ASTD session on Talent Management by David Wee

On Tuesday I attended a session by David Wee (Signapore) on Talent Management. I was triggered, the moment I read the title of his session "Getting 90% of your people to perform like the top 10%". And he accomplished to live up to these expectations. It was a great session, brought with enthusiasm and a lot of passion. I would like to share some of the highlights, but first you can watch a short video of David Wee explaining about talent

About the talent zone & talent ecosystem :

A talent ecosystem is a set of conditions that create room and possibilities to grow talent. As David Wee explains in the above video, both Beethoven and Tiger Woods lived in excellent ecosystems to grow their talent. 

But to create a talent ecosystem, you need to know your talent zone. There are 2 important elements that define the talent zone : Passion (love what you do) & Ability (doing what you are great at).

If we put these two on a diagram, we get the following overview :

1. If you have to do things and you are really not passionated at all about it and you are not good at it, then you are in the prison. In that situation there is only one thing you should do : STOP !
2. If you are highly competent, but not passionated, then you are in a situation of Unfulfilled dream
3. If you are very passionated at something, but you are not good at it, you have unfulfilled potential. In that situation, you'd better find yourself a good coach, read books, attend seminars, ... and practice to grow your ability. Only by doing this, you can get into the talent zone. 
4. People who are very capable at what they are doing and who are very passionated about it, they live in the talent zone. 

Try to find out where you are on this matrix and define your strategy for the future so you get into the talent zone. Jim Collins already stated in his session that great companies have belief that all people have talents. It is everybody's responsibility to grow towards the talent zone. Employees need to take initiatives to grow, but also the organization, HR, direct management can support the associate to develop a passion and grow the ability to get into the talent zone. 

Building Talent ecosystems

There are 6 important elements for organizations to create sustainable talent ecosystems :

1. Share deeply belief that everyone has talent
2. Make the business case for talent : bring stories about people's talent. Leaders should lead by example and invest in talent, they should drive talent management. 
3. Create conditions that demand the best from people. you can do this by working supporting people to practice their talent, give them self belief and intrinsic motivate them (e.g. give compliments, tap on the shoulder, ...).
4. Develop people to be the best they can be 
5. Hold people accountable for results
6. Give people a purpose to grow others.  

As you see in the list above managers have an impact on growth of talent management of their associates. They need to develop associates and belief the associate will succeed.  This brings us to the virtuous and the vicious circle of talent management. 

Impact of management belief on talent development

In the virtuous circle there is a positive atmosphere. The manager has belief in his people, which makes associates feel energized which leads to great results. 

In the vicious circle, the manager has few or no belief in his people. He sometimes don't want to invest time in them. All of these kind of excuses make people feel disengaged, which lead to poor results. 

It is in other words important that managers create a positive climate where the ecosystem for talent management arises and people feel engaged. Only this attitude can create the positive talent ecosystem to grow organizations through their people. 

What did I learn form this ? 

The matrix is a good instrument to detect what action should be taken to get somebody in his talent zone. Once we have a good picture on where the person is, we can further develop the talent. 

There are different aspects that have an impact on the development of people's talent. I like the concept of a talent ecosystem. It makes us aware there are many aspects that influence the talent development of our associates. All aspects should be respected, to grow talent.