The 4+2 Model

Building GreatTalent Managers:The 4+2 ModelIt’s a rare individual who can architect, build and execute talent strategies thatactually drive business results. We describe the six factors that differentiategreat talent managers and why they’re essential for success.

The 4+2 ModelIf corporate priorities were set by unanimous agreementabout their importance, executives would befocused on little other than talent management (TM).With amazing regularity a survey emerges reportingthat corporate executives view growing talent as theirfirst priority. In that same survey, the executives lamentthe actual state of talent in their organization and thesurvey authors lament the fractional amount of time theexecutives invest in building talent.This increasingly predictable dialogue obscures thefact that the real work of talent building isn’t gettingdone in most organizations. As human resource professionals,if we are committed to changing that conversation,we must understand the few capabilities thatdifferentiate those companies that consistently producegreat talent and great business results. As experiencedMarc Effron is President of The Talent Strategy Groupand a co-founder of the Talent Management Institute.Jim Shanley is President of The Shanley Group and aco-founder of the Talent Management Institute.practitioners and consultants in this field, we believe acritical and often-overlooked element is the capabilitiesof the TM staff.As TM has evolved into a well-defined discipline, ithas become increasingly important to identify the skillsand behaviors that differentiate a great TM leader. Inthis article we describe those factors. What we presentis likely very different from how a typical HR leader orline executive would describe a good talent manager –and that’s exactly why it works.Defining Talent ManagementTo provide both context and urgency for our model,we start by outlining the functional boundaries of TMand offer a brief overview of the state of the field. Thefunctional boundaries are important since, as a field thatemerged only in the last decade, there’s understandableuncertainty about what work constitutes TM. We lookto the research of the New Talent Management Network(NTMN), the world’s largest organization of TMprofessionals, to help inform us in both areas.The NTMN conducts an annual State of Talent Managementsurvey that assesses what TM does, the struc-INSIGHTS 1

Barely 30% of respondents considered their developmentplanning process Extremely or Mostly Easyto Use. In only one of the eight TM processes assesseddid a majority of companies say that managerswere held accountable for follow up.ture of TM departments, compensation levels, etc. Theirmost recent survey shows that TM is emerging as anincreasingly well-defined field. The types of activitiesdone by TM groups are becoming more consistent anduniversal across companies, and are different than thework done by other HR specialties.The data shows that groups that are officially called“TM” are typically focused on talent reviews and successionplanning, high potential identification, careerdevelopment and assessment and feedback. Groupsidentifying themselves as organization developmentor organization effectiveness engage in these activitiesmuch less frequently. This suggests a shift of theseactivities from those groups (or generalists) to this newspecialty area.The NTMN survey also asks respondents to assesshow their executives would rate the effectiveness oftheir company’s talent practices. You might expect thatefforts at “impression management” would inflate theresponse to this question. Given the findings, we reallyhope they did not. Fewer than half of respondents ratedcore TM practices like high potential identification,development planning and assessing leaders as Alwaysor Often Effective. Succession planning scraped by with51% rating this practice as Effective.Survey questions about the simplicity, transparencyand accountability of those practices fared even worse.Barely 30% of respondents considered their developmentplanning process Extremely or Mostly Easy to Use.In only one of the eight TM processes did a majority ofcompanies say that managers were held accountablefor follow up.While there may be many reasons that these practicesaren’t working and that executives are unhappywith their company’s talent, only one is under our control.As an HR community, we own our capabilitiesand we need to collectively own improving them. Theincreased demand for great talent in our organizationsmakes this not only the ideal time to focus on this issue,but perhaps the last time we’ll have an opportunityto. It’s doubtful that corporate executives will toleratemuch longer a department that is so clearly underperformingits potential.The 4 + 2 Talent Management Capability ModelTM’s recent emergence as a field means that no clearsuccess model has been developed yet. Based on ourexperience as TM consultants and practitioners, interviewswith other well-regarded practitioners and inputover the years from executive search leaders, we believewe have identified the factors that differentiatesuccessful TM leaders.We propose that there are six characteristics that differentiatea high performing TM leader. We considerfour of these to be core – the proverbial “price of admission”required to operate at an acceptable level ofeffectiveness. Being great at these will bring a modicumof success, but they are only part of the equation. Theother two are factors that separate the great from themerely very good. It is these two that elevate TM leadersto their highest level of effectiveness.The Core Four• Business Junkie: Knows business and loves businessINSIGHTS 2

• HR Disciple: Has comprehensive, first-hand knowledgeof human resource disciplines• Production Manager: Can build and consistently executetalent production processes• Talent Authority: Understands the backgrounds,strengths, weaknesses and development needs oftop talentBusiness Junkie: Great talent leaders are permanentlyaddicted to business – they need their daily fix tofunction. They show this by both knowing business andloving business. At a practical level, they are deep expertsin their organization’s business. They understandthe company’s strategy, how the products or servicesare produced, how the R & D process operates andhow the company goes to market. They can pull aparttheir company’s (or any other company’s) income statementand balance sheet, and are able to trace humancapital decisions back to the relevant line items. Theirunderstanding comes from first–hand involvement inthe business – sitting through marketing meetings, wanderingthe floor at the factory, going on sales calls.In addition to knowing their business, they genuinelylove business. They enjoy waking up each morning toparticipate in the capitalistic pursuit of making and sellingthings that produce a profit for their company, jobsfor their employees and returns for their shareholders.Far from being “people focused” and reluctant participantsin their companies, they advance a business-firstagenda, in which they are responsible to get the bestreturn from that corporation’s talent investment.HR Disciple: The HR Disciple has a broad understandingof the core TM areas along with compensation, recruiting,organization development and engagement.They are an avid student of the human resource discipline.They are able to effectively translate from academicabstraction to practical reality. According to theHR leaders we interviewed, there’s no substitute forbroad based experience to grow one’s capabilities asan HR Disciple. Many cited executive recruiting experienceas a great way to calibrate the gold standard forgood talent.Exposure to the other HR specialty areas (compensation,generalist, organization development, etc.) isequally important to ensure the TM leader has a holisticunderstanding of how those levers interact to drive performance.Another critical differentiator? Multi-companyexperience. There’s just no better way to gain perspectiveand depth than by seeing how HR challengesare handled in operating environments and under differentbusiness cultures.Those desiring success in this field should activelyseek out assignments, projects and other opportunitiesthat broaden their experience in both different HR disciplinesand different operating environments. No matterhow superior one’s TM technical skills are, withoutthis additional knowledge and experience it will be difficultto develop the credibility and perspective neededto excel.Production Manager: Some in the TM field think ofthemselves as experienced craftspeople, building individualleaders by hand in a labor of love. The best inthe field know that they are actually the production linemanagers on the talent factory floor. Their job is buildand operate a process that turns out leaders who meetthe specifications agreed to, in the time frame that wasagreed upon. To them, the “talent factory” is not just ananalogy – it’s reality.The 4+2 ModelCore FourBusiness JunkieHR DiscipleTalent AuthorityProduction ManagerDifferentiating TwoCourageous AdvocateTrusted Executive AdvisorINSIGHTS 3

They approach their task with the same disciplinedapproach to process management as any other productionleader. They understand the raw materials availableto them, the tools that can most effectively cut, shapeand polish that material, and how to ensure that the finishedproduct meets quality standards and is distributedappropriately. They know how to keep the productionline moving to produce leaders when needed. Excellingin this role means keeping those production processessimple. As Roger Cude, VP Talent Management for Humana,says, “Your processes must be elegant but simple.As a craft, we tend to overcomplicate things.”Production manager skills can be gained throughpractice with classic project management tools like Pertand Gant charts, through exposure to six sigma methodologyand most powerfully, through first hand experiencein operations or supply chain roles. More important,and more challenging to develop, is the beliefthat talent should be produced with this mindset.Talent Authority: Great talent leaders know their talent,cold. When the CEO calls unexpectedly asking for aslate of candidates, the talent leader can immediatelylist five names along with the strengths and weaknessesof each. The most expensive TM technology is nosubstitute for a talent leader’s nuanced knowledge ofhis charges.A successful talent authority also has a great “eyefor talent.” As subjective as that might sound, certainindividuals have a talent for selecting talent. They understandwhat it takes to succeed in a given role andhave the ability to quickly summarize how well a givencandidates fits with those needs. This likely stems frommatching a deep understanding of the business, its culture,and the patterns of past success, with an ability toascertain how well someone would fit with the intellectual,cultural, political and relationship-based factors ofthe job. It’s tough to be a talent authority without thiscapability.Becoming a talent authority only happens when thetalent leader has a deep, personal knowledge of theorganization’s talent. This means having one-on-onemeetings with key talent where the talent leader buildstrust as he gathers information about leaders’ careers,their ambitions and their management style. She mustthen integrate that information with all the other dataThe best in the field knowthat they are actually theproduction line managerson the talent factory floor.Their job is build and operatea process that producesleaders who meet the specificationsagreed to.she has about that leader – derailer factors, businessperformance, engagement performance – into a comprehensive3-dimensional leadership profile. That effortrequires a large investment of time, but yields great returnsthrough more accurate and timely talent decisions.The Differentiating TwoWhile TM leaders must be Business Junkies, HR Disciples,Production Managers and Talent Authorities,achieving their full potential requires even more. Whenat their best, TM leaders are a trusted advisor to seniorleaders, often including the CEO. Their guidance hasmeaningful impact on the most critical talent choicesmade in the organization and, therefore, on the companyitself. They provide insight and coaching to top leadersthat is compelling enough to actually affect change.They achieve this level of impact by being a:• Trusted Executive Advisor: Uses credibility and relationshipswith executives to influence key decisions• Courageous Advocate: Is appropriately aggressivein advancing a point of view on talent, independentof its popularityTrusted Executive Advisor: As a trusted advisor, the TMleader uses his knowledge, experience and insights toguide key people decisions in the business. But evenwith a strong level of technical expertise, a talent leadercan only become a trusted advisor by flexing a differentset of muscles. Being a trusted advisor means thatINSIGHTS 4

the relationship moves from the professional into thepersonal.The TM leader demonstrating this behavior provideswise counsel on talent issues in a way that considerstheir client’s ego, their personal hopes and fears, andreflects a deeper understanding of the organization’s financial,operational and political realities. This requiresthat the TM leader:• Is professionally credible: Professional credibilitystarts with demonstrating the Core Four we discussedearlier. The credible TM leader can integratethose ingredients in a way that allows the leader tocontinually make the “right” talent decisions for theorganization. This includes being able to persuasivelypresent and argue for a position using the rightbalance of facts and emotion. Without that capabilitythey are destined to remain a technical specialist.• Forms strong executive relationships: The qualityof a TM leader’s personal relationships with seniorexecutives will determine whether they become atrusted advisor on talent issues. That strong relationshipcan only happen after the senior leader truststhat the talent leader has their best interest at heart.To get there, the TM leader will need to demonstratethat they understand the executive’s personal andprofessional agendas and that they respond to theexecutive’s ego needs. The TM leader will increasethe relationship’s strength after each interactionwhere the executive sees that they genuinely representhis or her best interests.Courageous Advocate: The Courageous Advocate hasa theory of the case about why specific talent choicesshould be made and they are appropriately aggressivein voicing that opinion. A difficult capability to master,many TM leaders fail on their path to greatness becausethey over or under use it. A Courageous Advocate:• Has a Theory of the Case: A theory of the case isa fact-based, brief, logical and credible argumentabout why a talent decision should or shouldn’t betaken. It is the concise expression of a deeply heldviewpoint on why talent succeeds, the best way todevelop talent, why talent fails and the learningsfrom hundreds of other talent interactions. A theoryof the case might be that Mary can succeed as a newgeneral manager even though she’s never led teamsbefore because:––Point #1: She is highly motivated to succeed inthat role and she’s breached similarly large gapsin her career development driven by that motivation.––Point #2: Her personality characteristics areconsistent with those who have successfully ledteams through challenging times.––Point #3: We have strong development and supportmechanisms for general managers in ourcompany.––Point #4: She has a strong functional team aroundher who will provide support as she learns.A well-developed point of view is at the core of beingpersuasive.• Is Appropriately Aggressive: This phrase, providedby Kevin Wilde, former VP Talent Management atGeneral Mills, captures a variety of nuanced behaviorsthat differentiate great TM leaders. To us, “appropriate”means knowing how to select which battlesare worth fighting, knowing in which situationspushing back will be most productive and knowingthe politically productive way to bring a potentiallyincendiary issue to the table. “Aggressiveness”means not being afraid to voice your opinions, tofight for what you believe is right and not to be afraidof pushing back just one more time.The combination of a theory of the case and theappropriate amount of aggressiveness creates a TMleader who drives the right talent decisions in theright way.We believe that 4 + 2 Talent Management modelhighlights the most differentiating capabilities for talentmanagement leaders. Given that this field is still forming,it’s possible that our view on these critical capabilitieswill change over time. What we know today,however, is that this young field is an inflection pointwhere its credibility and impact are in question. We areconfident that the closer that TM leaders fit with the 4+ 2 profile, the better the odds that this profession willrealize its true potential.INSIGHTS 5