McKinsey’s seminal “War for Talent” research painted a grim picture of human capital practices: Only 19 percent of companies were viewed as attracting talented people, and 8 percent of retaining them. Equally discouraging, a miniscule 16 percent demarcated employees as A, B, or C players. Sadly, the picture has barely improved.
Becoming a “best in class” talent management organization requires, in part, correctly identifying, developing, and promoting leaders and future leaders who possess the capability to excel in higher-level roles. While that sounds simple enough, the fact is: When it comes to selecting and promoting the “best of the best,” most organizations make far too many mistakes. Most organizations rely too heavily on subjectivity and management opinion when making promotion and high-potential decisions. For an organization to excel operationally now and into the future, they must select and promote leaders and future leaders who demonstrate they have the capability (can do), commitment (will do), and alignment (must do) required to help drive the organization to succeed. These three elements are the “leading indicators,” that predict both leader and organization success. Organizations that focus on passionately and diligently assessing, measuring, and calibrating these leading indicators, will achieve breakthrough operating results!
Talent guru John Mattone’s groundbreaking Talent Leadership shows you how to use metrics for benchmarking current and future talent, for turning assessment data into targeted coaching and development, and for linking the strength of your leadership development practices with organizational health, as measured by EBITA, sales, revenue, and other key financial data.
Drawing on more than 30 years of research and experience, including coaching work with over 200 executives and consulting work with more than 250 organizations, Mattone’s simple, yet profound approach to leader identification and development will open your eyes to the qualitative and quantitative value HR can bring to organizations and equip you, the HR or operating executive, with the tools for achieving success, including:
The 4Ds of robust talent management systems: deployment (selecting and promoting talent), diagnosis (continually assessing leader, individual, and team capability), development (continuously developing that capability), and demarcation (rewarding performance).
The Stealth Fighter Model™: a diagnostic tool that links each element of your talent management practices, including assessing the strength of your 4Ds; measuring the leading indicators of leadership potential; weighing individual, team, and organizational performance; and determining if your leadership practices are contributing to or detracting from operational excellence.
The Wheel of Success™: a universal target of leadership success consisting of an outer core of nine strategic skills and an inner core of seven intrapersonal and interpersonal elements that strongly affect a leader’s ability to grow and develop his or her outer core—plus much more.
The best predictor of a leader’s future behavior is more than just his or her past behavior; it also requires the deliberate assessment, alignment, and development of those skills, motivation factors, and personality elements required for success in future leadership positions. Talent Leadership will help you make the most effective strategic human resources decisions so that you can propel your leaders and future leaders to higher levels of success while driving stellar operating results—with the metrics to prove it.
John Mattone is the president of JohnMattonePartners, Inc., a global leadership consulting firm. He is a sought after keynote speaker and coach to many of America’s leading corporations. He also teaches in the executive MBA program at Florida Atlantic University and, in 2011, was named to the “guru radar” by the prestigious Thinkers50. He lives in Orlando, Florida. John can be reached at johnmattonepartners@gmail.com.
Luiz Xavier is a doctoral candidate in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program at the University of Central Florida.
Great leaders drive the bottom line, which is why organizations pour money into leadership development. But most companies have no real way to gauge whether their efforts are paying off—much less where they are falling short.
Talent Leadership unlocks the secret of building a world-class leadership identification and development program by using assessment and calibration as foundational tools. Unlike most leadership development efforts that look at “lagging indicators,” such as cost per hire or turnover, this book identifies far more important metrics that actually predict operating results: the “leading indicators” of capability, commitment, and alignment with organizational goals.
Packed with research findings, best practices, case studies, proprietary assessments, and more, the book explains the key components of exceptional leadership development practices employed by great organizations, including how to:
Employ assessments to benchmark current and future executive talent
• Use the resulting data to identify leaders with potential based on their capabilities, commitment, and alignment with organizational goals
• Leverage your analysis to target training and coaching where they will have the greatest impact on individual performance and overall operating success
Talent Leadership helps you push past the myopic practices of hiring and promoting technically proficient people who lack the motivation and vision to successfully lead. This book is for leaders of HR, talent management, OD/MD professionals, and the vast population of operating managers who are charged with identifying, managing, and developing high-potential and emerging leaders.
Advance Praise for Talent Leadership:
“Through countless interviews, extensive global travel, and years of consulting and coaching hundreds of organizations and leaders, John Mattone has developed a fool-proof method for identifying and developing leaders and prospective leaders. In his new book, John shares knowledge that took him three decades to amass. How fortunate that we can benefit from his wisdom simply by reading Talent Leadership.”
— Marshall Goldsmith, million-selling author of the New York Times bestsellers MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
“This is a must-read for every CEO, senior leader, and HR executive, if they want to drive breakthrough operating results.”
— Dan Hoeyer, CEO, Business Educators, Inc.
“John Mattone’s Talent Leadership book and personal coaching and consulting have proven instrumental in developing our talent management strategies. We are now very adept at aligning our people capabilities with our business strategy, and as a result we are driving sustained bottom-line performance.”
— Richard Swanson, President & CEO, Nebraska Machinery
About the Author
JOHN MATTONE is the president of JohnMattonePartners, Inc., a global leadership consulting firm. John also teaches in the executive MBA program at Florida Atlantic University. In 2011, he was named to the “guru radar” by the prestigious Thinkers50.
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