In a recent study by PDI Ninth House, business leaders identified talent development as one of the most important competencies for leaders today, but it also revealed that the higher people climbed in the organisation, the less skilled they were at developing talent.

The 8,000 business leaders surveyed said the competency for building talent was most important for senior-level leaders, followed by business-unit leaders, mid-level leaders and first-line leaders.

I think we are all very well aware that there is a huge demand to recruiting and retaining talented people.

Recruiting skill is one thing. The development of talent is completely another.

Your ability to develop the talent will be largely influenced by the amount of potential and desire that exists within each person you are responsible to develop.

By this, I don’t mean that you don’t have the ability needed to create the extraordinary from the ordinary. But developing talent is a lot easier if you select people with higher degrees of potential to begin with.

And when I say higher, I don’t just mean they are already good. I mean they have the attitude, aptitude and ability to become really good.

Now one really important point I want to raise in regard to developing talent and your role in that journey is this:

Regardless of how good they are when they come to you, regardless of who they have worked with before, or from which company they have come, regardless of their level of formal education, and regardless of who has mentored them previously.

Where they are when they walk into your team/organisation.

That is your starting point.

And the other reality in all of this is that no-one will ever come join you and the team to go backwards.

Therefore, you have a decision to make when it comes to talent development. Well actually, you will have quite a few decisions to make, but one of the most important decisions you will need to contemplate is a philosophical one:

Are the people you have a responsibility to develop?

1. Someone you are going to have to endure
2. Someone you will just let find their own way forward
3. Someone you will work with to develop

Once again it is a very personal decision, but it is one you need to understand, consider and decide upon.

1. Do you recruit talent and just let them do the job. Help them when needed and other than that, keep out of their way.
2. Or alternatively recruit talent and without micromanaging, work hard to continue to develop that talent.

The second point will always bring with it a certain amount of risk. The risk of investing money and time into someone’s development and then the talent may get up and leave.

But what happens if you don’t work hard to develop them and they stay?

The Journey Continues!