Winning the War for Talent

10 Secrets to Building Great Talent

1.     Set a “gold standard” for the quality of talent your business needs and never, ever compromise it.

2.     Hire intelligent, passionate and diverse talent—focus on “fit” and potential first; required skills second, as these can always be developed and improved.

3.     Constantly challenge and develop them by pushing their comfort zones through stretch assignments and early and often promotions.

4.     Provide them the room to show their “stuff”; recognize success and learn from (not punish) failure.

5.     Be tough on performance but soft on the person through real-time, candid feedback focused on improvement and stretch.

6.     Coach/Mentor where appropriate.  Otherwise, get out of their way.

7.     Provide “just in time” training when and where it makes sense.

8.     Protect your “A” players from a “C” player environment; regularly remove poor fits and marginal contributors whose behaviors, skill sets and/or results don’t meet the standard.

9.     Recognize/reward growth and achievement.  Pay your best performers better.  Celebrate successes and be generous with non-pay recognition.

10.  Manage your talent portfolio like a strategic asset; regularly measure its strengths and weaknesses, identify critical gaps and take necessary actions to ensure you have the bench you need to run your business.