Main Factors Negatively Influencing the Development and Support of Talented Individuals in Organizations – TM2 Solution

Introduction

In our article published in ProManager magazine in 2014 (Kursch, 2014), we dealt with talent, its elusive nature, and especially the catalysts of talent. We highlighted what strengthens talent and what weakens it, and subsequently derived 5 factors that clearly suppress talent and consequently demotivate talented individuals. We called these factors "talent killers". In this article, we would like to reiterate these factors for readers who may not have read our previous article, and follow up by introducing a new theory of talent management that could be a way to avoid the factors that clearly suppress talent. We would like to reiterate from our previous article that the distinction between the words talent and giftedness is a subject of debate among many scholars dealing with this issue. Some even understand giftedness and talent as synonyms. For the purpose of this article, we will again understand talent as a person who surpasses others in the population in some human activity. For example, a talented sculptor excels over other sculptors with their beautiful sculptures and the ease with which they create them. Another term that needs to be defined is organization. By organization we mean any group of people united by a common goal or activity, forming a unified whole. In our case, we focus primarily on larger companies. However, we will continue to use the general term organization.

Examples of factors that very significantly weaken the development and support of talented individuals

For readers who did not read our previous article, we will now repeat the five "talent killers" in organizations. The name killers was chosen deliberately to draw attention to specific negative elements that significantly weaken talented individuals and their activities. They are elements from the already mentioned factors influencing talent. By selecting five examples negatively influencing talent, it is possible to categorize the group of negative factors. With each factor we can then work individually and try to suppress it as much as possible, especially in talent management programs. Let us now list these negative factors:

• Excessive uniformity of the organization
• Zero space for innovation, only "best practice"
• Lack of recognition, lack of highlighting original solutions
• Suppression of individuality, the religion of "team work"
• Excessive rationality, fixation on one goal and maximum productivity (Kursch, 2014).

Let us briefly analyze each of our five selected factors. Excessive uniformity of the organization, understood here as enforced monotony, is very dangerous. Slogans like "if you are not with us, you are against us" or "we must respect the main visions" then leave their mark on the thinking of talented people, suppressing new ideas and the paths to them. Everything that is not mainstream is rejected, and the only possible path is the one determined by the so-called "visionaries of the organization". For creative individuals, talented individuals who constantly seek innovation and are masters of their field, one must work very carefully with such excessive uniformity. A certain degree of uniformity is certainly good, but everything must be applied in reasonable measure. (Kursch, 2014)

Another factor is zero space for innovation. This is likely a misunderstanding of the "best practice" principle, i.e., using only proven practices that are labeled as the best. Often a talented individual comes with an improvement and an even better approach, simply an even better idea than the aforementioned "best practice", and is dismissed with the words "do not reinvent the wheel". But this is a flawed approach; on one hand, one cannot blindly believe that progress has stopped and that we truly have the best solution, and on the other hand, we deprive ourselves of new innovations, partial or complete improvements. Often, ingenuity from the very beginning does not lead back to the wheel, but to a completely different, surprising result. (Kursch, 2014)

What to say about the lack of recognition and the lack of highlighting original solutions? If we overlook these basic pillars for maintaining the motivation of talented people, for acknowledging their results, but mainly for identifying new solutions and implementing them in practice, talented individuals become frustrated, leave the company, or their creative activity declines. Next time they may give up pushing their ideas and applying them in practice. For the organization, this again means a loss in the area of development, in the areas of innovation, but also a loss of productivity. (Kursch, 2014)

A significant negative factor is also the suppression of individuality. We deliberately added the qualifier the religion of "team work", which is paradoxically detrimental in some cases. For example, when working on a large project, individual performances not subject to teamwork can move the entire project forward by leaps and bounds. Individuality is also related to the individual's approach to work, especially respecting their time management. Talented individuals are often capable of excellent performance, but only in accordance with respect for their pace, their own choice of workplace, and their individual needs, which may be completely different from the needs of the team. It must be recognized that outstanding individual performance and individual abilities can boost motivation in other employees and in entire teams of employees. The performances of the talented, and the talented themselves, then act like heroes in movies, inspiring and legendary. Therefore, any suppression of individuality, especially in talented individuals, can have counterproductive consequences for organizations. (Kursch, 2014)

Talented people usually excel in one activity over others. This is often aided by excellent intuition, divergent thinking, assessing things from different perspectives, high creativity, and sometimes also stubbornness. All of this is, simply put, the opposite of rationality and standardization, the opposite of focusing only on productivity, and the opposite of fixation on one main goal. We are not claiming here that rationality, productivity, and clear goals are bad or counterproductive — that would be a misunderstanding of the idea. But we do claim that great things are often created based on intuition, irrationality, and an unconventional approach. Therefore, excessive and, let us emphasize — "excessive and rigid" — effort to be only rational, productive, and subject to the highest standardization is rather a competitive disadvantage. It is precisely talented and creative people who should be given space to overcome this barrier and always have the opportunity to seek better solutions and new ideas. After all, this applies to every routine. (Kursch, 2014)

Solution to the problem, or how can we eliminate the negative factors limiting talent development? TM2, or "Tailor Made Talent Management", is literally "talent management tailored to measure" and is based on the theory of factors influencing the talented, the author's long-term experience, and also findings from his research project (Kursch, 2014; Kursch, 2016). The concept of this theory could help organizations in choosing a talent management program at its inception, in choosing the approach, philosophy, and practical assembly of the program. Its content is thus a theoretical concept and methodology, as well as a list of the main supporting aspects in creating a talent management program. (Kursch, 2016; Berger a Berger, 2003; Kaprálek a Bělecký, 2004). The main conclusions of the theory can be summarized according to Kursch (2016) into several key ideas:

• we approach the talented individual as a source of innovation, improvement, and genius;
• talent is rare and its bearer is usually a unique personality;
• for effective work of the talented individual, it is necessary to secure all possible factors strengthening talent development from the groups of factors (areas) of freedom, feedback, environment, and resources1;
• the organization achieves its results with the help of the talented individual, who is not managed but consulted and partially guided within the application of factors from the feedback group, where the organization's expectations are also anchored;
• the entire talent management is also risk management; the organization must be aware of the risks of return on invested resources, in the worst case with zero or only partial results;
• TM2 can lead to excellent results, fulfillment of expectations, and further innovations, ideas, and improvements.

Supporting aspects of TM2

An organization that wants to approach the management of the talented through TM2 and the creation of a TM2 program must heed these supporting aspects when creating the TM2 program:

• Determination of ROE – (Return of Expectation), first setting expectations, if possible to set very detailed expectations in the short-term and medium-term timeframe. A subset of expectations are the organization's goals, individual partial expectations, target states. Then evaluate the expectations and whether they have been fulfilled (return). 2
• Determination of success indicators.
• Anchoring expectations and success indicators in feedback (creating a "follow up", i.e., regular monitoring of progress and fulfillment of individual expectations).
• Anchoring available methods of development and retention of the talented within the factors of environment and resources.
• Anchoring choice for the talented individual within the factors of freedom (selection of methods, approaches, activities).
• Creating initial conditions for the talented (securing the three main areas of factors).
• Selection of the talented individual for a particular mission.
• Systematic commentary within feedback.
• Evaluation of results (fulfillment of expectations) at specified time intervals.
• Nomination of a feedback manager (necessary).
• Preparation of an overview of available and possible methods for talent management, including their weak and strong points and stated (considered) effectiveness. (Kursch, 2016)

The simplified concept of TM2 is illustrated in Figure 1. Tailor Made Talent Management is built on "two basic pillars (hence also TM2), which are the expectations of the organization and the personality of the talented individual. The factors then represent the necessary conditions for the implementation of the talent management program and for the transformation of the talented individual's potential into expected results, thus fulfilling expectations." (Kursch, 2016)

Fig. 1: Main pillars of the TM2 concept – the talented individual and the organization's expectations

TM2 Methodology

In creating the methodology, we used the same format as Horváthová (2011) used in creating the methodology for implementing and using classic talent management in organizations. Horváthová first created a mind map of the talent management system. The entire system then consists of areas, sub-areas, and activities. Areas and sub-areas then break down into individual activities. For each activity, its goal, benefit, implementation, involved roles, and necessary materials are described. We believe that this methodology is very well developed and its format is also suitable for processing TM2. We therefore chose the same format for creating the TM2 methodology as Horváthová. Figure 2 shows the TM2 mind map, allowing one to see TM2 comprehensively, from different perspectives, capturing its structure as well as the links between individual areas, sub-areas, and activities. Further details of the methodology are provided in the book Tailor Made Talent Management (Kursch, 2016).

Fig. 2: TM2 Methodology – mind map

Conclusion

In our previous article, we reflected in conclusion on the role of the HR specialist in organizations in helping to avoid the "talent killers". What should their role be regarding talent support? Based on today's article and the evolution of talent management methods, it can be said that HR departments in organizations can use new findings and apply the newly described TM2 methodology when implementing talent management programs. It remains valid that HR departments should play a role in supporting talented individuals and should be initiators and creators of programs for their support and development. (Armstrong, 2002; Barták, 2006; Walker, 2003). Last but not least, they should also focus on talent identification and retention. Retention and maintenance of the talented would be a topic for an entire separate article, as this activity appears to be the most challenging in terms of the complex integration of motivation, loyalty, autonomy within the organization, and activation of the individual's strengths. We believe that our updated article can be an inspiration for all managers in organizations and HR specialists when creating talent management program strategies.

Author: PhDr. Martin Kursch, Ph.D. The author has published publications on talent management and the use of ICT in education.

List of recommended literature:

ARMSTRONG, M. Řízení lidských zdrojů. Grada Publishing, 2002, 856 stran, ISBN 80-247-0469-2. BARTÁK, Jan. Skryté bohatství firmy. Praha: Alfa nakladatelství, 2006. 183 stran, ISBN 80-86851-17-6. BERGER, L. A.; BERGER, D. R. Talent management handbook: Creating organizational excelence by identifyimg, developing & Promoting your best people. New York: McGraw- Hill, 2003. HORVÁTHOVÁ, P. Talent management. 1. vyd. Praha: Wolkers Kluwer ČR, 2011. 252 s. ISBN 978-80-7357-665-3. KAPRÁLEK, Karel; BĚLECKÝ, Zdeněk. Jak napsat a používat individuální vzdělávací program. 1.vydání. Praha: Portál s.r.o., 2004. 139 s. ISBN 80-7178-887-2. KURSCH, M. Hlavní faktory negativně ovlivňující rozvoj a podporu talentovaných jedinců v organizacích. Promanager [online] Srpen, 2014 [cit. 19.8.2014]. ISSN 1338-8584. Dostupné z http://promanager.sk/hr-management/hlavni-faktory-negativne-ovlivnujici-rozvoj-a-podporu-talentovanych-jedincu-v-organizacich KURSCH, M. Tailor Made Talent Management – Talent management druhé generace. Praha: Česká andragogická společnost, 2016. 170 s. ISBN 978-80-905460-5-9. PHILLIPS, J. J. Return on Investment in Training and Performance Improvement Programs. 2. vyd. London: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003. 377 s. ISBN 0-7506-7601-9 PRŮCHA, J.; VETEŠKA, J. Andragogický slovník. 1.vyd. Praha: Grada, 2012. 296 s. ISBN 978-80-247-3960-1. WALKER, A. J. – a kolektiv. Moderní personální management. Nejnovější trendy a technologie. 1.vydání, Grada Publishing, 2003. 256 s. ISBN 80-247-0449-8.

1"A talented individual needs a certain freedom and resources, but also a suitable environment for their realization. By this we mean not only the physical, but especially the social environment. They realize themselves primarily as an individual, but also as part of a team. Their ability to cooperate with others, to participate in a common work, can significantly contribute to the synergistic effects of team collaboration. Naturally, with an awareness of the risks that cannot be overlooked (the frequent tendency of the majority to stick to the same 'proven' practices; unwillingness to change, especially discontinuous change; mediocrity; standard; self-satisfaction; etc.). In talented individuals who possess, among other things, a desirable level of social competencies (capacity for empathy, cooperation, participation in a common work), successful socialization and acculturation occur. There is then a low risk of their isolation (the majority tends to be critical of individuals who differ from the average); on the contrary, a talented individual has a chance to become an informal leader, a true authority, or an inspiring example. A suitably chosen social environment therefore plays an important role in the development of the talented, if the talented individual is not to disappear in an environment of mediocrity. Conversely, it is possible to use the talent of its bearer for a positive influence on the team atmosphere and in an effort to achieve synergy of effects." (Kursch, 2016) 2 This is based on the new scheme of the Kirkpatrick (Phillips Kirkpatrick) model from the end, where the ROE indicator is the main goal (Phillips, 2003).