Let’s be open and transparent for a moment about the current status of global talent development.
If you are in the world of Talent Development you’ve been nervous.
We all read the economic news but more importantly, we have been hearing executives signaling for months that they have been considering cutting back operational expenses in light of lower revenues, higher costs, rampant inflation, uncertain job markets, volatile supply chains, and continued global political issues.
I have had many conversations with decision makers preparing for their training initiatives for 2023 and a significant majority have been proceeding with caution based upon all the factors mentioned above.
The news today that household spending for October rose by a whopping 0.8% should calm things down and for the foreseeable future – the next 6 months in my opinion – let us know that business is going to be strong and there is no need to cut back on spending…especially talent development.
As the world continues to evolve and as the business world evolves to the new reality of a post-pandemic workforce, your talent development strategy has never been more important. It is clear that the best companies in the world who want to remain at the top are making significant investments in training and are actually increasing their budgets not cutting them.
What are the Critical Skills and Methods of Delivery?
I have been designing, developing, and delivering business simulation-centric talent development solutions since the 1980s and have never seen anything like what is happening now. We are seeing a dramatic increase in three types of primary skills:
- Business Acumen – So individual contributors and leaders can make the best business decisions
- Business Leadership – So leaders can execute their strategies through people by better coaching, change management, conflict management, and creating an environment of psychological safety
- Strategic Business Selling – So Sales Professionals can be real strategic partners (as opposed to fake strategic partners) to their customers and present solutions and value from the business perspective and not just the product perspective.
I had the chance this week to interview an executive from one of our clients leading the company’s entire APAC business and strategy. When we started to discuss the challenges of the business, every single one of her business challenges came back to those three buckets of skills. “Our value proposition is differentiated innovation, and I don’t think more than 10% of my team knows what they really mean and therefore really don’t know what to do on a daily basis as they try to do their work. We are lacking the strategic skills, the operational skills, the leadership skills, and the sales skills to even come close to achieving our objectives. Throw into the mix the cultural aspects and differences of the various countries in APAC and I have an overwhelming challenge in 2023.”
With the economy being strong for at least the next six months, it’s decision time. Go small? Go incremental? Or go big? Those companies making the big and necessary investment in talent development and their people will get a great return in terms of both business results and people results including higher productivity and retention rates.
