Managing Talent At the Top - Brief Article

Even though I had spent considerable time assessing, developing and selecting managers, my first intimate involvement with the process at the most senior, corporate level convinced me that I had entered a different world. The board members talked about a succession strategy, but I couldn't seem to find one. While the tools had a familiar, comfortable feel, the decisions appeared somewhat disassociated and unpredictable. And there were so many unwritten rules and hidden variables that I needed a chart.

There are numbers of good books on managing executive talent, but few of them are able to integrate strategy with practical reality, to dissect and blend the forces of personality and corporate culture, and to provide readers with a proven method for harnessing the power of executive potential.

Robert Barner--as a consultant, a vice president of organizational development and learning for a major hotel group, and an experienced author--has the credentials to write just such a book. And although Executive Resource Management may not meet all the criteria for perfection, it can stand on its merits as a useful addition to the practitioner's library.

The strength of the hook is as a nicely organized guide to the operational side of managerial development. Yes, Barner devotes an obligatory chapter to the creation of strategy, and he regularly mentions the importance of the strategic side of the process--but the material lacks true strategic thinking. Once this fact is acknowledged, however, it clearly becomes less a flaw and more a matter of editorial approach.

Although not listed in the table of contents this way, Executive Resource Management realistically breaks into six topics--competencies, assessment, development, planning, selection and retention. If the book were strategic, the stand-alone nature of the chapters would have been jarring. However, in a tactical guide this separation makes it easy for the reader to move around in the text and to identify and segregate the subjects, whether reading initially or when returning to the book as a reference.

As a minor caution, Barner's inventories of organizational resources are useful starts but are not exhaustive. Those he mentions are well regarded, but the lists are narrow and he fails to reference several world-class companies.

The chapters have a consistent format. Complex, fundamental elements are defined and then broken into manageable pieces. The pieces are typically sub-divided into logical parts, and the discussion of these is thorough and descriptive.

The tactical focus and the organization make the book particularly appealing to two audiences. First are line managers who either find themselves responsible for planning succession in their departments, or who assume leadership in a new area and need a jumpstart in assessing a pool of inherited talent. Second are human resource professionals who haven't had direct experience in executive development, but who need exposure to the concepts to round out their knowledge or prepare for a project.

The book's useful, tactical content is what precludes Executive Resource Management from being a book for senior human resource professionals. Most HR practitioners at that level would consider it a poor investment of time to read that it's important to orient new leaders and that the three steps in orientation are planning for the session, conducting the meeting and following up. More important to this group are issues that Barner does not address, which include:

* Creating an internal marketing plan to educate and gain the endorsement, commitment and involvement of line managers.

* Handling the unofficial mentoring relationships and "secret societies" where careers are made and broken, where corporate politics earns its seamy reputation, and where the glass ceiling originates.

* Designing a methodology for measuring interim growth and the effectiveness of programs for behavioral change.

Barner's writing is straightforward and generally conversational, helping the material to flow easily. As a complement to the book as a reference guide, the editors have done a first-rate job of indexing.

All in all, Executive Resource Management is a worthwhile purchase and can be especially useful for the target audiences described.

Steve McIntosh, Ph.D., is president of Tartan Consulting, a full-service human resource consulting firm with its headquarters in Bonita Springs, Fla.

Executive Resource Management by Robert W. Barner, Davies-Black Publishing, 2000, 288 pages, ISBN: 0891061401, is available through the SHRMStore at www.shrm.org/shrmstore or by calling (800) 444-5006, option 1, $44.95 for SHRM members, $49.95 list price.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Society for Human Resource Management
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group