Talent Management what is it?

Recently, Gower Commissioning Editor Jonathan Norman, sat down with Nigel Povah, co-editor of Assessment Centres and Global Talent Management and asked him how assessement centres address the issues of diversity. We filmed as they continued to discuss how Assessment Centres can find talented individuals, and then broke the discussion down into three section so you can watch in chunks.

Do let us know if you find our short chats interesting and useful.

Part one of three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj_8_1Le1-Q  (5mins)

You can view part 2 of the interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmzzlPrIgI8 (5 mins) and part 3 here: http://youtu.be/-y5aFNLgRnI (4 mins)

Webinar: How can HR unlock the value of the middle manager?

Jane Sparrow with be presenting a webinar on Monday 18th March, 2013 at 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM GMT discussing how HR can unlock the value of the middle manager.

Jane believes it is essential that managers have the confidence and capability to be great engagers and this is the only way to truly build and sustain a high performance culture. Within the webinar, she will provide proven and practical strategies for HR Professionals which they can use in order to support their managers and use throughout their organisation.

You can register for the webinar here.

Jane is author of The Culture Builders.

There are good reasons why senior managers show scant interest in project management.

Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez’ article in PM World Journal is a fascinating insight into why senior managers tend to ignore project management. I won’t steal his thunder – read the article, it is an interesting perspective; whilst it may feel somewhat depressing I think there is plenty of evidence that things are changing. Antonio is author of The Focused Organization: How Concentrating on a Few Key Initiatives Can Dramatically Improve Strategy Execution.

Surely, time to stop being lead by the nose?

I really enjoyed Douglas Board’s interview with Bob Garlick on the recent Business Book Talk. It’s extraordinarily demoralising, when we are all struggling to create a new future in an uncertain business world, to see those selected and paid to lead us so often seem to have feet of clay. Douglas’ insights into executive selection offer some pragmatic ways of changing by understanding and embracing the uncertainty and complexity it involves. If we adopt the kind of approaches he is advocating in the place of the old, self-perpetuating ones, I wonder to what extent this would change both the quality of our leaders and the culture of leadership which they enable? Douglas Board is author of Choosing Leaders and Choosing to Lead: Science, Politics and Intuition in Executive Selection.

Getting Smart about Flexible Working

There still seems to be a lot of scepticism surrounding the benefits that flexible working can have on businesses.  With new leave regulations and new measures for flexible working being implemented by the government during 2013, this is a step in the right direction, however, it may reinforce sceptical attitudes towards flexible working.

You can read more about this subject by author Andy Lake, who has written a recent blog for HRZone. Simply register your details online for free.

Andy Lake’s book Smart Flexibility is available here, you can also read chapter 1, at your own convenience.

Free Webinar – Landing your first CEO role

In conjunction with the Association of MBAs, Douglas Board, author of Choosing Leaders and Choosing to Lead will be hosting a free webinar on the topic of ‘Landing your first CEO role’. This webinar is designed for anyone competing now, or over the next 2-4 years, for their first CEO role, or a top tier position in a large organisation. It is relevant to the private, public and voluntary sectors.

This webinar will take place on Tuesday 19th February at 13:00.

The main webpage is here: http://www.mbaworld.com/networkingeventsbydate

You can register here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/836317598

Changing the Way Things are Done – One on One

Jane Sparrow’s interview with Bob Garlick in the recent Business Book Talk is a wonderful example of leading by example. If you just listen to how Jane talks about her approach to leading employees, you get an immediate sense of the quality and common sense she distills in her book The Culture Builders. Her focus on the importance of middle managers in making things happen may not be radically new but the pragmatism that she brings to the process of mobilizing them is immediately convincing. That doesn’t mean that it’s easy – particularly with the five distinctive roles that she outlines for middle managers (prophet, storyteller, strategist, coach, pilot) – but then, just maybe there are middle managers out there who are looking for the opportunity to step up to a challenge; to make a difference to their organization and not spend their whole time simply as the bulldogs of business-as-usual.

Why are Chief Executives running scared?

In a recent article for the Health Service Journal, Douglas Board, author of Choosing Leaders and Choosing to Lead discusses the NHS and how it needs leaders who are curious and ready to take risks - not motivated by fear of failure. Using his expertise within the areas of executive selection and his knowledge of the industry - Douglas offers a thought-provoking insight into the current trends within the NHS today.

You can read Douglas’ article in full, here http://www.hsj.co.uk/5052908.article.

Sustainable Business … at last, a clearer roadmap

Gordon Pearson’s interview with Bob Garlick on Business Book Talk is a revelation. Gordon’s one of those academic authors who can talk about issues at a level of global economic theory in a way that gives you a real sense of what the driving forces are in the background behind operational businesses. His ideas on cooperation-based businesses really deserve to be picked up at a policymaker level but in the meantime, it’s open for you and I to explore and aspire to a post-crisis world that is robust and sustainable, rather than lurching from one mess to another. Gordon Pearson is author of The Road to Co-operation and The Rise and Fall of Management.
  

If you just see the synergy between business & military leadership as evidence of the commercialisation of warfare then you are missing a huge opportunity

There is a huge amount that business leaders can learn from the military experience; the trouble is that in many cases, the lessons require translation. Bob Garlick’s interview in Business Book Talk with Nicholas Beale (Strategy Consultant) and David Ellery (Foreign Office) really opens up the oppportunity for business leaders to learn from the military and vice-versa. Some readers and listeners may view this confluence of business and battle as evidence of the increasing commercialisation of war but I don’t think this points to that at all; rather it’s the first, rather successful attempt, to distill pragmatic and universal leadership lessons in a langauge that makes them relevant to all. Vice-Admiral Charles Style, Nicholas Beale and David Ellery are the co-editors of In Business and Battle: Strategic Leadership in the Civilian and Military Spheres.