On Sunday I was invited to brunch by some friends. A real treat, but the topic of conversation was depressing. Two of our party, of six, announced that they were changing jobs. Not because they wanted to but because one felt unappreciated, the other tired of a failing “new hire manager”.

Performance review.
The first, an exceptionally clever person, had just had a performance review where his “new boss” had reduced his performance grade for willingness to undertake overtime and timekeeping because he said that he “Didn’t believe in awards at highest grade…”. The previous year the employee a highest grade for willingness to work overtime at short notice. The reduction would mean a change in salary expectation.

Tired of inefficient management
The second friend, the companies highest producing salesperson, recounted various “New hire ” management decisions that had affected how people were able to perform, ignored previous culture and customs and this was affecting team morale. As a result he was deciding to leave.

I’m not against change but find it difficult to understand when new managers try to create an impression without considering the consequences. Ignoring old customs and culture does no-one any favours. In the end one company might lose an enthusiastic and hard working employee and the other a high performing salesperson.

Yesterday I found myself talking about and writing on how a company should view talent management.
When speaking to Directors and managers I will often make the analogy to a
successful restaurant.

Any restaurant that fills all of its tables every
night and has a diary full of forward bookings will have a capable,
stable and motivated team of chefs in the kitchen. However having a team
of top talent creating the product, in this case food, is not enough.
To provide a great customer eating experience there must be a team
professional front of house and waiting staff to meet, greet and serve
the customers. Other aspects such as décor, entertainment value and ease
of access may play a part but the main success criteria are the people
and the product.

However if that top talent leaves the restaurant this is often
immediately noticeable by regular customers. Either the food or the
service will suffer and customers IMMEDIATELY stay away in droves.

Top Talent from top to bottom

Despite the analogy above too many companies try to attract top talent
to their most senior or important posts whilst “getting someone to fill
the post” for more junior staff.

This positions all the top talent in specific areas of the business
whilst creating a number of inbuilt and preventable weaknesses.
Weaknesses that reduce the potential for profits and future growth.
These weaknesses are most evident when the business wishes to introduce
changes to processes and systems.

With a weak talent pool any change programme tends to be slower to
implement, with the top talent urging the change whilst other groups are
unsure or opposed to the change.

In my experience the problems that poor talent management create are:
Increased costs,

Poor flexibility,

Poor management capability,

Inability to develop robust succession planning,

Difficulty in developing strategic capability

I’ve been reminded by a sales team that I work with that their annual performance review time is fast approaching. I’ve been asked to give my top three tips for conducting a good Performance review for their management briefing.

The emphasis in appraisal is Praise
There was a time when the team hated the event. The emphasis always seemed to be focussed on the negative aspects of performance. Negative statements have far greater impact on an individual than a hundred good things that may be said.

I know that it’s important that a correct picture of performance is recorded. But the emphasis, as Dawn French mentioned in the video Arts film on the performance Review, should be on PRAISE

Tips
The first tip I’ve often given to those conducting the PR is to ask the team member to “Self-appraise”. Asking “How would you assess your performance?” often allows the resulting self criticism to be toned down and saves negative comments being made that cause offence and upset.

Tip two
Prepare. This is the most important meeting of the year with the team member (for the person being appraised). It’s their chance to talk about their career, aspirations and development. As such it’s polite, efficient and good management to prepare and treat the meeting seriously.

Top three
Listen…And listen to what’s not said and allow time for explanation. Some people are shy and need coaxing to speak. Don’t hurry a PR it’s a chance to learn how the employee feels

Finally, what happens after the meeting…”The notes get filed”.
But isn’t there follow-up?
Remember, more CVs (Resumes) get updated after a poor PR than at any other time!

You would think that the topics of talent shortage and managing employees productivity were two business issues. I’ve had a few conversations with senior Directors bemoaning the shortage of talent, particularly in IT, banking and technology and both have been linked to how to manage employee productivity.

The Talent Crunch
Most people would think that with the financial crisis that finding good talent would be easy, but in fact this isn’t the case for many specialist areas. Indeed the Manpower Group report that a third of companies report difficulties in finding good talent. There is a talent crunch in India, where it’s reported that sixty seven percent of companies are unable to find the people they need. In Brazil the figure is thirty four percent and the shortage is pushing up wages and inflation.

The skills shortages in these countries is likely to have an affect on our own talent pool and attract our own talent towards high salaries and a better style of living than can be gained within Europe or the USA. This will be true even of bankers who see career progression in terms of London and New York.

Managing Employee productivity
If most businesses can’t find all the talent that it requires, or afford it when it can, then it needs to invest some time and money to improve the productivity of its existing talent. That’s the reason that people have been asking me how to measure, manage and improve their people’s performance and productivity.

It’s been interesting that in the mind of the Directors I’ve spoken to that they seem to have a vision of a “One size fits all” solution. The problem is that there isn’t a one size fits all nor is there an immediate solution to making internal talent more productive. Different strategies need to be employed for salespeople as opposed to IT,  Senior staff as opposed to Non-Executive Directors and so on. In the long-run, however, it might be the only viable and affordable solution. 

It will come as little surprise to many employees to be told that managers are often obsessed with correcting what’s wrong with processes, systems and in particular people. I’ve just spent time talking with a group of managers about strengths and weaknesses.

Identifying people’s weaknesses a priority
Many companies put systems in place to identify people’s weaknesses, weaknesses in the sales process and so on in the belief that if management can identify the weaknesses and remove them then the result will be to end up with “strengths”.

The problem with this process is that it assumes that strengths can be ignored because they will remain constant. But this just isn’t true. I often get asked to solve a problem of good talent leaving a company. One of the first questions I ask is, “Why do people join and stay in the business?”.

Blinded by weaknesses
I’ve found that most senior “new hires” are greeted like saviours and are seen as ideal fits into the organisation. In time, too often, this opinion changes. Now I can hear loads of people say that if you point out weaknesses and then fix them that everything will be all right. But could this be missing an opportunity to concentrate on strengths so that they become greater. Time spent on just improving minor weaknesses doesn’t leave much time to increase strengths.

A few weeks ago someone sent out a very informative newsletter with a couple of minor spelling errors. When I visited a business the small errors were pointed out to me by a manager. When I asked what they thought of the content I was told that they had only noticed the mistakes. Later on that day the same individual was complaining that her boss “only ever found fault” in her work.

 Managing top talent so that they are engaged and remain with a business is a problem. Yesterday I found myself in a long discussion with with a friend who is concerned that he might lose some of his best talent.

1. The first thing that we could both agree on in that true talent is in short supply and is worth keeping at all costs and even when it leaves is worth maintaining contact in case one can attract it back!
2. Too many talented people become dissolusioned after having their expectations dashed with broken promises of personal learning, clear career path or making a contribution.
3. Often talent will be suffocated in large organisations and will prefer ambiguity and uncertainty because it fuels their thought processes and will therefore gravitate towards small business or even self-employment.

Motivating talent is difficult when they seem to be always ahead of the maingroup, with too many ideas and too little time and feeling that they are having to maintain their energy levels in the face of others who are lazy and have no vision.

After our discussion my friend came to two conclusions. The first was that talent is often complex and therefore needs to be understood and managed on an individual basis. Secondly that appropriate learning and stimulus programmes need to be in place in order to keep the talent engaged.

If you would like to hear more of our conclusions them please email me: stephen@assimilating-talent.com

Yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine who leads a sales team about his plans for the coming year. He outlined significant change for his team and quoted targets, market penetration and corporate expectations to cope with the difficuties that will befall all sales teams in 2011 with great ease and I will admit to being very impressed.

After a short time it seemed to me, however, that he was talking about the “Sales Team” as if it was one unit instead of a group of individuals with different attitudes, work expectations and personal goals. When I asked how the individuals in his team would react to the plans I was surprised by the answer. “Some won’t like it but there will be no choice”.

He was forgetting that a team isn’t like a machine with a series of machine cogs that when turned on rotate at the same pace and produce what’s required. Instead it’s ensuring that a group of spinning plates keep turning on their sticks and impress the audience at the dexterity of the man in charge. some of the plates will turn faster than others and possibly a couple will be in danger of falling off their sticks.

Most of my time, efforts and attention is taken up with working with restructured teams in larger companies and organisations.

However, so many smaller business owners and executives on my network list have contacted me for help that I want to make myself available to a select group of high quality business owners and senior executives  that I can mentor (all together) in a group consulting dynamic.

I’m proposing to identify a small group of high-performing, growth-minded, action-orientated small business owners and senior executives who ARE poised for AND deserve far greater success and prosperity. This invitation is for you to consider if joining this small group of dynamic individuals should be part of your business plan.

Once a month and every month for 12 months I would personally meet with what I’m calling the “Executive programme” – in London.

So what is the difference between this programme and others groups that hold similar meetings. The answer is the amount of individual attention your specific needs will be given. Together with the selected experts and associates  you’ll receive analysis, powerful recommendations and detailed implementation / execution recommendations – each month.

Your job and your commitment to us both, as well as everyone else in the group, is to ACT on the ideas, advice and guidance you receive from me, the associates, as well as all the other mentoring participants. You’ll report back on your results and we’ll work through them or build on them each session.

The problem (in the past) has been that this kind of exclusiveand private, “one-on-one” dynamic made no economic sense to either side. Private mentoring costs a significant amount per day.

Similarly for you to allocate the time each month that draws you away from work without having identifiable and tangible actions that produces measurable results is a waste of your time and investment.

But my thinking now is that the world of business is going through a revolution. Those that will survive and prosper are those that can identify, understand, map and manage their pathway to achieving extraordinary results. 

So instead of charging you a huge fee per day – I only want to charge a modest monthly tuition / mentoring fee from each participant of £1,200 plus VAT (minimum 10 months) or alternatively by paying a one time fee of £10,400 + VAT at the start of the period you can save a massive £4,000 over the year.

However, you need to consider this: If your business or career isn’t capable of ahuge increase in profile and income or it’s not desirable – you probably shouldn’t apply.

 I want to engineer the highest possible results for each business and person I accept onto the programme. I’m looking to increase your business brand, personal profile as well as earnings in those 12 months.

By giving the participants  access to the best people, information and tools – the results that each member in the group achieves should be extraordinary – maybe even outrageous.

So I invite those of you small enough to qualify – but big enough for it to make sense – to submit an original application in writing in your own words. Tell me about you, your business, your goals, hopes, dreams, frustrations, challenges, opportunities – and clearly demonstrate that you ARE serious about joining and that I should let you into this elite group.

I also request two references, who will verify and confirm your ethics, industriousness, directability, past performance / achievement history and desirability to be part of the group.

If you’d like to apply, get your application, along with references, to me by 26th November 2010 to stephen@assimilating-talent.com . That’s examine and choose the most desirable and motivated candidates to accept.

Applicants will be contacted before the second week of December with notification when I will arrange a 1:1 meeting or conference call to fill in further details and answer any questions.

If you ARE accepted the first meeting will occur on or around 14 January 2011.

I was asked a question on LinkedIn and this is a brief outline of my answer that I thought those in my network might find interesting

For many people there is a direct relationship with management
capability and high staff turnover. In my opinion, however, there also needs to be other
considerations before one always blames team managers.

Too often, in my experience, blame is placed on “Salary” as a reason why talent leaves when in fact the real reasons are in the company’s power to prevent. A motivating statistic is that when a talented individual
leaves the RISK that further talent will follow increases by 50%.

During these uncertain times it’s inevitable that at some point we will need to meet with employees to carry out a hearing whether it’s a warning of dismissal or an appeal against redundancy.

How these meetings are approached is important when a Tribunal might consider whether you have acted reasonably or not. The main points to consider are:

a) Don’t prejudge the situation or alleged breach of discipline.

b) The employer needs to listen to what is being said.

c) The employer accepts that there is an issue that requires consideration but that no decision has been taken before all the evidence has been considered.

d) That it’s an opportunity for the employee to state their case and be heard by an employee with an open mind and with fairness.

It is crucial that handwritten minutes of the meeting are taken and that these match the typed record. Minutes should not be adapted but should be an accurate reflection of what happened at the meeting. (retain the handwritten notes as these may be required later).

Any issue raised by the employee must be examined and that all issues for consideration must be open for review and investigation. It is important to remember that one of the decisions that can be made is to agree with the employee.

If, having held the hearing, you decide to issue a warning or reject the employees grievance then there must be reasoned justification and you may need to state why you were satisfied with your conclusion on that point.

When holding such meetings it’s best to take advice so that they are conducted correctly and to ensure that you abide by the staff handbook covering such events.