How Talent Management is like the World Cup
June 17th, 2010 by Lois Melbourne
With the biggest sporting event of the year and the upcoming HR Happy Hour, “The World Cup and the Workplace,” as my muse, I found that the World Cup and Talent Management surprisingly have a great deal in common.
As teams advance, the World Cup bracket looks like an org chart on its side. Org charts and the team bracket are important to visualize who the resources are and where they are in the process.
In football (I cannot call the World Cup soccer!), often the best plays are made by using your head, and it should be used with strategic intention of getting the ball in the right direction. Just as in Talent Management, the players use their heads to strategically advance the cause in the right direction.
In the first round of the World Cup, a team rotates within their group, testing their various strengths, and the best teams move to the next round. In Talent Management, the best should have the opportunity of career mobility, playing in a number of roles in order to be seen as the best at various skills, thus ready to move to the next level.
In football, if you don’t make the starting lineup, there are very few chances to actually play in the game. There are very few substitutions, but each team member must be ready and as well trained as the starting lineup – because at the critical moments, the coach never knows in which positions he will need to make a substitution. In Talent Management, it is seldom certain which position will need the replacement first. So, all team players need to be trained and at their best game, ready to be the next to advance.
In the World Cup, players may have played for years in a different country, but when the World Cup rolls around, they change teams to play for their country and a shot at international glory. Their once daily teammates may now be their competition, and they know their strategies well. However, the chemistry is different in so many ways. In Talent Management, someone may have been with a company for a very long time, but the opportunity for the better position may make them leap, and often, it is to the competition. This can change the chemistry of a corporate game as well.
To recruit the best for the World Cup, football teams watch for years the talent in their country and how they are playing in various teams. The coach needs a deep bench because injury or other complications may take one player out of the mix. Talent Management teams should be cultivating and coaching their best candidates for succession advancement, recruiting from all eligible teams, so that they have the best candidate when they need to fill a position. They should have a bench built up, so that they have choices. The best candidate last year may not be the best candidate for the current business environment. You have to be ready for change.
Now most of us do not do our jobs in front of the world wide stage, like the largest sporting event on the planet. However, we also don’t step into the limelight of this intensity once every four years. Every day, we need to be training, improving, building strategies and being prepared for the opportunity to shine in our own spotlight. Career mobility, constant learning, reaching stretch goals, and delivering as promised are key performance objectives towards that high potential status that puts you in the big game.
Cheers,
Lois
