Strategic Talent Management

How to define strategic capabilities and strategic positions

Red dots shows C players in roles that are strategicThis is damaging to successful implementation.B players, in Yellow, managing Strategic Talents in Green, is a Risk to the talents doing their job and reaching potential.

Right talent, right role , right time

Strategic roles A roles are in Green box outlines, Red is a C role

Defining strategic capabilities

”

What are the things that your organisation (or part of the organisation)

needs to do well? These could be things like consumer insight, product

innovation, manufacturing excellence, leadership, operational excellence

and collaboration. Once the 4-6 core capabilities are identified, you will

need to rate (honestly) how good your organisation is today and where it

needs to be in order to succeed in the future. Strategic capabilities are core

competencies.

Strategic Capabilities

Today Required in the future

World Class

Highly

Competitive

Abysmal

Elite

Competent

5

4

3

2

1

R&D Licensing/

Acquisitions

Sales/

Marketing

Government

relations

Quality Leadership

This example shows the ‘strategic capabilities’ decided upon by the leaders of a large

pharmaceutical firm. It illustrates the conclusions of the discussion they had around where they are

today, and where they need to be in the future in order to succeed.

Source: Dick Beatty,

“The Workforce

Scorecard”

Identifying Strategic Capabilities

Today Required in the future

World Class

Highly

Competitive

Abysmal

Elite

Competent

5

4

3

2

1

A____________

As individuals, complete the following exercise. What do you believe the strategic capabilities of

your organisation should be? Choose no more than 5 strategic capabilities.

Name of your organisation =

B____________ C____________ D____________ E____________

Source: Dick Beatty,

“The Workforce

Scorecard”

Discussion – what are our ‘strategic positions’

Host a discussion to agree what the ‘strategic positions’ in

your organisation are.

The exercise on the next page may help you to structure your

discussion – you can also use it to note your conclusions for

use later. As part of this conversation you will need to review

actual data on the number/type of roles in your organisation.

Source: Adapted for Sony from ‘The Workforce Scorecard’

The objective of this exercise is to create a list of the ‘strategic positions’ in your organisation. The chart

below may help you to structure this conversation – and to provide a framework to note down your

conclusions. List each role once only – irrespective of whether it contributes to multiple strategic

capabilities. You will need additional paper or flipchart.

A ie this might be E

store]

B C D E

Strategic capabilities

Strategic positions – aligned to strategic capabilities

Executive leadership?

Strategic players

”

What is a ‘strategic player’?

These are the people, that if in appropriate role, will make the biggest difference to

business performance. Players are categorised as top talent, emerging talent,

career level/move, using an A,B and C scale. It is important to acknowledge that a

B player may have A potential given the right role.

Review the template that follows and create your own definition of A player in

YOUR OWN BUSINESS.

Source: Adapted for Sony from ‘The Workforce Scorecard’

These are examples to help you define what ‘strategic players’ should be in your business. Review the definitions below.

“A” Player “B” Player “C” Player

Track Record Exceeds expectations of employees, customers, and peers Meets key customer expectations Occasionally meets expectations

Hiring Hires A-players and employees with A-potential; has the “edge” to make the

tough calls and remove consistent C-players

Hires mostly Bs and an occasionally a costly C-

player; accepts less than top performance

Hires mostly C-players; crises occur due to low

talent level; tolerates mediocrity

Salary guideline Compensation should ideally be at Q3 of appropriate market Compensation should ideally be at 50th – 65th

percentile of appropriate market

Compensation should ideally be at median or

below of appropriate market

Vision Facilitates the creation and communication of a compelling and strategically

sound vision of new ways of working

Vision lacks credibility; is somewhat unrealistic or

strategically flawed

Embraces tradition over forward thinking

Analytical Able to rapidly perform complex analyses Not as insightful as an A-player Has difficulty coping with new, complex situations

Communication Excellent oral/written skills Average oral/written skills Mediocre skills

Coaching Successfully counsels, mentors, and teaches each team member to

significantly improve performance and personal/career growth

Performs annual performance reviews and some

additional feedback; is inconsistent in coaching

Inaccessible, hypercritical, stingy with praise and

late/shallow with feedback; avoids career

discussions

Team Building Creates focused, collaborative, results-driven teams; energizes others May want teamwork but does not make it happen Drains energy from others; actions prevent

synergy

Diversity “A” players recruit and promote based on capability, demonstrating no bias

with regard to gender, race etc.

“B” players generally recruit and promote on merit

and without bias

Decisions may be based around alliances rather

than on merit

Customer Focus Extremely sensitive and adaptive to stated+ unstated customer needs.

Anticipates/ influences customer needs to deliver effective solutions. Thorough

understanding of the breadth of stakeholder interests and needs

Knows that “customer is king” but does not act on

it as often as A-players

Too inwardly focused

Leadership Initiates needed change; highly adaptive and able to “sell” the organization on

change

Favors modest, incremental change, so there is

lukewarm “followership”

Prefers the status quo; lacks credibility, so people

are hesitant to follow

Drive Passionate; extremely high energy level; fast paced; tenacious, makes things

happen

Motivated; energetic at times Dedicated; inconsistent pace

Resourcefulness Impressive ability to find ways over, under, around, and through barriers;

invents new ways of working

Open-minded and will occasionally find a new

solution

Requires specific direction

Integrity 100% robust, decisive personality Honest Actions/decisions can lack integrity

Know your strengths and bench

10

Performance High

Mismatch

Problems Soldiers

Talents

Potential

High

Low

Sales

IS

Mkt

Ops

Objective Assessment of Talents

• Can only be really useful if done by comparable method

• Needs common agreed criteria for talent

• Needs to be fair and robust to be credible with management

• Needs to be something that makes decisions clear and uncompromising and not subjective

• Could use tools and competencies that already exist, with additions where needed

• Risk is using less objective, current data without checking consistency and comparability = hit and miss deployment

Strategic Talent Management

Assess

Deploy

Coach

Develop

Reward

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