Do we have the talent we need for the future?

Dec 04th

This is the question many business leaders are now asking themselves. The recession woke us up, forced us to evaluate our business propositions (a good thing in my view), prompted us to redefine our strategies for the changing marketplace and that is now bringing hard questions about our current talent into sharp focus.

I think it’s shown that in the good times we were much more focused on managing the talent we needed for today; attracting the best, developing and retaining the people that are critical to delivering results in the short term. And we didn’t have to worry too much about the performance of some people who were comfortable in their roles, doing a good job overall, but maybe in danger of plateauing in terms of contribution to the business.

That’s changing – and although there are always some notable exceptions of forward-looking organisations who anticipate the skills and attributes they need for the future – the vast majority have not been preoccupied with looking round the corner when it comes to new skills, new jobs and new generations of talent. A scary fact is that the top 10 jobs that are in most demand now did not exist just five years ago. As someone quoted to me last week, “Leadership is about fixing the future state”, so what are we doing as senior leaders today to assess and plan for the workforce we need in say 2012 to create and deliver the future?…

Read the full article in the November issue of MT Entrepreneur Weekly

This article is filed under: leadership, talent management