Eight Steps to Talent Liberation Effective Pathway To Becoming an Employer of Choice By Christophe B. Horvath Principal Consultant & Talent Coach Primeast Southern Africa christophe.horvath@inspirall.life COLOFON This first edition is published by InSpiral Greater Life Creation Ltd in April 2009 using Lulu.com online publishing services Copyright © Christophe B. Horvath 2009 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention No reproduction without permission All rights reserved The right of Christophe B. Horvath to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 & 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998 InSpiral Greater Life Creation Ltd PO BOX 2942 Lilongwe Malawi www.GreaterLifeCoaching.com Printed and bound by Lulu.com This book is dedicated to All the talent present in the world May it be recognised, valued, developed and used And serve and contribute to make this World a better place. Starting with yours! Christophe B. Horvath 18 April 2009 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary ...................................................................................................... 4 Preface ........................................................................................................................... 4 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 5 2. Talent Liberation is Value Creation..................................................................... 7 3. Common Sense Distinctions: Competence, Talent & Strength.......................... 8 3.1. Competence.................................................................................................... 8 3.2. Talent ............................................................................................................. 9 3.3. Strengths ........................................................................................................ 9 3.4. There is a place for competence as risk management .................................. 10 4. Recognising, Valuing, Developing and Using Talents ...................................... 10 4.1. Recognising.................................................................................................. 10 4.2. Valuing ......................................................................................................... 12 4.3. Developing ................................................................................................... 13 4.4. And Using Them! ........................................................................................ 13 5. Eight Steps to Talent Liberation......................................................................... 15 5.1. Direction ...................................................................................................... 15 5.2. Philosophy.................................................................................................... 16 5.3. Process ......................................................................................................... 17 5.3.1. External recruitment............................................................................. 18 5.3.2. Internal recruitment and promotion ..................................................... 20 5.3.3. Career development ............................................................................. 21 5.3.4. Rewards................................................................................................ 22 5.3.5. Learning and development ................................................................... 22 5.3.6. Competency frameworks ..................................................................... 23 5.3.7. Team development ............................................................................... 23 5.3.8. People leaving the organisation ........................................................... 24 5.4. Plan .............................................................................................................. 24 5.5. Communication ............................................................................................ 25 5.6. Leadership development .............................................................................. 27 5.6.1. Initial Work Shop ................................................................................. 27 5.6.2. Follow-up Work Shop.......................................................................... 28 5.6.3. Coaching Programme........................................................................... 28 5.6.4. Conventional Training Centre or Back to Nature ................................ 29 5.6.5. “Four Seasons in One Day” ................................................................. 30 5.7. Talented Teams ............................................................................................ 30 5.8. Review ......................................................................................................... 33 6. The role of coaching in Talent Liberation ......................................................... 34 6.1. Coaching is not therapy. .............................................................................. 35 6.2. Coaching cycle ............................................................................................. 35 7. Benefits of Talent Liberation for your Organisation ........................................ 36 7.1. Effective & Excellent Performance of the Organisation ............................. 36 7.2. Going from Good to Great & Being Built to Last ....................................... 37 7.3. Becoming an Employer of choice ................................................................ 38 Postscript ..................................................................................................................... 39 About the author ......................................................................................................... 40 Join the Sharing on Talent Liberation....................................................................... 41 Endnotes ...................................................................................................................... 41 3 Executive Summary Talent Liberation is a value adding people management philosophy. It is a new form of experiential learning, based on the natural order of things and offering great potential for impact and added value for organisations - be they corporate, public or non-for-profit - and a high return on investment. Instead of trying to fix weaknesses it focuses on capitalising on strengths. It is a process of recognising, valuing, developing and using the unique talents of all existing employees in the delivery of the organisation’s objectives. This enhances their sense of job-fulfilment, increases the added value they contribute and strengthens the comparative advantage of the organisation as a whole. At the same time it reduces attrition, staff turnover and absenteeism, as well as staff frustration, disgruntlement and that vague but undermining incidence of passive “resistance”. The Talent Liberation process consists of eight intuitive, logical steps, which also include leadership development, team building and change management. Talent Liberation ties in with Talent Management as a top priority for organisations worldwide, both allowing the organisation to make much more from its existing work force (this against the context of the current worldwide financial crunch and economic crisis), and to become an employer of choice by adopting an enlightened culture of talent. Preface This is a write-up, with some further embroidery, of the notes I made during my wonderful Talent Liberation induction1 journey into Talent Liberation, with my talent teacher and mentor, Clive Wilson, Deputy Chairman of Primeast 2, on our journey in Malawi between 22/10 and 12/11/2008. I hereby express my warm and heartfelt thanks for Clive’s great and inspiring presence and support, and for the trust that Primeast is placing in me for expanding its wonderful talent liberating (net)work into Southern Africa. May you be as inspired from reading it, as I from writing it. Thank you for taking your time to go through it. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome. Kindly send them to christophe.horvath@primeast.com. 4 1. Introduction The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow William Blake Our working lives tend to be remarkably at odds with the natural order of things. A lion doesn’t aspire to be an impala, and neither does any selfrespecting elephant hold grasshopper ambitions. From diminutive acorn to majestic oak tree, nature simply becomes what it was born to be, growing into its potential simply by following its calling. Wouldn’t we humans be wiser if we lead our lives much more in this same time-tested way? Every company’s goal is to make profit, every non-for-profit has objectives to achieve, and both types of organisation aim to be sustainable and endure. And every person working in them wishes to fulfil their human needs and aspirations, and seeks to contribute, and feel meaningful and be rewarded for their valued contributions. Our view, which is based on extensive research3, is that persons can only effectively contribute, and generate added value, to the degree that they know their innate talents, have honed them into strengths, and use these strengths consistently in their work to contribute to the delivery of the objectives of their organisation. This gives people true fulfilment, allows them to grow, generates significant added value for their organisation, and is what will give it a leading edge. In reality however, company leaders often feel frustrated, disappointed and challenged by a lack of commitment, motivation and involvement of their work force, who – so they feel – are not engaged with the big picture and the long term objectives of the organisation. On the other hand, many managers and employees feel strangely out of place in their jobs, micro-managed, overworked, stressed out, simply bored or outright depressed. Staff, if they dare and can afford to, often leave their jobs when they don’t feel fulfilled or feel trapped, mismanaged, disempowered, burnt out, or even somehow violated. How to overcome, and - why not? – prevent to start with, these crucial challenges posed by people being mismatched with their jobs? A Gallup survey covering 1.7 million employees of 101 companies in 63 countries concluded that only 20% of employees surveyed felt that their strengths were in play every day. Why are eight out ten employees miscast in their role? Marcus Buckingham claims that most organisations are built on two flawed assumptions about people: 1. each person can learn to be competent in almost anything; and 2. each person’s greatest room for growth is in their areas of greatest weakness. As a consequence most organisations spent more resources on training their staff, rather than on selecting them properly in the first place; more on fixing weaknesses than on building on 5 strengths; and promote people with proven technical competencies, rather than because of their talents in leadership or management. Contrarily, based on extensive Gallup surveys, Marcus Buckingham posits that the two assumptions that guide the world’s best managers are: 1. each person’s talents are enduring and unique; and 2. each person’s greatest room for growth is in the areas of their greatest strength 4. As long as employees are unaware of their talents and worth, try to fit in and live up to outside expectations, and measure themselves against others, against external standards and against predefined competencies, they are in the realm of pretence, comparison and competition – locked inside that prisonlike box, which is reducing, stifling and stressing people out, trying to be something they are not. Unlike that struggle and strife that leaves most feeling like hamsters in a spinning wheel, it is only really through true growth and creation from the inside out, with the raw and precious matter of the awesome potential that we all are born with, that makes people feel truly fulfilled, be productive, and find flow in their lives5. Likewise, the days of command and control (and coercion) management styles ought to be over. No measure of pressure from the outside will ever attract anyone to happily volunteer one’s very best on a consistent basis. The “utilitarisation” of people as “assets” is unlikely to ever inspire anyone with some self-esteem and human dignity to give the best of them. With the Global Leadership Alliance6, we embrace the concept that “leaders see a better future and have the resilience and interpersonal skills to create the conditions in which it will happen”. This “creating the conditions” is an act of allowing, not of forcing. It is about creating an environment in which people are inspired, empowered and stimulated to grow, create and contribute. And it foremost includes the ability to attract and keep great human talent, and let it do what it loves, and therefore does best, in the realisation of the organisation’s objectives. In my understanding, Talent Liberation is thus all about supporting people to discover their authenticity, enabling them to give that “best of themselves”, which in turn will provide a greater contribution and more added value to their organisation (as well as their family and wider society), and, in so doing, to experience the greater flow, aliveness and fulfilment that come from engaging one’s unique combination of talents to make a truly meaningful and valuable contribution. That is the natural order of things. What is needed, in my view, is thus a global paradigm shift from an obsession with scarcity, weaknesses and change; to a focus on potential, strengths and creation. What can thus be done, so that people rekindle the passion for what they are naturally good at – their talents - and bring this enthusiastically to work? 6 How to support people and organisations in the discovery, appreciation, reinforcement and application of the precious talents that are already present in their midst (though oft still in undetected and slumbering mode)? How to foster these talents into strengths? How to let those strengths contribute real added value for, and strengthen the comparative advantage of their organisation? And how to enduringly embed this mentality into the organisational culture? The answers to these questions are what we will uncover in this paper. The Talent Liberation Philosophy: “Organisations reach prime performance When they recognise, value, develop and use The unique talents of their people In the delivery of their objectives” 7 2. Talent Liberation is Value Creation Adding value to an organisation Means you increase its worth And its capacity to serve its customers Stuart L. Levine 8 We at Primeast strongly believe and make a case that any proper Talent Liberation intervention is a wise and profitable investment, which will yield a manifold return on investment (ROI). Talent Liberation is not just like any other training; it is a transformative process that is as effective in adding value as it is in causing enduring culture change. A Manager at the Building Society had recognised in herself the talent of being very effective at helping other people going through change. An important new programme was to be implemented, but it was facing delays, because one key person was reluctant in adopting it. She took some time apart with him and could coach him and persuade him to engage with the new programme and adopt it. The implementation of the programme meant an added 10 million pounds per year to the bottom line. Her intervention brought the implementation forward with at least three months. So for a few hours of her time, the use of her talent was worth a value of 2.5 million pounds. A man working in marketing in a London-based company was excellent at making cold calls. He really connected with people, and made record sales. However, having to spend 65 % of his time on administrative tasks, he could only spend 35 % of his time on this work, which was the part he really enjoyed. By reviewing the work allocation 7 in his team, he would have been able to double his time spent on cold calls, to 70%, thus increasing his sales turnover from around GBP 500,000 to about GBP 1,000,000 per year. Unfortunately, his company was not open to this idea, so, instead, he left the company, trusting that his talents would be put to better use by another employer. If recognising, valuing, developing and using each individual’s talents and strengths is adding great value, then it is easy to see that doing so for your entire work force will give your company or organisation great additional competitive advantage. Measuring it While value adding actions would in principle refer to all actions contributing to the realisation of the objectives of the organisation; in order to prove the effectiveness of talent liberation, we believe it is appropriate and practical to focus on measurable added value, as can be translated into monetary value. This of course does not preclude or underestimate the worth of any other type of added value, in addition, which is however less tangible and measurable. In this, narrower monetary, sense “value added” action remains as relevant to any corporate, as to any non-for-profit organisation; and may mean any of the following things: • Increase profit (corporate); • Attract funding or otherwise enhance financial stability (NFP); • Decrease financial haemorrhaging / costs; • Ensure/Improve relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, sustainability and/or visibility of the organisation and its actions, as can be translated into monetary value. 3. Common Sense Distinctions: Competence, Talent & Strength9 3.1. Competence Competence is the baseline level of skill required to a job without error. In other words, a competence is the ability to do something well, adequately, without mistakes. This says nothing at all about how naturally it comes to you; how little or how much effort, strife and struggle you need to put into it to get it done; how much you enjoy or loathe doing it; and how easy and fun, or difficult and frustrating it would be to perform this task well on an ongoing basis. Competence therefore only looks at results, without taking into account the psychology, emotions and natural abilities and propensities of the person concerned. 8 3.2. Talent Talent is something someone is naturally good at A talent, at the other hand, is something you are naturally good at; that you enjoy doing; that comes naturally and easy; that makes you feel good when you do it; that makes you forget time when you are fully engaged in it; and that you would happily do even if you weren’t paid for it. At a more spiritual level, talent thereby is intricately linked to your calling and purpose – that which you were born to be and do. 3.3. Strengths A strength then, is a talent that has been developed to the point that it adds value. According to Marcus Buckingham it is consistent near perfect performance in an activity. A strength thereby has three components: the talent, the knowledge and the skill to do the activity10. While knowledge and skills can be learnt by training and/or experience; without talent, that either simply is innate or is lacking, there can be no true strength. Therefore the most important ingredient of a strength is the natural born talent, which then can be developed and honed into a strength through training and practice. A Strength is a talent that has been developed to such an extent that it adds value In order to be successful then, rather than focusing our limited time, resources and energies on stop-gapping our weaknesses and trying to be a "wellrounded (yet mediocre) professional"; if we wish to be outstanding in our delivery and take joy and pride in our work, it clearly makes much more sense to focus on our talents, capitalise on our strengths and only risk-manage around our weaknesses – both on an individual, team and on an organisational basis. Against this background, Talent Liberation is thus all about identifying your innate talents, helping you to foster them into your core strengths, providing greater added value by maximally using them, and enjoying greater fulfilment and alignment because you do what you were born to do. An important point hereby is that everybody has talent. Thus when we mention “talent” we do not only mean the high achievers, the super performers, the top 10%. Everybody has talents that can be developed into value-adding strengths, and recognising, valuing, developing and using the talent of all its present existing staff in the delivery of its objectives is what organisations will allow to reach prime performance. 9 3.4. There is a place for competence as risk management This being said, competence still has its place. While talent is what will deliver added value, it will of course continue to make sense to avoid making risky or costly mistakes. So while it is highly recommended to adopt a strong focus on talent and strengths; assuring that minimal competence is in place will still be useful as a risk management strategy. Eg while a natural leader would greatly benefit from further developing their leadership talents, it would also be good that he learns sufficient accounting skills, so that he can at least understand the work of the financial manager, and verify and control it, without needing to go into the detail of accounting work. The practical recommendation hence would be to focus at least 80% of the training and development budget for a person on further developing their talents; and maximally 20% of it on damage control. Still we advocate to maximally focus on core strengths, and delegate, outsource or simply let go of all other work. After all, with 7 billion people on Planet Earth, there is somebody else going to be really good at what you happen to be very poor at. So why not let them take care of it? 4. Recognising, Valuing, Developing and Using Talents 4.1. Recognising Concealed talent brings no reputation. Desiderius Erasmus Traditionally, most employee performance assessments tend to be based on competency frameworks, which basically focus on ensuring delivery of planned results without mistake. They will ask: what is wrong with this person, if they fall below the line of the required competence? This report card approach will then lead to the conclusion that the weaknesses of this person need to be fixed. According to Gallup, a mindboggling 90% of all training budgets in large companies are used for fixing people’s weaknesses. This approach completely fails to ask the key question: “What is special, great, unique about this person, that would really help us reach our objectives?” And indeed what is? 10 Imagine that a child in school would consistently receive tutoring, not for the subjects in which it gets C’s or D’s, but for the subjects in which it gets straight A’s. Imagine what creativity would grace the world, and how all of us would benefit from all that talent and genius. Why does society insist on producing perfectly rounded mediocre performers? Who actually benefits from this? What if we focused instead on the A-talents our people show to have in the execution of their work, and supported them to develop these ever further into strengths? What if we gradually gave them more work they are really talented for and passionate about; and therefore really enjoy doing? And gave the work they are less good at to people who’d excel in doing it instead? What if we started with recognising the talent we had in house? In a supermarket Mary and Tom both had exactly the same job description: taking care of sales and the in-shop stocks for a certain section of the supermarket. Mary was a great communicator, who had excellent sales results, because customers really took her sales recommendations to heart. Tom, being awkward and shy around people, had the opposite effect on customers, and they seemed to turn away as soon as he showed up. Tom, however, turned out to be very effective at the lay-out design which significantly improved the stock-keeping and logistics of the section. The shop manager quickly decided to let Mary cover sales on the shop floor; and to let Tom take stock-keeping for his account. Both were happy, and the added value of this reshuffle of assignments was very significant. So how do we recognise talent? Diagnostic tests on talents/strengths have been developed, such as eg StrenghtsFinder 11 or the Strengths Deployment Inventory (SDI), which specifically considers what motivates us when things are going well and what motivates us when things are going less well and how this affects our cooperation with others in our teams12. And there is also Clive Wilson’s very practical and effective book, “Liberate Your Talent” 13 However, it is also possible to simply come to valuable insights through free form approaches and guided self-reflection and feedback from others may also produce a personal, valuable, relevant and practical assessment. An example of exercise is given below under Team Building. It may be enough to simply pair a person up with a peer to get started. Each one writes down 3-5 of the top talents they see in the other and in themselves. Let them talk this through, and then give each time to reflect on their own about their talents, how to best formulate them, and how they could add value. 11 4.2. Valuing People add more value when they do what they are naturally good at Marcus Buckingham The more we can optimise the use of people’s talents and strengths, the more value they will add. So the logical lesson is to let people do more of what they are good at, and enjoy doing; to develop their talents and strengths even further, so they get better at them still; and to let them do less of what they are not so good at, and don’t enjoy. Just like companies, let people stick to their core business, and delegate, outsource or get rid of the rest. The rewards will be manifold, as these and above real life stories illustrate 14: A Communications Manager for a large company, spent many evenings out with her husband at cocktail parties and events. It turned out that the lion’s share of her added value actually came from her exchanges with the press and other socialites during her nights out; and that her mornings in which she sat grumpily at her desk, micromanaging her staff, were far less productive. Her boss recognised this, and allowed her to engage more fully still in her evening activities, while also allowing her to only come in to the office in the afternoons to get her desk work done. The result was that she was happier and produced even more added value. The head of the legal section in a large bank realised that her unit really was the bottleneck that determined, and thus limited, the turnover of the bank. She also realised that, when she spent less time on legal analysis and more time on beforehand in dialogue with the responsible managers on each dossier - a thing which she also really loved to do - the lead time of each dossier could actually be halved. This simple, yet precious realisation would thus allow the bank to double its turnover. Standard Bank Malawi did a talent liberation workshop with its entire senior staff team. After having identified their talent, they worked out that, if they used their talents more wisely, they could add millions of Malawi Kwacha to the bottom-line of the company. So they worked out what these actions needed to be, committed to taking them, and dedicated themselves to their delivery in the presence of their CEO. We all bring talents to work, but rarely value them. But what if we did? 12 4.3. Developing Talent is like a muscle: Without something to push against, it atrophies. So we deliberately put obstacles in our path - Barriers that will inspire us. We disciple ourselves as to what to do, While we're boundless as to how to do it. Robert McKee It is not enough to know and value your talents, to be effective they need to be developed into strengths. This may mean studying, learning, training, practicing and/or engaging in any activity that will make sure that our natural born talents are further and further honed into strengths. An organisation may be able to provide relevant training opportunities for its employees, based on performance reviews or similar, as discussed above. However, depending on the size and resources of the organisation, wouldn’t it make most sense to guide and allow the talented person to seek out the most appropriate training programs, that will really further develop their talents, themselves? Just as it would be good to allow employees to choose which professional on- and offline reviews and information to subscribe to, it seems sensible to make available a dedicated budget and allow employees to come up with their proposals for training that will be the best for them, and the most coherent with how they wish to point their talents to the realisation of the organisation’s objectives. 4.4. And Using Them! A big selection of quotes, because they say it all, loud and clear: The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade? Benjamin Franklin We all have ability. The difference is how we use it. Stevie Wonder 13 If you have a talent, use it in every which way possible. Don't hoard it. Don't dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly, like a millionaire intent on going broke. Brenda Francis When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and I could say, "I used everything you gave me. Erma Bombeck When you engage in a work that taps your talent and fuels your passion --that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet— therein lies your voice, your calling, your soul's code. Stephen Covey 15 While developing our talents evermore into value-adding strengths, it is at the same time also important that they are maximally and optimally used in our organisation and in our teams. Not only does putting people’s talent to work generate very significant added value, as elaborated above 16, it also greatly enhances employees’ sense of well-being, fulfilment, significance and contribution. It is also clear that people’s talents need not be fully developed into strengths before they are used; as their deployment itself will precisely ensure the acceleration of their development into powerful strengths. “Use it or loose it” is good ole’ common sense. We could add “don’t use it and get a therapist”. People who don’t get the opportunity to do what they like, to do what they are good at, and to use their natural born talents, are seldom happy campers. In my experience as life coach, the primary cause for people getting depressed is that they don’t find meaning in their lives, and haven’t found their purpose to dedicate their talent and energy to, as their unique contribution to the world. And finding our purpose, our mission, our life calling if you will, has everything to do with recognising and pointing our talents, passions and values, as Aristotle said, “to the needs we see in the world”. This is how we contribute, this how we find meaning, and this is how we experience fulfilment. Enabling people to use their talents then becomes a powerful win-win situation: the organisation gets the driven engagement of their staff and the significant added value their committed talent brings; and the employees get the fulfilment of doing what they love, and loving what they do, and find meaning in contributing it to a greater, common purpose. 14 5. Eight Steps to Talent Liberation17 Below we will explore the eight steps, as intuitively designed by Clive Wilson, that naturally and logically need to be taken, in order to make sure that Talent Liberation can be sustainably embedded in the organisational culture, as a truly transformational approach to significantly enhance both the productivity and effectiveness 18 of the organisation, as well as the enduring commitment and well-being of its employees. Not only will any company or non-for profit organisation enormously gain from adopting this approach in the delivery of its objectives, as it will enjoy greatly increased commitment and engagement of its employees. It will also naturally become an employer of choice, and in the process substantially decrease turn-over and absenteeism , if it embraces and applies Talent Liberation as its guiding principle. 5.1. Direction What are we here for? And where are we going to? “Without a vision, my people will perish” Direction is established in close consultation with the top leadership (CEO / MD of the company, or director of the non-for-profit Organisation / NGO). This requires full engagement of the leadership with the talent liberation facilitator, during a well-prepared and focused meeting. Direction is concerned with the answers to the following questions: “Fundamentally, what is this organisation here for?” “What are we all about?” “What are we here to do?” And: “How far do we look ahead?” “What do things look like 2, 5, 10 years from here?” “Where is this organisation going?” Direction is thus both about the reason – “raison d’être” – of the organisation and its planned and travelled journey, milestones and ultimate destination – “where it is going.“ Without direction, People do not know What to point their talent at 19 15 Direction includes: • Purpose/Mission statements • Vision (written/pictorial) • Objectives/long term planning/BHAG - “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” 20 • Values Questions for leadership: - Does the organisation have all these elements in place? If not, can we be of service in establishing them? If yes, are they up to date? Or should they be reviewed? - Is there a written / pictorial version of either/ all of these? - How have they been shared, presented until now? How could they be more effectively communicated (see below) - If up to date, how many people in your organisation actually know and get the purpose and vision of the organisation? What difference would it make if everybody actually did? - What are you doing to make sure all staff and stakeholders are fully familiar with the direction your organisation is taking? What could you do? - Are you comfortable and ready to present and explain the mission statement, vision and values of the organisation? To all Staff? Clients? Business Partners? Suppliers? What would it take for you to be fully prepared for that? What means could you use to inform and further remind people for the future of “what this really is all about” and “where we are going together with this”? 5.2. Philosophy We recruit the best; We give them work they love to do; And then we develop the hell out of them Google Philosophy on Talent Liane Hornsey, EMEA People Director, Google The Philosophy on Talent is also reviewed / created in close consultation with the CEO / MD of the company, or Director of the Organisation, normally during an additional two hour meeting. At the start of this meeting the above distinctions between competency, talent & strength should be clarified. The TL facilitator will then inquire: - What is required to successfully deliver the vision of the company / organisation? - What do you think is most important: competence, talent or strength? - Which approach would you expect to only lead to adequate results? And which to great results? - If there would be only focus on competency, would this be sufficient to realise the vision? Or would only an adequate, even mediocre, job be done. - What is your view about how the talents/strengths of your people can support the delivery of your organisation’s objectives? 16 - Would it be possible to deliver the vision if all the talents and strengths of staff are committed? Why is talent important for this organisation? Do you really know all the talent and strengths you have in house? Is there an official written statement on the talent philosophy of the organisation? If not, what is the talent philosophy? What can be done to officialise it? What form could it take? How could it best be communicated and reinforced? The Talent Philosophy need not be an elaborate, verbose document. A simple statement of principle would suffice. The point is that there needs to be a public commitment by the company, endorsed by its top leadership, saying something along the lines of “talent is really important to us; and we can only realise our vision if we leverage all our talent in order to deliver it”, if the company believes in talent liberation and aims to be an employer of choice. A Talent Philosophy is the commitment in principle by the leadership of the organisation to recognise, value, develop and use the unique talents of their people Once the Talent Liberation philosophy is adopted, it is important to appoint a Talent Manager or similar within the organisation, to help with the adoption and roll out of the talent culture throughout the organisation. Whatever the name given, it is essential to have one person appointed who will be both the steward of the talent liberation process and the point of reference for anyone with questions or comments. This could be the CEO or Country Director, but they may not have the time to fully focus on this. It could also be the HRD or HRM or Learning and Development Manager. Whichever staff member is chosen, it should be an engaged, cooperative and assertive team player, with a passion for talent liberation, high moral standing within the organisation, and a commitment to confidentiality as required. Given the necessary training, this person could over time also become the internal Talent Coach. 5.3. Process The crucial question In performance assessment Is not: where did you fail? But: where did you succeed? The HR processes need to support and be in tune with the declared organisation’s direction and talent philosophy. 17 Once the organisation’s statements of direction and philosophy are designed/reviewed and endorsed by the leadership, it is time for the Talent Liberation facilitator to sit down with the Human Resource Director/Manager and their team to make sure that all the human resource management policies and processes are actually in line with the fundamental direction and talent philosophy as adopted by the organisation’s top leadership. The organisation’s rules, policies and processes Must be aligned and coherent with its direction and philosophy Recruitment and performance management processes are the most important ones to align with direction and philosophy. These include: - Recruitment (including vacancy notices and terms of reference) - Equal opportunities, which prevent preference in hiring and promotion, based on race, colour, religion, disability. - Performance appraisal/development - Training, learning and development (L&D) - Reward and recognition; incentives - Promotion - Career development - Dealing with people leaving the organisation The key is that all these different policies and processes need to be aligned with the (new) leadership decision to recognise, value, develop and use the talent present in the work force. 5.3.1. External recruitment The dominant recruitment focus nowadays is on competencies and competency frameworks. Recruitment may be process or project-based, and is either done by the organisation itself or through external entities, such as assessment centres, outplacement agencies or head hunters. Typically, in order to find a person in order to fill a pre-defined role, terms of reference and a vacancy note are prepared, and job advertisements are posted in newspapers, magazines and/or on the internet. The competencies listed may include things like: “presentation skills”, “creativity”, “leadership”; or “advanced certificate in operating the machine (no-one else can)”. Very often these competencies are based on competency framework, which will foresee multiple levels. Eg: presentation skills: - level 1: To boss - level 2: To colleagues - level 3: To clients - level 4: To the company as a whole - level 5: To large public audiences 18 So it may be decided that a specific post eg requires a level 4 creativity, a level 4 presentation skills and a level 2 leadership. However, while one can profile most any job in this – closed - way, this does not say anything about that special something that someone can bring that will give unique and outstanding results, and does not leave open space for that person to be attracted. Examples: Advertising a vacancy for a Country Director of an NGO that is both active in the health and IT sectors in Malawian NGO expressed it was looking for someone who combined high level skills in both medicine and computer science. What the NGO truly needed however, already having both above skills in house or in association, was an effective general manager with the capacity to lead the NGO towards a greater vision. Fortunately, this is what they eventually got, being flexible enough to learn from the recruitments process. It so happened that one of the applicants, who indeed had a great and proven talent for management, leadership and team-building, and completely lacked any particular skills or experience in either medicine or IT, saw the real needs of the NGO, and was able to convince the recruitment committee of what it was that they really needed and persuaded them to select her for the position, instead of a doctor or computer geek. Previously, the very same person, who was very keen to work on the post-tsunami reconstruction in Indonesia, recommended a reputed international aid agency in her application letter to re-combine several local vacant posts it had advertised and to even relocate the job from Banda Aceh to Jakarta, where she lived with her family. Through several exchanges, she could persuade the agency because she had an even larger vision than they did, could consvince them that it would gain far more from the changes and indeed got the job which she absolutely wanted. Her results after two years on the job were outstanding, as confirmed in unison by management, colleagues, donors and beneficiaries. Conversely, some organisations have very stringent rules about recruitment, for reasons of “fair competition”. For instance, if they have published an ad that says “requirement: Master’s Degree in Natural Resource Management”, and a person applies who has a similar diploma (but not exactly as required) or equivalent experience, and who, indeed, would be an absolute winner for the job, they cannot hire this person, because of the requirement as published. In this case the selection committee can thus not hire great talent when it sees it, even if it wanted to, blocked by red tape and application of misconceived rules – which may keep the bureaucracy all happy and alert, but don’t serve any higher purpose. A bit of a case of total efficiency and total lack of effectiveness as, unfortunately I have seen many in a previous life – going at 180 km/h, but, unfortunately, in the wrong direction…. The point is that a future employer should ideally be in a position of flexibility, freedom and openness to assess all; both verifying the competencies as understood to be required to achieve the objectives of the job; as well as taking into consideration the actual talents and strengths, 19 and therefore potential, that an applicant has to offer. It seems only common sense that, when your company looks for a sales manager, and you have a choice between a person who is likely to meet your sales objectives, but no more; and another who can do that, and who also offers you a clear and thought-through vision on how, with their ideas and experience, they can dramatically improve your marketing and bring your company to a whole new level. Which one would you choose? The mere executor or the visionary creator? And which one is more likely to be happy in their job, and therefore more likely to stay – and stay committed? The one who merely does as told, or the one who gets the chance to forge their great vision into reality for your company? I am convinced that if an organisation hires people who see themselves as entrepreneurs, yet are loyal to the companies vision and mission, it will logarithmically outshine any other set-up that satisfies itself with people who will greyly do what they are told, and nothing more. So while an employer may want to tick off all the boxes of competencies required, a question to always bear in mind when recruiting seems: what is special and unique about this person? One company thus stated: “We only hire people who are passionate about what they do and bring something special to the job”. What is the likelihood that such company will merely produce mediocre results, stagnate and attract noncommitted people; or rather deliver on its objectives, grow and be an employer of choice? All the organisation’s recruitment policies and processes should therefore be reviewed in order to make sure that talents, strengths and potential receive attention, as well as the mere pre-defined skills and competencies required to do the job. 5.3.2. Internal recruitment and promotion In internal recruitment, the prevalent competency focus tends to be further compounded by a hierarchy focus, which values management capabilities, and thus “vertical” promotability, over “horizontal” technical abilities. It is rare to find an organisation that offers equivalent career paths in both. At the same time it is common sense that a person, who is technically excellent in, say, pastry baking, would not necessarily make a great manager for the bakery, which is very sought after for its unique delicacies. The manager would likely have nothing much to manage, were it not for the unique creative pastries the baker rather magically produces every Sunday morning. And there is clearly as much an increased challenge going from plain bread baking, over the further step of bread rolls and sandwiches; to the high art of fine pastry baking, as there is between step in-, middle and topmanagement positions; which therefore could be rewarded with equivalent 20 status, salary and bonuses. There is no reason why vertical should be better, more important or better rewarded than horizontal, other than that it seems simply the way things tend to be done as a matter of habit. The real question is: what is what this very person delivers - on a consistent basis - actually worth to the organisation? From this perspective, it may well be that the bakery manager contributes far less, and is far more replaceable, than the culinary artist in the kitchen! The organisation’s policies and processes, and even its overall structure and design, may need to be reviewed and adapted to accommodate for the real value that people bring, so that not only the management career path is validated, but technical delivery is as much appreciated where it counts. And this may include issues such as: “who gets the corner office?”… Sometimes talent may have inadvertently walked in onto your work floor. The art is clearly in recognising and catching opportunity when it presents itself. Examples: An expatriate in Cambodia, who had relocated there with her husband who worked for a UN agency, had a diploma and experience in advertising, and started working as a temporary consultant trainer in an international advertising agency in Phnom Penh. She delivered so well and became so indispensable for the business, that within six months she became the general manager of the agency, and two years later its managing director, growing the agency from 5 to 35 people in the process. A professional in Belgium, who was hired as a business consultant to look at the business case and marketability of a local company in professional nail care products, ended up as their managing director within one year. Two years later she had expanded the previously only locally focused business to the level of a international renowned high quality brand, with company trained franchisees around the world. Obviously, it takes two to tango, and while management has a key role in detecting talent when it presents itself, employees have as much responsibility to take charge of their own career. The more they can bring it into alignment with what they naturally excel at, and therefore love to do, and can express this in their own “business case”, the more successful and fulfilled they are prone to be in their careers, and the more value they are likely to add. 5.3.3. Career development Is there a policy on career development? In how far is there support for career development for the organisation’s staff? This may include items such as career coaching, extra-curricular support and training. 21 Is there an ongoing dialogue in the company on things like internal mobility, internships, the sharing of cross-sectoral resources? To what extent is it possible for somebody to test the waters in a different department? The key question is: Is there dissonance or coherence between the measures in place, and the organisation’s direction and talent philosophy on talent? 5.3.4. Rewards Is talent rewarded? If the way the organisation rewards its people is inflexible, following a fixed and rigid career path, with class and grade nomenclatures and associated salary grids, chances are it has no great propensity to reward talent. Is team work promoted? And if so, is it also rewarded? If you really want people to work as a team, then don’t (only) reward them as individuals! From a talent liberation point of view, reward should be commensurate with value added, which happens through the effective use of talents and strengths. 5.3.5. Learning and development How do we train and develop our people? Focusing on fixing their weaknesses? Or on developing their talents? Typically reviews are centred on weaknesses: - “Where did you feel weak last year?” - “Where did you fail?” - “Where were you not performing well?” Conversely L&D can also be aspirational or talent-based. - “What did you particularly like last year?” - “Where do you feel you performed best?” - “What would you like to do more of?” - “Where did you add most value?” - “What are your strongest talents and strengths in doing your work?” - “What are courses you would like to follow; memberships you would like to sign up for; subscriptions you would like to take, relevant to your work?” The more people feel personally fulfilled in their work, the more they will engage and take responsibility, and the more added value they will generate for the organisation. 22 Are we giving people a hard time because of what did no go so well – “where did you fail”, or are we focusing on appreciating them in what went well – “where did you succeed?”? Are we appreciative or critical? Again the critical approach may have its place in terms of risk management, but it also risks putting us on the path of the weakness-fixing cycle. 5.3.6. Competency frameworks Competency frameworks, role profiling and performance reviews based on them are used to work out the skills that are needed for a job, set the level of competencies needed to execute a job without mistake, and focus on training people who fall below the line. This indeed is the old paradigm of fixing weaknesses, assuming that that could somehow lead to great performance. The problem with that is that we have forgotten what is excellent about people. While competency frameworks are used to map competencies and weaknesses, they are not necessary all bad (from a talent perspective) and often can still be tweaked and rebranded in into “talent/strength frameworks”. Of course this should not just be a mere cosmetic exercise in semantics. The whole point is an underlying shift of focus from “scarcity, fixing and weakness” to “potential, abundance and possibility”. Their unique combination of talent, passion, values, energy and commitment really is for people what a brand is for a company; and a strategy to develop talent into strengths is at an individual level as important, as the growth strategy for the whole organisation. Related to this is “talent mapping 21”: the art of recognising present and attracting relevant outside talent in support of current and future needs and objectives of the organisation. “What talents do we need to secure to achieve the future vision of this organisation?” A key related question, especially relevant in a climate of financial crisis, is then obviously: “what talent do we actually already have in house, and what can it further be developed into in the service of our objectives, without even needing to seek additional people elsewhere?” 5.3.7. Team development In a talent-based organisation, every team gets the chance to make the most of the talent combined in its midst. This gives a great opportunity to make a showcase of what teams have contributed and how they have added value. These results are well worth being publicised, at least within the organisation, as highly inspiring evidence of the amazing results that come from synergising human talent and potential. 23 This does not need to remain within the “productive” side of the organisation. Why not encourage people to do sports or other edifying activities together. As Clive Wilson put it, “Teams that play together, stay together 22”. Related to this it is also important that during training events, management really allows space so that members of teams can really share from their actual life experiences, without having to fear any repercussions for their straightforwardness. Obviously there are many times when the team will need to exude professionalism; but the team will be all the more team in crunch time if it also gets ample opportunity to play together outside of that. 5.3.8. People leaving the organisation People leaving the organisation (unless when dismissed for serious fault or lack of commitment) will usually leave a talent vacuum (and therefore a value loss). Both the person and the organisation need to deal with the change, and may need support. One solution may be to offer an exit interview and strategy. Eg When employees leave on good terms, there may be great value in offering them eg career coaching (eg by a qualified Talent Liberation coach) and/or re-training, in exchange for their advice in the selection of their replacement, a proper hand-over, and their mentoring of their successors. If this is done well, this ensures both a smooth succession, but also that the person may become a brand ambassador (rather leaving with hard feelings) of your organisation. He will create a good impression for your company, preserve or even enhance your reputation, and, who knows, may even wish to return to your organisation in the future, enriched with valuable training and experience gained somewhere else. So even in the hour of separation, the talent liberation approach may prove to be the way of enlightened self-interest. 5.4. Plan This what we want, This is what needs to be done, and This is what we are going to do about it Having clarified the direction, adopted a talent philosophy and made sure that all processes are aligned, the question is now: “How to concretely implement the new Talent Liberation culture, so as to ensure the engagement of all concerned?” 24 This is done by reviewing the direction, philosophy and processes, making sure that they are both fully understood and coherent with each other, and coming up with a clear, structured and time-bound plan, listing what remains to be done. The plan may include: - Process: any items that may remain to be completed so that the processes are fully aligned with direction and philosophy - Communication plan - Leadership development training. Leaders not only have to know how to build talented teams; they first need to apply the talent liberation process to themselves, before they can pass it on to anybody else. - Team building and development - Review If agreed, in order to ensure maximal ownership, it is advisable that the person in charge of Talent Liberation in the organisation (CEO or HR Director/Manager) is responsible for the write-up of this plan, as well as of other key documents in the process. Doing it for them as a consultant would therefore not be helpful, but would rather be incapacitating. In any case, the endorsement by the top leadership is absolutely essential. 5.5. Communication Great leaders 1. tell a compelling story about themselves: who they are, where they come from, what they stand for, what they expect. 2. tell a compelling story about the organization: its mission and purpose, why it is a great place to work, invest in and buy from. 3. make people feel an essential part of the story through the work they do every day …Remember this mythical JFK anecdote? The president was visiting NASA headquarters and stopped to talk to a man who was holding a mop. “And what do you do?” he asked. The man, a janitor, replied, “I’m helping to put a man on the moon, sir.” Knowing their part in your organization’s story engages people and gives them a sharp sense of purpose. Phil Dourado Communication is not a one-off thing; it is a consistent and continuous engagement that is about internalising direction and culture, sharing the challenges and celebrating the big wins. Communication is a crucial phase in the Talent Liberation process. The aim is no less than the engagement of all employees, as well as all other stakeholders, with the direction, philosophy, process review and plan adopted. 25 “People can only enjoy meaningful change When they are part of the journey” 23 Communication here is not to be taken lightly, as it is about three things at once: - Relaying a coherent and consistent message to create awareness and get buy-in - Effectively creating a new culture - Making a public commitment to do so. To be consistent and coherent, the message has to be without contradiction or ambiguity, both on its own, and in relation to other communications in the organisation. There are multiple ways to pass the message, and a combination of many will be much more powerful and effective, than the use of only one or two. While the message should always be clear and unambiguous, it is also important that it stays fresh and inspiring to generate the desired buy-in and engagement. The appointed Talent Manager in the organisation will have an important role to play to keep the message alive. Relaying the message can happen in many practical ways: - An official declaration / speech by the CEO / Country Director, addressing all staff (and key stakeholders), declaring adoption of the (new) direction and philosophy, policies and processes, and the plan. Ideally this should be given in plenary and then circulated in written form, as given. - Declaration plus commentary by the HRD/M in the organisation’s newsletter - Posting it on notice boards, on the organisation’s intranet (if present) - Posting vision, values and talent philosophy in a prominent space within departments, sections and teams, and creating space for sharing on Talent Liberation and progress, as well as making it an agenda point in regular management and/or team meetings. - Making direction and talent philosophy part of corporate/organisational branding. Let it contribute to becoming/staying an employer of choice. - Make it part of any leadership development, management and team building training - Make it part of any new staff appointment and induction, who should also be welcomed by the Talent Manager. - Sharing outside the organisation, in communications to shareholders, clients, suppliers, donors and other stakeholders To avoid the risk of being seen as nothing more than some new management fashion fad, the new adopted culture must further ring true and authentic, and thoroughly permeate the organisation. To effectively create a new talent culture, it is thus important that talent really becomes part of everyone’s job: how it is described in terms of goals and objectives, as well as how the performance, contributions and added value off all staff members are evaluated. 26 Communication, as a creative speech act, lastly is a commitment that should not be made or taken lightly. The leadership, on behalf of the organisation, is committing to make a change. Leadership has to embody the change it wants to see in the company24, and must practice what it preaches, if it wants to act with integrity, and be credible and effective. 5.6. Leadership development As the business mantra resoundingly goes: “people – not processes or systems - are our most important assets”. Yet, strangely, they are very rarely treated that way… The only effective way to let Talent Liberation effectively permeate and change the culture of an organisation is for the change to start at the top. You need to get the buy-in and ownership of the CEO, the MD, the top leadership, or else the whole process is a non-starter. It is they who need, more than anyone else, understand the importance of the required culture change; make it a top priority, and commit to going the distance. This process is not about short-cuts; it is about re-aligning with the natural order of things. And there may be a lot of resistance to that. Souls will need to be searched, commitments made, and hard work done. And the promise is that, inevitably, great results and prime performance will be achieved. “Leaders see a better future and Have the resilience and interpersonal skills To create the conditions in which it will happen” 25 Managers must therefore prove that they “got it”, before they can start promoting Talent Liberation, rolling it out into their teams, and contributing to turning their organisation into an employer of choice. This requires them to first go through the necessary talent liberation training themselves, discover their talents, understand their value and how they can develop them further, and commit them to the realisation of the objectives of the organisation, through specific, measurable individual and team goals. This is what will produce great results. Or as Warren Bennis said: “Great things are accomplished by talented people who believe they will accomplish them.” 5.6.1. Initial Work Shop Ideally, the initial Talent Liberation Work Shop takes 2 days, and may have a framing program to ensure full connection, presence, action and reflection (see below) by all participants. 27 Components may include: (depending on time available and preferences of client) - Introduction / breaking the ice & getting to know each other, eg: o presenting hidden personal talents o bringing along something related to a much cherished personal talent - Exercise: Personal values, beliefs and commitments - Talent is the focus. However it is talents/strengths + values + beliefs + commitments that together clarify life purpose and goals - Importance of Authenticity, Integrity and Completion as a way of life - Strengths research and philosophy of Talent Liberation - Real life case studies - Link between talent/strengths and personal fulfilment/life purpose - Link between talent/strengths and contribution/added value - PrimeFocus as a model for leadership - Exercise: What does your organisation’s vision and values mean for you? What do these values imply for our behaviour in the organisation - Alignment of personal and organisation’s values and direction - Actions by participants: o Identifying talents o Pointing your talents in the organisation’s direction: what is the best way you can contribute to your organisation’s objectives (vision, mission, values) with your talents and strengths? o sharing of findings, affirmation and appreciation by colleagues o committing talents and strengths to organisation’s leadership - Review and evaluation 5.6.2. Follow-up Work Shop A second Talent Liberation work shop, will then be held in eg six months. This second workshop has multiple, necessary, purposes, to complete the leadership training: - to follow-up: - verifying achievements made against commitments ; and - measuring the added value of these actions to the organisation. - to give praise and appreciation to the achievers - to celebrate the great results - to train the leaders/managers to roll-out talent liberation further into their teams 5.6.3. Coaching Programme Between the two work shops, a monthly one-on-one (or group-based, if so desired) coaching follow-up by a talent coach will make sure that participants stay on track and do not waver on their commitments (see below). 28 5.6.4. Conventional Training Centre or Back to Nature While the above interventions could take place in virtually any kind of location; if possible, we would strongly recommend to take people out of their usual working environment to a place where they can really focus on the process, unperturbed by the demands of their daily work. Any training or convention centre could be used and would yield great results. We would however like to invite you to consider the possibility of doing things a bit differently, which would contribute to a much more memorable and powerful experience. We have found that taking managers out of the conventional training environment, into natural surroundings, has proven to be highly conducive to the effective delivery of a talent liberation intervention. It is also offers a strong metaphor: bringing people back into nature to rediscover their own true nature. For the same reason, while it is of course perfectly possible to use the approaches of more conventional work shops, we have observed that people actually much appreciated it when we avoided - or made only minimal use of - the typical management training props, such as the ubiquitous overhead projectors and PowerPoint presentations, and rather focused on a very lively and engaging delivery (through powerful public speaking, music, acting, role play and games), combined with ample space for questions and sharing between participants, both in pairs and in the larger group, while bringing the whole experience out into natural surroundings. Not only did we notice that people tend to drop their guard more easily when out in nature, but it also clearly helps people to get in touch with their inner selves, their talents and their aspirations, and to share their findings more openly with others, including their leaders, on a more level playing field. Natural features can be put to great use in the delivery of the training, eg: - Water is an excellent metaphor for reflection, and so a stream may be rebaptised “River of Reflection” for the purpose of the training, and be the perfect place for people to sit by themselves, let their thoughts flow with the living waters, contemplate what talents they really have and can bring to their organisation, and making notes of their findings. - A hillside with a dramatic view over a beautiful landscape can be renamed “Mountain of Vision”, and can be used as the spot where people think – some time in pairs and some time alone, making notes - about what the organisation’s value and vision means for them; and how they can best engage their talents to contribute and give added value in the delivery of their organisation’s objectives. - Walkways to cover the distance between these places may be used as “Paths of Sharing” to pair up participants with each other, have them exchange their findings, and tweak them before sharing them with the larger group. 29 - - A large tree offering shadow and shelter can serve as an ideal place for relating with others. As in old African tradition, under the “Tree of Talking” participants can share their findings with the whole group, link it to their vision, and state the commitment they have come up with on how they will use their talents in the delivery of their organisation’s objectives, before its leadership. Colleagues can then affirm what has been stated, express their appreciation for the contributions of their colleague and give feedback which will allow the speaker to still tweak what he has said. The same Tree of Talking will then later serve as the centre stage, after the CEO or Country Director has joined the group, for the speakers to each individually declare their commitment, on how they will commit their talents, and add real value, in the delivery of their organisation’s objectives. 5.6.5. “Four Seasons in One Day” 26 Our trainings, whether they take two or four hours, or one or two days, have their own natural rhythm and phases27 – or shall we say, seasons. There is a time to connect – to the higher values and the objectives, and to each other. There is a time to become present – to learn and engage one’s life and experience in the event. There is a time for action – going through practical exercises and making actionable plans; and finally there is a time for reflection – sharing and reviewing what one has learnt and is committed to. 5.7. Talented Teams Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed. It is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead Team building is the sharp end of Talent Liberation. This is where the tires really hit the ground and Talent Liberation is rolled out, from top to bottom, throughout the whole organisation. Obviously, depending on the hierarchical structure of the organisation, additional levels may need to be added, if required. Upon completion of the leadership training, the trained managers will now be enabled to infuse their own teams with the spirit of Talent Liberation. They will be able to lead, guide and impart the process of recognising, valuing, developing and using the talent in their team. It is important that the 30 approach is adopted to the learning style of the team, and recommended that it be out of the usual work premises, and be as fun, engaging and non-formal as possible. Crucial steps thereby are again to elicit the talents that are present; to engage those with the values and objectives of the team and organisation; and to commit those talents through specific, measurable personal and team goals. “High performing teams engage the unique talents of their people, delivering their compelling purpose through aligned processes and complementary behaviours” 28 The first step is that the present relevant talents need to be identified and recognised; they needs to be pointed to the agreed purpose of the team; and they need to be committed to it. A useful free form “talent discovery tool” simply consists of a set of blank cards, to be used by a group of 4-6 team members. Each of the team members should write for each of the other members, as well as for themselves, 5 talents they believe they have, eg “great negotiator”; “seeing needs of the team”, “focused on solutions”. Strong talents outside of the workplace should also be included – they may actually turn out to be very valuable in the work place as well. They further add one “golden card” for each, including themselves, stating what, in their view, is getting in the way of this person making the most of their talents. Eg: “short fuse”, “acting without thinking things through”. So while the 5/1 proportion ensures positive endorsement; the golden card is really helpful in improving our understanding of how we may get in our own way. This is the blind spot card which can lead to greatly enhanced self-awareness. In coaching helping out client becoming aware of what they are not aware of that they are not aware of often leads to the greatest break-throughs. The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime. Babe Ruth What makes a great team? A useful initial team exercise is to ask “What are the characteristics of a high performing team?”. Then write all the answers on a flipchart. It will turn out that all answers will either refer to purpose, processes or behaviours. A team needs purpose to know where it is going; processes to make the best of its talents; and behaviours to deliver on the commitments made. The processes include processes to recognise, value, develop and use talents. 31 The best way to start and break the ice is to put the team before a challenge they normally never have to deal with. Clive and I so set ourselves the challenge of building an African mud hut in a small Malawian village. The learning process was incredible; and we got help from the most unexpected corners! And natural talents very quickly emerged! And there is nothing like discovering what a 30 litre barrel full of water actually weighs, when carried on your head for a quarter of an hour – and that’s a lucky village with a treadle pump!... A first exercise, about non-work related talents, could then be to pair team members up and make them note for themselves and the other what they were really good at, and what got in the way. The exercise could be repeated specifically for work related talents. Then every member would get time for themselves to really identify and own their talents; what they could do to further develop these talents in to strengths; and how they could maintain their commitment to use them in the work place. Then they could share their conclusions with the team. Any teambuilding work should be aware where the team stands in its own development. Is it in its forming, storming, norming, performing or mourning/adjourning/transforming stage? 29 Each stage will have different sensitivities, and require different approaches and communication. Where processes are put in place to reach results; it is the actual behaviours that may (or may not) lead to success. These behaviours need to be aligned with the direction of the organisation. A key exercise therefore is to inquire with the team: “What do the mission, vision and values of the organisation mean for us as a team; for this project we are working on together?”. It would be most useful to put their meaning into the own words of the team, to ensure their maximal ownership. For each value the team could come up with four behaviours that we would illustrate the implementation of that value. Eg “integrity” may be interpreted very different in “sales” than in “production”. The next step would be to brainstorm and eventually agree on: “what is really the common purpose and vision for this team?”, against the overall direction of the organisation. And how can we best commit our individual talents and strengths to the common purpose of our team? The team could write up a charter containing its conclusions from this work, as a means to hold each other to account in the future. The review of the charter could become a fixed item on the weekly work-in-progress meeting agenda, so that eg one of the values of the company per week would be looked into by one team member and then discussed in the light of the concrete work on the table. It is likely that strengths and weaknesses would emerge during this teamwork exercises. This new knowledge should be seen as an opportunity to work with 32 this newly emerged information in a constructive way, eg by shifting work to those who are strongest at it, and away from those who are weakest at it; thus as much as possible approaching an optimal configuration and attribution of assignment in accordance with the strengths of the individual team members. 360 degree feedback may be a very useful approach, also in understanding where tasks have been miss-assigned and need to be re-attributed, or where roles need to be shifted. The point is that the exercise should be experienced by no-one as punitive, but rather as opportunitive 30 and supportive of each in their professional growth. Potential > Obviously there are practical, realistic expectations from a team: it needs to deliver quality work, be steadfast, have a solid administrative backbone and basically be able to just bloody well get on with things. So, while there is a whole gradation in the effectiveness of teams, we can grosso modo distinguish the following matrix: high potential teams blockages / low functionality high performance teams productive teams Performance > Often, the missing ingredient that is holding people back is clarity. The following then are simple yet powerful questions to address precisely that. These are (internal) customer questions, meaning that they should be asked those people/teams to whom the team needs to deliver: 1. What do you exactly expect from this team? 2. Where do we delight you? and 3. Where do we let you down? 5.8. Review We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle No change intervention process is complete without a thorough and frank review of what it actually has delivered against the initial objectives. - what did people commit to - what was actually done - how can people be leveraged to produce / deliver more of same - what is needed: more training? Roll-out to next level of management? Reinforcement? Coaching? Including newly arrived people? 33 Typically the Pareto principle will be seen in action, in that 20% of the people (“positive deviants”) will have delivered 80% of the work. There is nothing wrong with that; that is simply the nature of things. Therefore, return on investment should be calculated not on an individual basis only, but also on an aggregate basis, for the whole group, to get the full picture. The stock take is important, both for the organisation to understand the value and effectiveness of the process, but also for the facilitator, to build up a portfolio of credible case studies to document the results achieved. The review may lead to a new cycle of intervention, which then will need to pose all the key questions again that need to be asked in order to further learn and grown, of course building upon what already has been accomplished: - Are direction and talent philosophy updated or do they need to be reviewed? Are they clear, known by all and implemented? - Are the processes still in alignment with direction and philosophy? - Does our planning address all the current needs? What else still needs to be done? - Are directions, philosophy and plan being communicated well? To all stakeholders? What could still be improved? - Has leadership fully engaged with the process and did managers achieve the goals they committed to? What can still be done better? - What was the added value of their achievements? What was the ROI? - Was the roll-out into all teams successful? What is needed still to make sure it is? - Which gaps and weak areas have emerged? What can be improved still? Based on frank and open review of these questions, the journey can go on, to more development of talents into strengths, more commitment and growth, and more added value and a further strengthened organisational culture. Further external interventions may still be needed, but possibly the process can now be fully lead from the inside. The important thing is that the process is continued, gains are consolidated and the organisation and its teams continue to grow and thrive. 6. The role of coaching in Talent Liberation The opposite of poverty is not wealth; It is the awareness, ability and power to choose. This is function of your consciousness, Not of your circumstance. Christophe Horvath If training is like the preparation and launching of a space craft to another planet (the desired change); then coaching is like the necessary ongoing steering and adjustments to make sure the rocket stays on course and effectively arrives at the planned destination. 34 While the Talent Liberation workshops give the background and philosophy, and set out the direction and objectives; the coaching is about the ongoing guidance and feedback to make sure that individuals or teams stay on course and on track, and that delays and deviations of plan are mitigated, so that the set goals are maximally achieved as committed to, and the clients feel the fulfilment of both having travelled the journey and reached its destination. Coaching is the art of allowing people to make better choices, set better goals and live greater lives. More specifically, coaching is a professional, resultorientated dialogue about, in this case, the relevant issues that matter. It aims to generate and expand achievement, success and personal growth, producing breakthrough results through insight and action. It is in essence a creative communication process that increases self-awareness, accountability and effectiveness. Coaches enable their clients to: - Identify their desired outcomes, - Embark on an intensely personal journey of learning and breakthrough experience, - Have more balance, harmony and integration in their lives, and - Transform their behaviour from what does not work to that which does and then take appropriate actions from that new place of empowerment. 6.1. Coaching is not therapy. Therapy analyses and attempts to heal what is perceived to be wrong with you; coaching uncovers, inspires, liberates and empowers what is great about you. Christophe Horvath Therapy may focus on diagnosing, exposing, intervening and adjusting issues such as traumas, disorders, symptoms, pathologies, patterns and behaviours. Coaching is a potent and professional partnership that empowers people to take control of their own lives as a creative process to achieve fulfilment and personal freedom. A coach helps a client to focus, prioritise, be proactive, clarify, brainstorm and achieve his goals. Coaching is outcome-based and emphasises the need for balance and purpose. A coaching cycle will equip the client to explore new possibilities and overcome blocks to exercise their unique personal power in order to strategise and act, thereby creating a fulfilling and purposeful life.31 6.2. Coaching cycle While one may reach good results with only 2-3 coaching sessions, if we want to make sure that the Talent Liberation commitments made during the TL workshops are maximally achieved and enduring changes are made by the 35 participants, then this requires a longer term follow up and support. We would recommend that ideally at least a 6 session cycle should be adopted. A first session is to familiarise the client with the coaching methodology, clarifying what coaching is all about (and what it is not: counselling, therapy, mentoring), how it works and setting the coaching cycle objectives: the overall goals the Client wants to have met by the end of the cycle. The second to 5th session is to both make sure the commitments are kept and achieved, whilst also allowing focus on several other optional themes to support the Clients in their work and life. The sixth session is then about bringing it all together, seeing the big picture, evaluating and celebrating what has been achieved and looking forward into the future. 7. Benefits of Talent Liberation for your Organisation “Our mission is to improve organisational performance by helping people to master leadership, teams and change.” “We are here to support organisations in becoming great, built to last and employers of choice.” 32 7.1. Effective & Excellent Performance of the Organisation The PC principle is to always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers. You can buy a person’s hand, but you can’t buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is. You can buy his back, but you can’t buy his brain. That’s where his creativity is, his ingenuity, his resourcefulness. PC work is treating employees as volunteers just as you treat customers as volunteers, because that’s what they are. They volunteer the best part – their hearts and minds. Steven Covey 33 An organisation’s vision, mission and objectives will be achieved only to the degree that there is total buy in from its staff; and thus that its talent, passion and commitment is fully engaged and in alignment with the organisation’s objectives. We therefore dare say that organisations reach prime performance only to the degree that they recognise, value, develop and use the unique talents of their people in the delivery of their objectives. Of course prime performance can only come from doing what we are best at; and not from continuously trying to fix the weaknesses that we have. 36 7.2. Going from Good to Great & Being Built to Last A great organization is one that makes a distinctive impact and delivers superior performance over a long period of time. For a business, performance principally means financial results, specifically return on invested capital. For a social sector organization, on the other hand, performance must be assessed first and foremost relative to the organization’s mission, not its financial results. Notice that by this definition that you do not need to be big to be great. Jim Collins 34 Jim Collins powerfully presents and documents the idea that ‘good is the enemy of great’ in his important book, Good to Great 35. Applied to talent liberation the tendency of society and business to focus on competency would be “good” performance (as in “making no mistakes”), whereas the full commitment of talents and strengths to meaningful objectives is only what can truly lead to “great” results (as in “people taking total responsibility, being fully engaged and being prepared to do whatever it takes”). 36 Jim Collins offers four key objectively measurable indicators for an organisation that is built to last: productivity, profitability (in case of a forprofit), employee retention, and client satisfaction (or donor and beneficiary satisfaction in case of non-for-profits). Adopting an outcomes model to assess the effectiveness of Talent Liberation, the results of its implementation are: - reduced attrition - reduced absenteeism - increased productivity - increased levels of internal senior appointments - improved employee opinion - improved corporate culture - improved client / beneficiary satisfaction Talent Liberation as a strategy thus produces exactly what are said to be the key indicators of a great organisation that is built to last. 37 7.3. Becoming an Employer of choice An employer of choice is a company or organisation where employee actions are directly aligned with business goals, employees feel appreciated and valued for their hard work, and where their contributions are acknowledged and rewarded.37 To us, "Employer of Choice®" means that workers --employees and contractors --choose to work for that employer when presented with other choices of employment. This choice is a conscious decision --or series of decisions--made when joining an organization and when deciding to stay with that organization. The deliberate choice even influences productivity, as employees choose to do what it takes to make their employer successful.38 What kind of company would you rather join as a new recruitment, a great organisation that is built to last? Or one that has a poor reputation, with complaining employees and dissatisfied clients? As Linley and Harrington write: “When we use our strengths, we feel good about ourselves, we are better able to achieve things, and we are working toward fulfilling our potential” 39 Understanding this alone and applying it effectively can turn any organisation into an employer of choice. Allowing people to do what they are best at has all the potential of turning a grey workplace into a thriving place of creativity and joy. People who do what they love, love what they do. They are engaged, committed, involved. They take responsibility and ownership. They are loyal. And they will go the extra mile and stand by you when the shit hits the fan. Because they are proud of what they have accomplished, because they have found their significance, their purpose, and their place in what they do. If an organisation can make people feel valued and appreciated like this, they will go through fire for you. Will your organisation benefit of that? You bet! Other key performance indicators that improve as well due to a talent liberation intervention are: a reduction in attrition rates (it turns out that people are most likely to stay with an employer if their talent is recognised and used) and absenteeism; and an increase in internal senior appointments (based on conversations senior management has about staff with talents, strengths and potential) for people who have developed a strong loyalty for your organisation, rather than outsiders with no such devotion . In short, if an organisation is able to harness and optimally use a maximum of its staff’s talents in the delivery of its objectives, it is highly likely to be effective and successful, to have a loyal work force, to have a strong competitive advantage and to be an employer of choice. Such is the power of talent liberation, if fully unleashed. 38 Postscript People can only enjoy meaningful change When they are part of the journey 40 This is not where the journey stops; only where it begins. Talent Liberation is a movement that ultimately aims at establishing a new culture of talent. It is not only about the benefit of using strengths, so that more added value be created by companies or greater objectives achieved by organisations; this has the potential of liberating people on their pathway of human evolution, from cynicism to trust; scarcity to abundance; fire fighting to creation; and resistance to growth. This then is the vision: liberating the talent of the world. Imagine talent liberation didn’t only start to happen in companies and charities, becoming employers of choice in the process. But in every school and in every community, and became a worldwide movement celebrating everybody’s authenticity and the creative expression of their talent, strengths and passions. Imagine children being born in a world of talent, strength and potential where nothing is higher prized than, in Clive Wilson’s words “the Flowering of Human Consciousness”. Be the change you want to see in the world Mahatma Ghandi Imagine And start with yourself, Answering these simple questions41 with an open mind and total honesty: 1. What things am I naturally simply great at? What do I love doing? 2. What am I passionate about? What purpose would get me out of bed and into the shower at the crack of dawn singing out loud? 3. What excuse have I got for not pointing 1. to 2. (with complete abandon)? And this above all: To thine own self be true And it must follow As the night the day Thou shall not be then False to any one. William Shakespeare 39 About the author Christophe is Primeast’s Principal Consultant and Talent Coach for Southern Africa. As coach, facilitator and trainer he specialises in liberating talent, developing leaders, building teams, empowering people and managing change. He is based in Lilongwe, Malawi, the Warm Heart of Africa. Professional Expertise Christophe has a passion for the actualisation of human talent and potential, as well as a firm belief in the transformational impact of inspiring, enabling and empowering people and teams. In addition to being a passionate coach, trainer and facilitator, Christophe is also a gifted writer, speaker and singer, using his guitar, vocal and acting talents to inspire and spice up his workshops. Selected Clients British Council UNICEF Monsanto American Embassy PACT CRS Concern Worldwide MASAF (Malawi Social Action Fund) Portfolio • Author of “8 Steps to Talent Liberation – Effective Pathway to Becoming an Employer of Choice” • Preparation of Talent Liberation interventions for British Council and Pact Malawi • Co-presenter on Talent Liberation at Institute for People Management Malawi’s (IPMM) 2008 conference • Co-facilitator, trainer and coach at 2008 Talent Liberation taster day in Lilongwe • Multiple briefing meetings with corporate and non-for profit management on Talent Liberation • Several current and past local and expatriate Greater Life Coaching clients Previous Experience Before taking up coaching, training and facilitation full-time, Christophe worked for 15 years in the not-for-profit sector. His experience included training, communications and advocacy in the fields of refugee protection, human rights, environmental advocacy and development cooperation. As such, Christophe has lived and worked in Belgium, Germany, Turkey, Cambodia, Burma, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, and Malawi. He is fluent in English, French and Dutch, has good Spanish and German, and has a strong basis in Portuguese, Hungarian, Indonesian and Turkish. Qualifications / Professional Affiliations • CCI (Creative Consciousness International) training • Thomas Leonard Graduate School of Coaching training • Member of the International Coaching Federation (IFC) • Member of International Association of Coaches (IAC) • Member of COMENSA (Coaching and Mentoring Association of South Africa) • Member of CoachVille Community • Member of the Co-active Coaching Network • Masters Degree in Law and Post Grad in Political Science & International Relations 40 Join the Sharing on Talent Liberation For sharing of ideas and new insights on Talent Liberation, join us for free on: http://talentliberation.ning.com/ If you are a human resource professional, join us on: http://talentforum.ning.com/ Endnotes 1 You can find further information on Talent Liberation on www.TalentLiberation.com, as well as in Clive Wilson’s (so far) two books on the subject: Liberate Corporate Talent – A strategy for Competitive Advantage and Liberate Your Talent – Making the Most of Your talent and Your Life, both published via www.lulu.com. A third, more in-depth, book is under preparation. 2 See: www.primeast.com and www.globalleadershipalliance.com. 3 Gallup research, based on 2,000,000 interviews with employees and 80,000 with managers, as described in Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, Now Discover Your Strengths, 2001 and Tom Rath. 4 Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, Now Discover Your Strengths – How to develop your talents and those of the people you manage, 2001 5 As described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book, Finding Flow – The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life, 1998. 6 The Global Leadership Alliance is a global entity created by three best-inclass consulting firms, strategically located around the world, who bring global solutions to vital business challenges. GLA further combines with three associated partners in other regions to offer a formidable global team. More info is available on www.globalleadershipalliance.com. 7 Primeast’s Talent Liberation philosophy, as coined by Clive Wilson. 8 Stuart L. Levine; The Six Fundamentals of Success – The Rules for Getting it Right for Yourself and Your Organisation, 2005. 9 See also on www.TalentLiberation.com, under Talking Talent 10 See: Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton in their book, Now Discover Your Strengths, cited above. 11 The online StrengthsFinder tests can be found on: www.strenghtsfinder.com and http://sf2.strengthsfinder.com 12 Thanks to Jan Brause – see: http://www.janbrause.co.uk/page.cfm/content/StrengthDeployment-Inventory/ 13 Downloadable at reasonable price from www.lulu,com. 14 See also under “Talent Liberation is Value Creation” 15 Stephen Covey, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, 2004, p. 5 16 Under: “Talent Liberation is Value Creation” and “Valuing”, where several examples are given 17 Also abbreviated as: “TL” 18 Profitability for the corporate sector; meeting non-for-profit objectives for NFP’s. 19 Clive Wilson 41 20 See: Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't. A BHAG is a form of vision statement "...an audacious 10-to-30year goal to progress towards an envisioned future." A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; as people like to shoot for finish lines. —from: Collins and Porras, Building Your Company's Vision, 1996. 21 Related to this is the “BE, DO, HAVE”-model. In order to be “A” (vision), what actions do we need to do (strategy). And in order accomplish these, what kind of talents “X, Y, Z” do we need to have or still attract? 22 Just as “families that eat together, stay together” 23 Primeast’s philosophy on change 24 After Mahatma Ghandi’s famous quote: “Be the change you want to see in the world” 25 Primeast’s and the Global Leadership Alliance’s definition of leadership. Primeast Ltd is a member of the Global Leadership Alliance (GLA) group of consulting agencies, whose mission is to bring the best of class products in leadership, team building and change to the world (www.globalleadershipalliance.com). 26 Title of song by Crowded House 27 As proposed by Clive Wilson 28 Primeast’s definition of Teamwork 29 Bruce Tuckman’s model of developmental sequence in groups 30 As used by Clive Wilson 31 After Marc Steinberg’s “What is coaching”, Creative Consciousness International document. 32 Clive Wilson on Primeast’s mission (interview) 33 Steven Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, 1989, p.58. PC stands for Production Capability. 34 Jim Collins Good to Great™ Diagnostic Tool, 2006 (taken from www.jimcollins.com) 35 Jim Collins, Good to Great, 2001 36 After Ben Oswin’s internal Primeast presentation “Talent Liberation – The Origins, Influences and Debate”, February 2009” (v.2, slide 16) 37 http://www.employerofchoice.ca/ 38 http://www.employerofchoice.com/recognition.html 39 Linley, A. & Harrington, S. (2006) Strengths Coaching, in International Coaching Psychology Review, Issue 1, pp37-46. 40 Russell Evans, Managing Director, Primeast Ltd. 41 After Laurence G. Bold, who asks in his book: Zen and the Art of Making a Living, these 3 simple questions: A. What skills and other resources do you have access to?; B. What do you feel passionate about? And C. What excuse do you have for not pointing A at B? 42