Talented People are the Company - So What are you doing to keep them?

Recently as the economy recovers, I often find myself being asked by others whether they should start looking for new opportunities elsewhere especially outside of their organization. When I ask them why they are considering a move, almost all the reasons are due to the way these valuable professionals see how the organization has treated them during the recent economic downturn. What resonates with me is that they ultimately believe that their organizations no longer see them as valuable and treat them accordingly.

Talent is required for any organization because it is valuable. However this simple fact is where both the professional and organization often disconnect.

For professionals being talented and being valuable is when they can help the company accomplish goals in areas of their expertise. They also expect that past accomplishments and track record will be considered in measuring their value. Most professionals truly desire to be valuable to the organization in ways that harness their interests and strengths. Still professionals must understand that their very market is changing before their eyes and that one of the most key factors to their success is adaptability; they must be able to change with the times and conditions of the market. Professionals unable to adapt their strengths to changing conditions in the market will quickly find themselves at a disadvantage in terms of value within the organization. So individual professionals must be diligent in not only honing existing skills, but demonstrating evolution of their strengths as the organization's needs change.

However, a professional by themselves can only take their value so far. It is up to the management of the organization to create, foster and consistently implement a culture of talent. They must be able to identify talent, nurture it, foster it, apply it properly so it can be of the best use to the business, and ultimately retain it. There are many challenges in this area for any organization.  For example, one common mistake I often see is the continued dismissal of value through actions such as inconsistent policies of lay-offs, inability to hold meaningful dialogs across the organization for innovative solutions to company-wide problems, and what I call "selective filtering" of ideas where layers within the organization redact communications delivering what they feel are the intended meanings instead of the actual meanings to decision makers. Organizations must make a clear and consistent commitment to talent. Talent talks to talent. Talented individuals will always speak about their experiences. This is a given. The more that talent talks about organizations, they have significant impacts on the perception of that organization for talent. For example, Apple has a reputation that intrigues creative talent, Google for engineering talent, Twitter for social talent, FaceBook for community talent, Intuit for tax and personal finance talent, Toyota for automotive talent, etc.

In summary for professional, the challenge is to maintain their cutting edge via a combination of skill and adaptability that consistently establishes their value to the organization through tough and challenging times. Similarly, a company must have a commitment to talented individuals within their organization by accurately recognizing them and providing challenges to them for the benefit of the organization.