Leadership competencies

Yet another confessional piece from former HR Director Lucy Adams, previously leader of BBC People, this time on the myths of 'talent management'.

"I had a detailed leadership competency matrix with tons of behavioural indicators and an accompanying assessment tool to help leaders understand what they lacked. I had succession plans for all the senior roles with ‘ready now’ and ‘ready in a few years’ all documented. I had a nice expensive High Potential programme with a respected business school. All my leaders had their own personal development plan. Talent Management perfection !

"I continued to deploy them with the unquestioning faith of an HR zealot, despite the lack of any real evidence that they were working. My ‘hi-po’s’ still failed to get promoted or left. My neat succession plans often failed to materialise. My leaders continued to get confused about how to complete my 9 Box Grids. Employees still complained that their talents weren’t being recognised. No one could remember what the leadership competencies were and the people who got promoted often didn’t demonstrate them anyway !"