4 Trends in Talent Development

A week ago, people all over the world came together for the biggest day of learning in talent development — Emergenetics 24 Hours. While the event has come and gone, the learning brought to us that day has many applications that will continue to improve people, teams, and organizations for months and years to come.

The North American speaker lineup began with webinar #16 (out of 24 total webinars). From CEOs and Co-Founders to corporate directors and nonprofit leaders, there was a great diversity of skills and experience represented. What was perhaps even more remarkable, was that the speakers only received 1 directive: present on anything under the event theme of “Realizing the potential of people to drive results”. And from that one theme, four distinct talent development trends emerged.

Here are the 4 talent development trends identified during Emergenetics 24 Hours:

Collaboration

• Melissa Cantrell provided a case study look at creating large-scale change at Micron Technology’s Virginia plant as a result of a company mission transformation. Key to the successful transformation was collaboration on many levels. The Organizational Effectiveness team worked cross-functionally to design a change plan that was appropriate to all functions of the organization, collaborated with senior leaders to ensure buy in at the top level, and held special events to create a collaborative transformation environment within the entire employee base. Melissa reiterated that the change initiative would not have been successful without the entire plant coming together, working on the same page and internalizing the new mission.
• Cynthia Holmberg, in her high-tech consulting role at Microsoft, summed it up quite succinctly by saying, “90% of my job involves collaboration and team work. Technical skills may get you in the door, but you won’t climb the ranks without the interpersonal skills to lead others.”

Be Real and Authentic

• The CEO and Co-Founder of Influence & Co., John Hall spoke on how writing authentic content in marketing can be used as a talent-acquisition strategy. John highlighted how easy it was for potential employees to see right through “sales-like” or “cheap” content, and as a result organizations can miss out on great candidates. The lesson here: be real in all communication platforms, whether it’s social media, email, blog posts or thought leadership articles published by an outside source. When done well, content marketing can help candidates have a sense of who the company is even before they interview- and be one step closer to accepting a job offer.
• Nate Thompson of Oppenheimer Funds gave a very thought-provoking and reflective presentation on the power of authentic conversations. How many times have you passed people and just talked about the weather? Authenticity creates an opening to more meaningful interactions, which in turn can spark discussion of topics or challenges that otherwise might never have been addressed. Nate shared ways we can practice tailoring our communication with others so as to avoid superficial, transactional interactions and instead have a real, thoughtful and overall authentic conversation with others.

Understanding Motivations and Connecting on a Deeper Level

• Kristen Batcho, working as a manager in the nonprofit arena with Daniels Fund, focused on hiring and what makes for the most successful candidates. She said their organization needed to look beyond the resume and past experiences, and look more at what candidate’s truly wanted out of their job. Kristen and her team found great value in tailored pre-hire assessments as their main way of identifying these motivators.
• In one presentation, the Director of Training at Western Union Jerry Van Leuven, outlined how important it was for sales team members to speak to clients on a much deeper level. He walked us through ways sales people can better connect with clients and develop relationships that bring results for their organization. Interestingly, Jerry mentioned that this connection and motivation based approach ends up increasing engagement amongst sales teams, too.

New Age Learning for New Age Leadership

• Sean Graber of Virtuali identified a gap in learning and engagement for emerging leaders and many of the organizations for which they work. He pointed to research that shows emerging leaders have a strong desire for mentoring and coaching. With a focus on Millennial leadership, Sean outlined the need for a more dynamic and holistic learning program to better prepare emerging leaders for their roles.
• Trine Lovell expressed the need for heightened self-awareness in leadership today. Through the Emergenetics Profile as a self-awareness tool and multi-rater leadership tools (combining vertical and horizontal feedback), organizations can create a three-dimensional leader. Trine shared the development tracks utilized at Infirmary Health which create clear ways that leaders, both emerging and established, can continue to learn and thrive in their positions.