Comments on: Should you tell them?

By: Meg Bear

Meg Bear — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:33:51 +0000

@Mike, very good point. Interesting at how our desire to neatly classify people makes everything else more complicated.

By: mike

mike — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:11:42 +0000

I think a lot of the issue of should you tell vs. should you not, fairness vs. sameness, what to do with the “left outs,” etc. can be resolved by acknowledging the many different types of potential that can exist within an organization. For example, if you are fresh out of grad school and starting a first real job, whether you are tagged as high potential or not is going to have a huge impact on job satisfaction and how long you see yourself with the company.

But what if you could be tagged as either having SME potential, program leadership (vs people leadership) potential, or potential to move to a particular management level within the company (say, Director level but perhaps not CEO). That is more useful information for the company to have on hand, and also gives you a more realistic while still motivating view of how your potential career trajectory is perceived.

My experience tells me that most people have a pretty good grasp of where their talents and interests lie, anyhow, and so where they are slated won’t be of great surprise. In this regard, it’s actually the yes/no dichotomies that create the problems of ego/disillusionment that makes us afraid to tell.

By: Mark Bennett

Mark Bennett — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:30:49 +0000

I recently read “Building Tomorrow’s Talent” and they point out the need to have our act together when informing top talent and/or high potentials so as to avoid the problems of “big heads”, “left outs”, etc. This is of course, what leadership is all about - adequate preparation to deal with what you can’t hide from, which in turn can benefit from coaching support. Preparation includes having consistent, documented, definitions, policies, and processes (which can cover the fact that measurement includes managerial judgment.) This can include a description for how people are removed from “the list,” say, for behaving inappropriately as a result from having an oversized ego for instance. In addition, folks not on “the list” should have development opportunities as well, even if they are different. Fairness does not have to mean sameness.

By: Gretchen

Gretchen — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:30:00 +0000

I second the vote for transparency…people want to know where they stand, and will work to find out. Not knowing increases the probability of top talent turnover. (”Company B seems to want me, and I don’t know what’s up with Company A. Looks like Company B is the winner.”

I’m also a fan of Signorello. Sounds like a good weekend!