Role Competences: Another Dimension for Talent Development
Whose job is it to assure that every project and program has the right talent,
at the right level? I assert that Sponsors and Resource Managers are responsible
for maximizing that Project Talent score. By now it should be clear that it is
not just project manager talent we seek; all team members, and those who manage
them, must demonstrate the appropriate talent for their roles. Sponsors and Managers
thus have two areas of responsibility:
- To assure that the project gets needed talent, at the right times, and in
the right level of engagement;
- To contribute their own strengths and time where their Role Competences are
required.
 Review the chart
at the right. It reflects the five-point scale for each Talent Area, with both
the targets, and the average scores of each key role stacked in a bar chart.
With four talent areas, and five maximum points per area, the maximum possible
score is 20 points. A minimum desirable score would be 10.
The colors reflect the four talent areas: Blue = Technical; Red =
Interpersonal; Yellow = Enterprise Context; Green = Product Talents.
Based on your review, answer these questions:
- Can a strong senior project manager "save" this project?
- Which role requires the most development to "carry their weight" on this project?
- Which role is the greatest source of Enterprise Context Talent, and which
one should be?
- What would you do if this were your project?
This sample of a role competence assessment is not from a real project; many
are far worse. Few organizations can even provide the accurate assessment data
needed to produce this chart. A typical report from an effective competence assessment
shows a list of gaps and strengths of each stakeholder. This roadmap for Talent
Acquisition is valuable both for project risk management, and for longer-term
talent development.
Summarizing Talent Management Step 2, Talent Development
You will note that I have not discussed the steps of actually developing Talent:
The teaming, coaching, pairing, recognizing, and sharing. Many authors have covered
that topic in detail, with excellent insights into the actions beyond the classroom
— where the true business impacts develop. Instead of exploring talent development
detailed actions, I have explored and explained a framework for understanding
and tracking the precious nature of Project Talent. I did so because most current
project and program-oriented Talent Development approaches fall far short of the
business need. To some extent, this is because of too frequent cases of spending
the majority of project learning funds in short-term memory, knowledge-retention
courses, rather than launching participants on the talent trajectory to the higher
performances that I have discussed.
|
Achieving Performance
