Earlier this month, in my “Solutions for Talent Management “ email, I referenced the Boston Consulting Group’s recent white paper, “Creating People Advantage 2010”, saying that the number one issue facing companies today is the ability to Manage Talent.  They defined Talent Management as the ability to identify, attract, and retain people; the creation and management of talent pools; and the staffing of leadership positions.

 
Two tools to help with the Talent Management process are the ProfileXT and the CheckPoint™ Management System.  In my last email I addressed the ProfileXT.  The second tool to help with Talent Management is CheckPoint.  CheckPoint is a multi-rater feedback tool, plus self-improvement system, to help determine Strengths and Areas for Development for you or your managers, and how to make significant improvements.  CheckPoint tells you the “what” and works with you on the “how”. ProfileXT tells you the “why”.

According to The Boston Consulting Group:

• “Managing Talent — identifying, attracting, and retaining talent — continues to be the most important future human resources topic.  Corporate capabilities in this area have improved only slightly since our 2008 survey.”
• “Managing talent, which includes issues such as talent pools and effective staffing of leadership positions, continues to be the most critical topic for executives.”
• When special projects are set up to address Talent Management within companies, they are usually poorly managed.

What sort of Manager and Leader does your Boss, your Peers, and your Direct Reports think you are?  What sorts of Managers and Leaders work for you?  Getting a Performance Review only from a Boss just tells you part of the story.  The CheckPoint™ Management System is like getting a complete “CAT Scan” of the body.  It begins with an objective, confidential assessment of 18 managerial skills by the individual’s boss, their peers, their direct reports, and the individual.  It takes less than 30 minutes from each of those folks, all online.  The results are available to the individual when all the respondents have completed their assessment.  That’s the initial “exam”, and the individual gets the results.  No surprise, there are several things they can work on to make them a better leader and manager.  It’s time to embark on that improvement effort, an online, structured program called SkillBuilder.  It is an opportunity to make improvements on-the-job.  Finally, 9-12 months later, the individual gets another objective, confidential assessment of their 18 managerial skills by their boss, their peers, their direct reports, and the individual.  It takes less than 30 minutes from each of those folks, all online.  This is the follow-up “CAT Scan” and this time the individual receives a comparative report showing where they started, where they are now, and whether or not they have made progress from their initial assessment.

The Checkpoint™ Management System allows you to assess yourself and each of your managers in less than 30 minutes so you can gain:

• COMPREHENSIVE insight into the strengths and weaknesses of you and your management team in areas of communication, adaptability, and leadership skills.
• ANONYMOUS insight from peers, direct reports, bosses and managers to help identify gaps in perceptions across various roles.
• AN ACTION PLAN AND ROADMAP to improve performance for you and every one of your managers.

Best of all, the CheckPoint Management System is extremely cost effective, and the reports and improvement tools are written in plain language that do not require a specialist to interpret the results.