Even a successful management team needs their talent pool rejuvenated
at regular intervals. Move too slowly and inevitably performance
declines . Move too fast and the instability and loss of expertise
leads inevitably to declining performance. Building on success
requires decisive often ruthless intervention.
You can only hold on to your more experienced and talented
individuals for so long. Their skills match their ambitions and they
are the targets of head hunters who are quick to tell them of
opportunities. They did a good job for you, their ambitions can’t be
fulfilled where they are so they move on and up. There are others
whose energy levels have dipped, who seem less committed and ambitious
than in the past. You need to replace them or at least give them some
serious competition to see if they can rediscover that drive and
enthusiasm. You have some young talented managers who show great
potential and you certainly want to give them opportunities to gain
the necessary knowledge and experience but you can’t rely on them to
take on the full responsibility when their still learning, still a
little naive and coming up against some complex challenges for the
first time. Throw them in at the deep end before they are ready and
you may shatter their confidence and set back their development. So
you need to recruit some talent, with a bit more experience but who
have the hunger and stamina as well as the creativity to rejuvenate
the organisation.
In theory this is an on going process. The organisation invests in
developing managers at the same time it has to replace experienced and
talented individuals who move on. Ironically the problem arises out of
success. A stable and talented senior management team takes the
organisation into a period of unprecedented success. The effort from
the leadership and board is to retain this team. To the extent they
are successful no new talent is recruited and those coming through the
management development process don’t get the opportunities and
experience they might have expected. The implications of not
rejuvenation the talent pool are often masked by the collective
expertise the team can draw on but gradually it becomes clear than the
organisation has been coasting.
Organisations need to creat opportunities for young talented managers
to progress into senior posts. The organisation needs to recognise the
need to recruit experienced and energetic outside talent to push the
existing senior management team and to provide ready made cover for
when experience individuals leave. Most of all the chief executive and
board need to recognise the danger of leaving it till things start
coasting before they get ruthless in rejuvenating the senior
management team.
Blair Mcpherson former Director. Author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk