“Talk to me, please!”
The Gallup Q12 poll highlights the fact that people need to know that their manager actively supports their development. Yet research by Gallup indicates that less than 20% of employees get regular feedback from their boss. In fact, over 50% meet less than once a month. That is not enough talking about development!
Roland Smith and Michael Campbell from the Center for Creative Leadership suggest that leaders have an opportunity to turn this around quickly by talking talent with their people – in their words start having regular talent conversations. Sincere and direct dialogue with your people focused on their interests, their job, the work that needs to be done and what support or development they need to be successful.
What I like best about talent conversations is that they are for everyone. Not just people who “need” development and not just under-performers. Talking about what is needed to maintain current and future success demonstrates that you are supporting your people.
At Minnesota State we will be working this year to help our supervisors have talent conversations with their people. The first step is to identify the goal for the conversation for each team member based on their current job-related competency and their own personal development needs or interest in growth. In general you will discover that each person on your team will be interested in one of the following four goals:
- Develop full competence. Focus on acquiring the skills and developing the competences needed to become a solid performer in their current role.
- Explore growth while developing competence. Similar to the first group but also include conversations about future opportunities and how current develop will support growth.
- Maintaining their expertise and staying successful in the future. This group will be interested in deepening their skills, sharing their expertise and staying up-to-date in their current role.
- Accelerating their development. These folks are competent and want to learn new skills and develop competencies needed for bigger roles.
Having a simple and clear goal for your talent conversations will make it easier to dive in and start talking talent!
Todd Thorsgaard
Higher EDge 