Critical Talent: Missing in Action
The chief impetus behind the increasing relevance of coaching and mentoring in the workplace revolves around the subject of critical talent like the earth revolves around the sun. Coaching and mentoring in management seeks to broaden the pool of men and women with the skills to steer organizations' growth to new levels, as well as to inaugurate new companies. Everything that's been discussed in this chapter thus far can be reduced to the critical talent equation. What will it take to make certain that this critical talent is around tomorrow and the tomorrow after that?
Coaches are hired to get results without delay and to meet all kinds of deadlines — one month, six months, one year, etc., etc. But, just as importantly, they are in place to ensure that the vital critical talent to sustain and bolster companies' business performances is around for many years to come. In other words, coaches are unleashed so that critical talent is present long after they (the individual coaches) have moved on to greener pastures or into well-earned retirements.
What is “critical talent” in the workplace?
The men and women who are the lifeblood of an organization's core success are known as critical talent. They are the individuals most responsible for taking companies — and other institutions — to the next level, as it were. They are the key personnel behind both businesses' basic functioning as well as their stellar performances.
The Managerial Wave of the Future
Critical talent in the business sphere greatly varies from organization to organization. It is not always what you might think. Critical talent doesn't mean senior executives or even management, per se. For instance, truck drivers are critical talent in enterprises that heavily rely on knowledgeable and dependable truck drivers. Critical talent could also embody qualified sales help in fields where such selling is fundamental to a company's day-today operation and ultimate success.
Throughout this book, we've talked about coaching and mentoring finding its way into every conceivable business and non-profit organization, including government agencies. And one of the chief reasons why coaching and mentoring is the managerial wave of the future is that this method, by its very nature, confronts the burning issue of critical talent shortages. Coaching and mentoring cultivates talent from within organizations.
The hunt for critical talent is fierce right now and is expected to become even more bloodthirsty in the coming years. And just where do most businesses look for their critical talent? Most often, they cast their lustful eyes on their competitors. In the end, businesses poach from one another. It's a longstanding tradition.
Companies have customarily searched for critical talent at the doorsteps of their competition. Coaching and mentoring managerial practices aim to place more of an emphasis on development of talent from within rather than acquiring it from the outside. An important part of a coach's job responsibility is nurturing employees' skills and knowledge of how the company functions.
Development
All too many companies are deeply rooted in a culture of acquisition. That is, of bringing employees in from other places to fill key job roles. While acquisition of critical talent and employees with desired skills is an absolute necessity at times for growing companies, it needn't be the be-all and end-all. With competent coaches in place, the focus shifts to development of talent and the retention of said talent over extended periods of time.
Developing critical talent from within organizations is unquestionably the wave of the future. It has to be. With the increasing scarceness of indispensable skills in the job market, companies are compelled by absolute necessity to teach these skills to their employees. When they cannot find the right help on the outside, they have to create it on the inside.
The current labor market is a very fluid one. In particular, the corporate workforce is in a perpetual state of flux. People just don't stay put anymore. They move on and then move on again, often in very short intervals. They laterally climb career ladders in multiple companies — and sometimes in totally unrelated fields. The phenomenon of working for one company for a job lifetime is quite rare these days.
Nevertheless, there are still organizations that retain their employees better than others. These are the businesses that promote cultures of development, development, and development of talent. They heavily invest in internal training and offer their people legitimate opportunities to advance within the organization. Paradoxically, many companies spend significantly more capital to recruit talent than they do in training their own personnel. This popular approach to conducting business is hardly far-sighted. And nowadays, bypassing in-depth training by relying on the locating of already skilled persons is becoming less and less practical with the dearth of existing critical talent.
