Bench Strength

CHAPTER 4

E

VALUATING

S

TRATEGIC

T

RADE

-O

FFS

No trumpets sound when the important

decisionsofourlifearemade.

Destiny is made known silently.

—A

GNES DE

M

ILLE

,

CHOREOGRAPHER

I would argue th at all strategies are de fined by the decisions they

encompass. The trick here is not just in making superior decisi ons,

but also i n learning how to i denti fy, fr om the plethora of leadership

talent decisions that confront you at a ny moment, t hose few deci-

sions that shap e the events aroun d you. I am su re that as a com-

pany executive or CTO you may have recen tly fo und yoursel f

confronted with a num ber of diffi cult talent management deci-

sions:

• Do I take a risk and promote t his st rong high-potent ial

manager into th at general manager posi tion, or backfill with the

other can didat e who has far greater experien ce, but less long-t erm

potential for a dvanc ement ?

• Given the fact that I can onl y affo rd to send on e of my ten

managers to a special development work shop, who sh ould g o?

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• Now that o ne of m y best people has s udden l y left her j ob,

do I backfill wi th an i ntern al candidate who has similar skills and

experience, or condu ct an external sea rch for someone with a to-

tally dif feren t prof ile?

• Should I attempt to identif y individual succ essor s to key

positions, or develo p a pool of candida tes wh o could serve in a

variety of posi tions?

• Which of t he leaders in my group have the strongest p oten-

tial to take on broade r resp onsib ilitie s within ou r comp any?

When faced with these types of tal ent management decisions,

talent st rateg ists a nd tac ticia ns emp loy ve ry dif feren t deci sion-

making styles. Tacticians tend to trea t each talent decision as an

isolated occurrence. The d ecisi on to launch a new l eader ship d e-

velopment prog ram or to fin d the b est candidate for a posi tion i s

made without referring bac k to the overall talent game plan. Th e

problem w ith t his approach is that, over time , the conseq uence s of

these isolated decisions may work against each other, producing a

talent strateg y that is fra gment ed and ineff ectiv e.

In contrast to t his, like th e best chess players, ta lent s trate gists

are able to think several st eps ahead in the ga me. They con sider

each decision within the ov erall conte xt of their overar ching strat -

egy and th e long-term pay-offs and pitfalls that are associate d with

alternative ch oices.

So how do talent strategists do this? In my exp erien ce, they

tend to employ s ix guidelin es to naviga te through extremely com-

plex talent management decisions:

Guid eline 1: Clearly Define Your Talen t

Management Objectives

I know that your overa ll goal is to stren gthen your leadership

bench, bu t take a minute to ask yourself a few questi ons th at can

help you more careful ly fra me thi s goal :

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