Chris Brown, coach and consultant trainer at Focal Point Training explains how talent management programmes should support both individual and organisational goals and how using a range of development and training activities leads to tangible benefits.
I have the privilege of being part of the team that both developed and now delivers the talent programmes at a prominent London local authority. After discussions with the senior leaders to clarify the required outcomes for the programme, we identified four core development activities; group learning and training, individual coaching, allocation of an internal mentor, and a ‘live’ team project, all delivered over a 9 month period.
The group training days allowed us to offer key leadership and management content to enable the group to develop into an effective team. These sessions also included practical management approaches, for example project and stakeholder management tools and activities to develop leadership capability.
The individual coaching sessions enabled individual bespoke development through increased self-awareness, action planning and reviews.
The project provided the opportunity for group members to work together with their new interdepartmental colleagues, to apply their learning and to contribute back to the organisation.
The sessions were developed and sequenced to offer support and challenges as the group developed into a functioning team. We were optimistic this multipronged approach would confer a number of benefits and were delighted at how the different activities came together,allowing even more benefits to be realised!
The group learning and training provided the following benefits:
The individual coaching provided the following benefits:
The project provided the following benefits:
The participants in the programmes were chosen via an application process from a number of different professional disciplines across the organisation. We considered, therefore, that a further benefit might be improved internal networking and increased appreciation of other parts of the organisation. We were delighted when participants reported that this was very much the case and that widening their networks improved communication and problem solving. Whilst all of the benefits are incredibly valuable, this hugely improved cross-departmental communication, which represents a real shift in the culture, is very exciting.
The sheer number of benefits this programme has realised shows how valuable talent development programmes can be. Taking an individual and team approach, supported by a real project has an impact beyond the programme long after it is completed.
Take a look at how our solutions can help you create a culture which nurtures and retains talent and how we have worked with other organisations to build the culture they want.
You may like these other previous blogs on leadership; Leaders are everywhere and Leadership - It's not rocket science!
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Coming from a strong business, training and coaching background Chris is a highly qualified executive coach and leadership and management trainer. Today's workplace needs strong leadership and Chris sees his mission as helping to develop today's managers into tomorrows leaders. In his spare time Chris plays guitar in a band. He also enjoys running and reading. https://uk.linkedin.com/in/chrisbrown0902