Who owns talent management in your firm?

After many years of working with law firms, I am still surprised by how few managing partners can confidently say “I own talent management in my firm”.

If your people really are your greatest asset, as many law firm leaders claim, why do so many firms fail to make managing and developing their talent one of the most critical factors in delivering their business goals and taking their firm to the next level?

In many firms, the processes and tools for identifying potential and accelerating development are facilitated by HR. However, in the best firms, where talent management is perceived as a strategic priority, it is owned and championed by the managing partner as chief talent scout.

Talent management is about making sure you have the right people in the right places for both the individuals and the firm. At its simplest, it’s the recruitment, development, promotion and retention of people, planned and implemented in line with the firm’s current and future business goals.

A structured talent management process can systematically identify and close the gap between the firm’s current people skills and capabilities and the talent required to meet future business challenges.

What follows are a few thoughts on some of the common problems that I have seen in the design and implementation of talent management strategies and how to avoid them.

1. Confusing talent management with succession planning

A contingency plan for replacing people is not a talent management strategy. Rather than matching individuals with specific future roles, you need to build a talent pipeline which will become your firm’s talent pool (i.e. the individuals that the firm wants to develop).

Work with your board and senior HR to define the key roles in your firm. These will be the roles on which the execution of your business strategy is based.

2. Waiting for the cream to rise to the top

As chief talent scout, you need to look beyond the usual suspects for talent within your firm and make it clear to your leadership team that this is their job too.

Provide a clear criteria – this is the first step in identifying potential talent. Strength in depth comes from spotting people currently five or ten years away from senior roles and accelerating their development sooner.

3. Personal opinion is not a basis for making decisions about talent

The same due diligence which is applied to critical business decisions is often not applied to promotion and development decisions.

As chief talent scout, you need to learn about the range of psychometric assessment tools available to your firm in assessing its talent. Whatever you select, it should provide information on the whole person, including personality traits. Your senior HR specialist can help you with this.

4. No clear definition of leadership

Keep the end in mind. Based on your business strategy, what future challenges will leaders face? What skills, experience and personal attributes will be critical to their success in leading the firm? Remember that the current success profile for a leader in your firm may be very different in ten years’ time.

Work with HR and your board to articulate the characteristics of successful future leadership for your business. Ensure these profiles reflect what leaders need to do to deliver your strategy and update them as your strategic goals change.

5. Demystify the rules and processes

Be open and transparent in your talent management processes. Most people want to know what they need to do to successfully progress their career. Decide the criteria and process and then communicate them clearly. Also, ensure that everyone understands that the process is not a guarantee of future promotion.

6. Ignoring personality quirks in promotion decisions

Can a leopard really change its spots? It’s common for partners to ignore or underplay potential personality problems (uncovered as result of psychometric assessment). For example, confidence turning into aggressive behaviour under stress, or believing that a ‘loner’ will turn into a ‘great’ networker on promotion.

Such issues should be directly addressed with the individual and appropriate action agreed. Don’t be seduced by the individual’s intellect or results into believing their ‘quirky’ personality traits won’t have an impact on their team or the firm.

Lead the way

For talent management to make a difference to your firm’s business goals, it must be led by the managing partner and leadership team.

As managing partner, your personal investment will have the greatest impact on the success of your firm’s talent management. Take every opportunity to attend and participate in learning and development events with your leaders of the future. Share your knowledge and personal experience at these events so that they can see how your career has evolved.

Get your board involved as well, so that it’s clear that talent management is a leadership priority. Demonstrate your commitment by becoming a mentor for some of your future talent – I guarantee that you will learn as much as your mentees.

Jo Larbie is the co-author of How to Make Partner and Still Have a Life (www.howtomakepartner.com)

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