The Talent Management Brief of the “Future of CIO” Nov. 2015

Make qualitative assessment about character, mindsets, potential, multidimensional intelligence and culture effect.

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.1 million page views with 2370+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom, to inspire critical thinking and spur healthy debates.

People are always the most invaluable asset in businesses. “Hiring the right person to the right position at the right time,” is the mantra of many forward-thinking organizations. The question is how would you define the right people? How do you define wrong, average, mediocre, good, great or extraordinary person? Or put simply, for what should they be right? How to fill skill gaps by setting the principles and taking practices to manage talent more scientifically?

IT Talent Management Brief  Nov. 2015

• IT Skills Gap According to industry surveys, IT skills gap is a significant challenge facing IT leaders today, what are exactly the skills gaps and what are the resulting symptoms? For example, business have job openings, but cannot find people with the right skill set; or the talent they current have do not have the right competencies to adapt to the changes; or their business partners do not understand IT. Sometimes, the gaps people usually pick are not root causes they are symptoms of specific best practices not being used. So what are the organizational best practices/ways that have been deployed to close the gap?

• How to Attract, Develop & Retain the best IT Talent? Talent development and management are perhaps one of the most critical practices in business today, and developing & retaining IT talent is even more challenging due to the CHANGE nature of IT, the smartness and sensitivity  of IT workers, the complexity of multi-generational, multicultural, and multi-tasking workforce, only insightful leaders can tackle it with mindfulness and skills.

• Data-Driven Talent Management. Information is the lifeblood of digital business, and makes an impact upon all different aspects of business, especially in talent management space, as people are the most invaluable asset in business, rather than following traditional subjective HR model, forward-looking organizations shall experiment, develop and mature data-driven talent management for leaping through digital transformation.

• The Principles and Practices to Encourage Creativity As businesses get more cut-throat in the face of fierce competitions and unprecedented changes, this puts stress on the labor force that is not conducive to creative, experimental thinking. As a business leader, what are the common solutions to encourage creativity? Will you allow people to make mistakes? Spend time on something with no guarantee of  ROIs? Work on what interests them? Which type of work activities, roles, industries, require great deals of creativity? How do you, as leaders involve all people in creative thinking and actions? And how can you help improve the harvest of the creative seeds? Doesn't the real solution to innovation, creativity begin with inquiry? Would it not be prudent to focus on ensuring all levels of the organization are well founded on asking learning questions?

• Digital Talent Management Next Practice: Character and Mindset Assessment. Talent performance and potential assessment and management are critical for business’s long-term success because people are always the most invaluable asset in business. However, the traditional performance management approaches more focus on measuring behaviors and the quantitative result, with ignorance of qualitative assessment about character, mindsets, potential, multidimensional intelligence and culture effect. In order to manage people as human capital, rather than just cost or resources, talent managers need to do self-checking: For what purpose are you assessing mindsets? For selection? For promotion? For leadership development? Is it job-related and relevant? does it really matter for what purpose you're assessing? Can you measure a person’s character or mindsets (the varying thought processes)? Can the purpose be an excuse for higher or lower qualitative capability of the assessor? Or put simply, how to take more objective and innovative approaches to measuring talent as deep as in mind level and as profound as at character base?

• Talent Management Next Practice #2: "Hiring for Digital Minds" “Hiring for Minds” is the extended and detailed next practice of “Hiring for Character,” "Hiring for Attitude" and “Hiring for Potential” philosophy and methodology. Many hiring managers aren't comfortable with evaluating “mindset,” or just lack the skills to evaluate it properly, and instead they rely on the answers the candidate gives to the more concrete skills inquiries. However, the mind is the innovation engine of any human progress, but also the root cause of almost all human problems. So more specifically, how can managers leverage talent assessment methodology and tools, talent development plans and practices to evaluate and build the right sets of digital minds, capabilities, and skills in order to compete for the future?

Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking and innovating the new ideas; it’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes the time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.

Posted in: Sum UP,Talent Master