be
reckoned with – and companies ignore their wishes,
motives, needs and expectations at their peril.
In this context, the key question remains: Does the
traditional approach to talent management have
sufficient flexibility to evoke the right responses from
the broadest spectrum of talent and, most particularly,
from the most talented individuals? Following the
recent publication of Ashridge Consulting’s research on
talent management, in this article we discuss the crucial
development of a culture in which “clever” people
can flourish.
Extraordinary talent knows its worth
Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones have coined the phrase
“clever” to refer to a distinct group of talented people.2
They are “the handful of employees whose ideas,
knowledge and skills give them the potential to
produce disproportionate value from the resources they
have available to them.” They’re the creative people, the
innovators and the entrepreneurs – those people that
seem to have a sixth sense for spotting and exploiting
an opportunity. They are the senior buyer in retailing,
the on-screen talent in the media and the eminent
medical researcher. They live within the system, yet
they are also on the edge of the system.
The emerging psychological contract has
undoubtedly shifted the balance of power towards
these “clever” people. As Gratton and Ghoshal
(Professors at the London Business School) have
persuasively argued, companies make a serious
mistake if they try to treat highly educated,
professional employees as malleable resources.
Instead, they should view these people as “mobile
investors” in their own intellectual, social and
emotional capital. In this paradigm, talented
Courage in
the face of
extraordinary
talent
Why talent management has become a
leadership issue
Organizations recognize the need to attract and
successfully manage talented people, but with the
balance of power lying in the hands of the cleverest and
most talented, this requires both courage and
consideration. Marcus Powell and Guy Lubitsh of
Ashridge Consulting discuss the results of recent talent-
management research and propose a five-point plan.
by Marcus Powell and Guy Lubitsh, Ashridge Consulting T
© Melcrum publishing 2007.For more information visit our website www.melcrum.com or e-mail info@melcrum.com
To continue reading
Request your trial