Talent Pipelines Should be Pools, Not Single Successors

Since it is not the immediate fire that needs putting out today, many companies still have not put energy into strategic workforce planning and proactively created a talent pipeline. I see this in all sizes of businesses, but I also uncover more and more that while they are not doing formal planning, they have often have a key successor in mind for key roles. It is not in your best interest to name, determine, or even formulate a future, long-term talent decision based on one individual. When doing so, you limit the possibilities for the future role and put too much pressure on (or give to big of an ego to) one individual.

I certainly recognize that if you are preparing an individual for a role in the next 6 months or a year, that you may have already seen that they fit the job requirements and approach the work with a unique style that you know will improve the current process. This is smart talent planning and recruiting, but for future talent pipelines, beyond the next 12 months, we need to expand our thinking and approach. 

Key Steps to Creating Rich Talent Pools for Critical Future Roles:

1.     Look beyond the 1-year mark and assess roles you identify as most critical to your business strategies. 

2.     Decide what top 3-5 key skills or experiences are required for these potential job roles.

3.     Before you start looking for talent, decide what characteristics you want for your talent pool – such as: a mix of experience, diverse characteristics, different perspectives on how they would approach the role, and different readiness levels. 

4.     Assess those 1 and 2 levels down who show strength or capability in these areas. Talk to your leadership team and leaders 1 level down to find those you may not be aware of. 

5.      Keep seeking people to consider in the pools until you have met your requirements for your talent pools. 

6.     Then, begin career development conversations and individual development planning. 

It is best to start with 1 or 2 critical roles, so this process stays agile and simple to manage. As you do, you’ll notice two immediate by-products – 1) you’ll start seeing development, capability, and potential in others more and more, 2) people will be motivated by the challenges and developments you are placing in front of them. A win win!