« Illiteracy and un-economic development | Main | Asset or liability »
March 20, 2007
Losing talent
Speaking of wasted brain power (see yesterday's posting), the most recent In The Lead column in the Wall Street Journal looks at how Managers Lose Talent When They Neglect To Coach Their Staffs:
Rather than worry so much about the war for talent in today's tight job market, executives ought to focus on the waste of talent in their ranks. Many don't spend nearly enough time making sure the people under them learn and grow on the job.
. . .
A key differential between a staffer who feels like a valuable part of a company and one who is disengaged is the quality of leadership in their workplace. Most engaged employees work for managers who spend a big chunk of their time helping their subordinates succeed. Managers who focus on talent assign their employees to jobs that play to their strengths, make sure they have the resources they need to perform well, respect their opinions and push them to advance.
The piece goes on to talk about the need to develop talent -- including helping people grow into their jobs. In this day of job hopping and quick layoffs, the concept of growing talent may seem like a left over from the era of large hierarchical organizations and life-time employment. But it shouldn't be.
In the I-Cubed Economy, on-the-job training is key to any organization's success and sustainability. That training includes all facets of the workforce, not just technical skills. Skill development and energizing the workforce is a major task of a manager - which is often overlooked in the day-to-day crunch. But a good manager wouldn't let the organization waste a lot of money and resources just to get the daily job done. And wasting talent is just as bad as wasting money. It is just more invisible (which points out the need for better internal information on intangibles -- but that is another story).
The good managers get it and work on developing their internal talent. And the bad ones -- end up as models for Dilbert cartoons.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at March 20, 2007 11:04 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.athenaalliance.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1215