As we get deep into the fall season, we’re all reminded of the bounty at local markets and in our gardens. Just as farmers gather crops matured through diligent care and timely interventions, so do many business owners and people leaders take stock of their organizations and people strategies. Have you nurtured the seeds of your team member’s success? Are you on course to achieve the business goals set earlier in the year? Or are there areas in need of calibration? When it comes to your people, a talent mapping exercise may be the key to harvesting the gold - at any time of year.
Recognizing the cycles that tend to govern business rhythms, the need for strong talent to foster growth and/or new directions will be at the top of many a priority list. For small to mid-market enterprises, the challenge can be especially acute as many have the desire to embark on new growth initiatives, and most often the desire is for those to happen in the near term. This is a time when there's a real need for skilled talent and leadership skills at every level.
Talent takes on many shapes. When it comes to talent planning, short-term thinking might have you looking at the existing roles within your organization, evaluating who currently fills them, and contemplating who could fill them in the near future. Yet, it’s a solid business strategy that demands a long-term vision for your talent needs.
To that end, with so much activity required to achieve desired results, committing to any kind of plan for developing leaders, or creating a longer-term talent map, can seem like an impossible luxury. Some businesses come up short due to outdated processes for identifying potential leaders within their team, or because they have bought into the myth that hiring from outside will give them a greater competitive edge, which may be the case in certain circumstances. Often though, the challenge with creating the talent plan - and the talent map - is lack of an ongoing look at the talent on board, and how the potential of upskilling for the right competencies with the right people can be the difference maker.
To create the map, you may start independently by “mind mapping” your current talent.
Take a thoughtful look at the people already working for you, and how they might connect to your business needs and plans. Talent mapping is more than a process of collecting names in a database and slotting them in next to speculative job titles. It should begin as an analysis of where the roads merge between your map for business growth and your valued employee’s career potential based on their aspirations, competencies and interests. This will take time, communication and flexibility, but if your mapping can be refined to fit both the individual’s and the organization’s vision for the future, you have hit the sweet spot.
The key to a robust talent mapping strategy is creativity. Obviously, your business needs - current and future - need to remain at the forefront of your planning but, by balancing strengths on the current team with the gaps that need to be addressed you might find some promising solutions on your own doorstep.
Here’s an example: if you have someone who is great at both sales and recruiting, creating a hybrid role may be a better route to high performance for that person. What are the risks involved with relegating them to only one function, and then going outside to hire for the other one? Is there a better way that you could allocate your resources and support this person as they handle both responsibilities?
Another situation that could arise: you have a leader who is excellent at all parts of their job except for one. Is there a way to revise things and move that particular responsibility to someone else? Sometimes we dim the shine of a star by trying to get all five points to be an equal length, but perhaps it’s their lopsidedness that makes them a star and creates a winning combination of attributes that would be difficult to find in another individual.
Too often we see an effectively functioning team torn apart because employees have grown beyond their traditional job title, which is a key reason why talent mapping is so important. There are many ways to utilize and develop people’s burgeoning areas of competency that will strengthen their level of engagement and commitment while helping you to effectively meet short and long term business needs. Often, permission to expand beyond an aging job description and the resources and support to be, and feel, successful can work wonders to keep key talent engaged.
As the changing seasons guide actions of the harvest, the stages of our talent plans – from hiring, performance reassessment, upskilling for new initiatives and technologies, or promoting rising stars, require periodic and dedicated focus to achieve alignment with the goals that have been set. Talent mapping can be a key process to ensure organizational sustainability and resilience.
Do your homework and have some frank conversations with your best people about where they feel they can add value to your organization in the future. Be clear about your vision and listen closely to the ways that they feel they align with it. By anticipating what you’ll need, understanding what you’ve got, and exploring where you can be flexible, the talent map can take shape and move your business strategy forward, long after the harvest season has passed.
Want to know more about talent mapping and the roadmap for aligning with your overall people strategy? Consider online learning with Align. Grow. Prosper: Meeting the Talent Challenges of a Changing Workplace. Get the details are here.
