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At least once a month, I show a decidedly fake version of myself to very important people who have paid handsomely for my services. The fake me may show up in a client meeting, an executive education session or during an important speech. My clients don’t know that it’s the fake me and they don’t […]

The Top Line: Five Key Findings from our 2024 survey Our 2024 Global HR Census finds that a curious dichotomy describes those in the HR field.HR leaders show up as highly engaged.Many are willing to sacrifice to achieve their career goals. They care deeply about developing people and they possess strong experience in the function. […]

Preface Dear Reader: I apologize for writing such a long report. What you’ll read in this report started with an article idea about skills-based environments. The idea was spurred by the increasing promotion of the concept by vendors and consultants and the early corporate initiatives I had heard about. When I write an article, I […]

If you believe that better quality talent delivers better results, then you should want as much great talent on your team as quickly as you can get it. A well-run talent review is the surest, shortest path to make that happen. Unfortunately, leaders don’t always get the benefits they should from talent reviews. Leaders are […]

At a recent dinner, a client steered the topic towards assessing the potential of talent. She asked me to share my insights on predicting the leadership potential of employees (defined as the ability to build and lead teams of increased scope and complexity to outperform the competition), to which I shared my musings summarized as: […]

There are two questions that we ask in our early conversations with clients. Their answers provide us with deep insights about their ability to add value through talent. They also instantly diagnose which talent practices need more attention. The two questions are: 1. Is your organization able to sustain individual high performance? 2. Do you […]

It’s great news that talent reviews have become almost universal in organizations. This foundational practice can help any organization to build better talent faster. The fact that most companies do them, however, doesn’t mean that they’re done well. We see companies with overly complex processes, vague definitions of potential, ill-equipped HR leaders, no follow up […]

Hal’s a loyal, friendly and well-liked guy. He’s been with your company more than 20 years. He’s in a big, important role. Hal was a great fit with the company when he joined, but is a highly questionable fit with its future needs. His performance is consistently rated at or slightly below average. His role […]

When we see a client’s failing performance management process, our first question is about how goal setting works in the organization. The client will say that goals are set 5 months into the year. They’ll show us long lists of tactical goals. They’ll explain that managers have no accountability to set goals well. While those […]