Talent management is fundamentally about ensuring that the right people are positioned in the right places and utilized to the fullest potential for optimal success of the organization. Top business leaders clearly understand their talent pools. They work hard to identify the key players who have critical relationships with customers and suppliers, and then work even harder to nurture and keep those key resources.
A number of business leaders have asserted that coming up with the best talent for their companies is the most important task they have to perform. Some, like former GE Chairman Jack Welch and Honeywell International’s Larry Bossidy, spent a significant amount of time searching for the best talent within their own employee pools, hoping to build leadership that way. Both Welch and Bossidy have frequently said that all the great strategies in the world will have little effect on a company unless the right people are chosen to execute those strategies.
Steve Miller, the most successful turnaround CEO, clearly connects talent and execution. This master of execution rescued Federal-Modul, Waste Management, RelianceGroup, Aetna, Bethlehem Steel, and Delphi, among others. One of his first tasks as a new CEO was to find the critical talent who could exercise the plans to save the company (Miller, 2008).
Effective leaders understand that key talent, those employees in jobs that are critical to the company, are essential to an organization’s success and put a premium on keeping the talent they need for growth.
