Talent development requires making your employees skilled and valuable to the company, and also happy enough that they want to stay with the company. It is an integral part of talent acquisition and talent management. Use proven strategies to start growing your leaders now, and you’ll be ready for tomorrow’s challenges.
Importance of Talent Development in Growing Your Employees
While the Human Resources department has much of the control of hiring, both management and the individual can control talent development. Training and developing employees is a two-way street. Let’s talk about what the individuals can do to increase their value to the company. And then let’s talk about giving your Talent Development program a high profile, both inside and outside the company, to continue to attract better and better talent.
What can any employee do to develop themselves such that the company increases their compensation and job status? They can work to increase their perception, visibility and influence. When they do this, they become effective and influential leaders. They will be a valuable asset to the company and have the satisfaction of making things happen. In many situations, executive job coaching can support committed employees in making these things happen.
Development of Talent Starts With the PVI-Model (evaluating Perception, Visibility, & Influence)
Perception.
How do people look at you? What do they think of you? You can adjust their view of you by several factors. As you do this, you will increase your value to the company—in effect, you manage your talent.
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Information.
What kind of information are you giving to others? They may not be aware of all the things you are doing. While you do not want to brag and be self-centered, you do want to make sure others are aware of what you are contributing.
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Relationships.
Getting along with others makes your life easier and makes them want to be around you. Moreover, there are people working around you who can advocate for you. You don’t have to promote yourself, they will do it for you.
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Recognize Factors.
Many things go into the way others perceive us. They may view you through the lens of: cultural differences, family views, where you were raised, level of social skills, and even the friends you associate with. You’ll need to evaluate how you think you are perceived, how people really see you, how you want to be viewed, and how you can change those perceptions. It may take an executive coach to help you see all of this.
Visibility.
Leaders need to be visible. When you stand out and get noticed, you are perceived as more valuable. Management views your talent as an asset they want to keep. Anyone can go from being invisible to being valued and having impact, if they follow the right steps. If you keep your head down in meetings and speak only when spoken to—that’s got to change. Plan ahead for important encounters, whether it’s a staff meeting, a client presentation or a one-on-one with your boss.
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Self-Promotion.
You can help make others aware of your efforts. You can also raise their awareness of you as you promote others. And finally, your goal is to have others promote you.
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Who Can Promote You?
There are seven types of people who can be your advocate. They are your manager and his bosses, peers, clients, partners, and those working for you. How to get these people to advocate you is best explained in my book, Getting Ahead.
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Seek Visibility.
Choose high profile projects. Get face time with top leaders. Work across departments. Speak up.
Influence.
As you gain visibility and offer worthwhile benefits to the company, you gain influence. This is the goal of top talent. To make a difference. You develop your career and direct it in the course you choose as you gain influence.
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Start where you are.
Depending on where you are in the leadership chain you will apply your influence differently. You don’t need to be the boss in order to lead and influence.
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All Ways Influence.
With the help of training and talent development, you can learn how to influence leaders above you, empower those you work over, and build relationships with your peers.
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Key Skills.
Build a solid reputation. Cultivate top leadership skills. Gain executive presence. Learn how to be likeable and persuade.
Don’t leave your career development in the hands of your company. Reach out and take personal control by following these steps to a more engaging, and rewarding, job. Use the executive presence model as your blueprint to success, as it will provide clear direction on how to reach the next level by developing the core competencies of great leaders.
To jump-start your progress, consider enlisting the support of an executive coach who will give you clear direction on how to reach the next level where having a high degree of executive presence is necessary.
