Effective strategic talent management practices can have an affect on business performance. However, there are plenty of potential pitfalls that can derail the best succession management, leadership development and culture improvement efforts. Here’s are the top 5 of the the more common one’s I’ve run into over the years. Not in My House: Functional managers protect talent that reports to them, see them as “their employees” and do not offer them as candidates for advancement or development opportunities. They may even get upset if other managers talk to “their people” about opportunities. As a result, talent pools are limited and do not reflect the real bench strength of the organization. Agile, high potential and high professional talent becomes frustrated and leaves the company. Alternatively, their careers may derail due to over-reliance on a single benefactor. Lists for Lists Sake: Completing talent discussions just to have a succession plan or back-up list. The Impact? The actual hit rate on back-up lists is typically only about 15%, contributing little to improving organization capability and providing a low return for this effort. The true capability of the total organization to achieve strategic targets is not assessed or improved. In addition, High Professional (as opposed to High Potential) talent, critical to maintaining a company’s core competencies, is overlooked and may become disengaged. In addition, a large pool of talent that is often “under the radar” but has significant potential to grow is overlooked. Take a Pill: Development of high potential talent is limited to “take a training class” rather then meaningful assignments or broader-based development. Talent is slowly developed or not developed at all. High Potential and High Professional employees get frustrated by a lack of challenging work and growth opportunities. Training budgets are usually “fickle” so development can be erratic if training is over-emphasized. The return on training investment is not realized. Nothing Gained: A lack of or inconsistent follow-up on organization development action items from talent discussions. As a result, the long-term capability of the organization is not improved. Initial momentum for the process is eventually lost. Employees see a varying level of support for the process and wonder what’s happening. Key talent may be come frustrated because the only hear words and see no action. Resurrection is Much Harder Than Birth: Spending too much time and resources on blocked, low learning agile, low potential employees, trying to fix them. The overall capacity of the organization to grow is hampered. A Return on Improved Performance is not realized because the investment is going to those with a very low chance of improvement. High potential talent becomes frustrated and leaves. So what to do if your company is infected by some of these derailers? You can check out some potential remedies or preventive measures by going to Talent Management Derailers. The whitepaper also identifies 7 other potential derailers and remedies.

Effective strategic talent management practices can have an affect on business performance.  However, there are plenty of potential pitfalls that can derail the best succession management, leadership development and culture improvement efforts.  Here’s are the top 5 of the the more common one’s I’ve run into over the years.