and can direct their personal development towards future roles, rather than present ones. • Shift the emphasis from putting people into


roles towards “the right person, in the right role, for the right time period”. People grow (or not) and so do the demands of the role. Over time what might have been a great fit no longer is. Two common phenomena happen: one is that “designated talent” is moved on too soon, leaving a mess behind them. An innovation here is to hold a “legacy audit” a few months later, and to use the results to determine time in their next role. The other phenomenon is that the manager plateaus. They are not seen as promotable, but their self-esteem will not allow them a less important role. So they become an increasingly solid block in the pipeline – until an organisational crisis initiates a binge of unblocking. An antidote here is to create expectations of constant reshaping of roles and responsibilities. In one multinational company, for example, the top 150 managers have all been tasked with getting rid of at least 25% of their job each year. The aim is partly to stimulate delegation and coaching behaviours, and partly to open up space for their own development and for working on more strategic tasks.


68 Management Today | May 2012


• Resist any attempt to put people into boxes. People only belong in boxes when they are dead. If you must use boxes, do so only to focus their attention on development needs; not as a means of making judgements about their promotability. • Value people for the time they will spend with you. So many appraisals are dishonest, because it is too dangerous for the employee to say, for example, “I’m thinking of spending another two years in this organisation to acquire the skills and experience I need for the job I aspire to, which is unlikely to be here.” The chances of continued promotion would in most cases shrink pretty rapidly at this point. Yet honesty allows you to work with the employee for mutual benefit, with the result that you get far more out of them, while they are in the organisation and – according to anecdotal evidence – the time they stay is typically longer than is evidenced by more apparently “loyal” colleagues.


Four critical conversations From my interviews with HR directors and leaders around the world, many of whom recognised the limitations of simple, linear thinking in talent and succession – even if they did not articulate it in those terms – four distinct types of conversation emerged, which they could encourage and enhance.


The first of these relates to the conversations that employees have in their own heads and with trusted confidantes about their ambitions and career aspirations. The second relates to their current working environment – the conversations they have with bosses, peers and HR about themselves and their work. The third consists of the broader, context-making conversations between an organisation and its employees more generally. In essence, it is about the psychological contract between employees and employer with regard to development and career planning. The fourth kind of conversation brings in the external world and, in particular, the social networks employees and employers use.


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