Leading as a Coach 1: Winning the talent

Peter is sitting in a lobby of a renowned bank in the Netherlands. He is only 22, but he is a definite high potential, and he is invited for an interview with one of the directors of the bank. Annoyingly though the director is 35 minutes late, and when he arrives he invites Peter in with a big smile. The director doesn’t bother to give any excuses and arrogantly sits down behind his big desk. Upon which Peter asks him why he is late and why he had to sit in the lobby for over half an hour without being given any information. The director answers him: ‘well youngman, I am a director of a big bank, these things happen.’ Big smile. Peter briefly assesses the situation, gets up and politely takes leave with the following words: ‘Well, many thanks for your kind invitation, but I am quite sure that I won’t fit in well in your organization.’ 5 minutes later, 3500 young professionals in the Netherlands have read what Peter has just experienced at a bank that prides itself for being an innovative and top-notch company…

The times of arrogant and impolite directors and managers lie behind us. Especially if you and your company, institute, ministry, NGO or any other kind of organization want to be able to bind and keep talent within your organization. It is a great development, but it also raises some interesting challenges.

The same is true for the ‘emerging-nations’ (like for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – the BRICS). The war for talent has really reached most of the up and coming economies. Douglas A. Ready, Linda A. Hill and Jay A. Corgen are, already for over 20 years, conducting a fast research on talent- and leadership-management amongst various cultures. In 2012 they published an article about ‘interesting and binding talent’ in regard to the BRIC countries. They developed a ‘Talent-Compass’, a frame-work of 4 areas that are essential for successfully ‘interesting and binding talent’.

1. Purpose:

- Pioneering mission and values

- Corporate social responsibility

- Being involved in the region

2. Opportunity:

- Challenging work

- Clear career-path

- Regular training and personal development

- Job security

3. Brand:

- Is renown for excellence

- Pioneer/leading in the branch

- Inspirational leadership

4. Culture: (keeping promises)

- Authenticity

- Meritocracy

- Connectivity/community

- Talent oriented

Workshop:

Work on the ‘Talent-Compass’ together with your management team. First, define the strengths and the weaknesses of your organization in regard to all 4 areas. Then discuss possible improvements for all areas, divide them into 2 categories.

A- Realizable on the short-term

B- Realizable on the middle/longer term

Finally, choose 3 A-goals and 3 B-goals, and develop a strategy to realize them in the next 12 months.

Book-tip: The future of management (Gary Hamel, 2007)

An excellent book on how to design your organization to be ‘future-proof’, and attractive for generation Y and X. The book offers great examples from W.L. Gore, as one of the leading companies to learn from.