Talent Management and Leadership

Strategic Planning of Talent Management After reading on talent management, my personal views on talent have been slightly changed. This is because I had always assumed talent meant having a special skill that one is born with and it was not easy to link this in an organizational setup. Thinking of talent in terms of skills learned and how these skills can be used within an organization.

The main goal of talent management is ensuring that an organization has employees with the skills required to navigate the organization into the uncertainties of the future. According to Perkins and Arvinen-Muondo (2013) one has to realize that it is not easy to define talent and this is a mistake that many individuals make especially when referring to talent from an organizational perspective. There is a multitude of factors that one has to consider when defining talent.

A group of individuals who are able to make a difference in an organization's performance is what is referred to as talent. When one has a clear understanding of talent, it is much easier to establish and align it to an organization's strategic goals. It has become clear that talent is mainly referring to individuals in an organization, and how best to handle them to ensure the organization is able to prosper now and in the future.

In order for an individual to be considered talent in an organization, they need to be three things namely an information seeker, a multidimensional learner and have an enquiring mind (Perkins & Arvinen-Muondo, 2013). An information seeker is an individual who is able to search for information and can distinguish the reliable from what is not. A multidimensional learner means the individual must be open to new experiences and they can reflect the experiences they have had.

Having an enquiring mind allows the individual to be a problem solver and they can ask the difficult questions. Recommendations to Leadership in Strategic Planning for Talent Management Leadership should not look at talent management as an HRM concern, but rather they should look at it as a strategic aspect of the organization. Changing the perspective of leadership is the best way to ensure that the organization is able to attract and retain its talent (Sparrow, Hird, & Cooper, 2015).

Aligning talent management with the organization's overall strategic goals is vital to ensure that there are individuals capable of driving the organization's strategy in the future. It should be noted that people are no longer stigmatized for moving or changing jobs. In the current job environment, people are more willing to change jobs if they feel they no longer fit into the organization's strategic goals. The need to further one's career will always take precedence, and an organization must have the requisite capabilities to retain its valuable employees.

Managing talent should be an organization-wide task, and managers at all levels should be encouraged to identify and train the individuals who they see to have the potential to take the organization to the next level. In the global environment, people are not just changing jobs within their country, but rather even across borders and oceans (Sparrow et al., 2015). Individuals are willing to embrace new cultures and take up roles.