How do you talk talent with your people (that does not set you up for a tough conversation)?

Talent conversations come in many shapes and sizes. Talent is more than just how good you are today; it also encompasses how well you fit into the plans for tomorrow. Your plans, the organisation’s plans, and their plans….

What could possibly go wrong?

Ricky and Paul tackle the conversations that leaders need to have to help the people around them understand where they are right now, what is expected of them and where they need to develop. Talent conversations may not be easy, but with a bit of structure and thought, they can be positive and constructive interactions that help people grow.

Posted On April 19, 2023 By Paul Hutchinson In Culture, Leadership, Podcasts, The question is /

How do you work out who your talented people are?

Working out who the talented people are sounds easy, but it turns out to be quite complex for many leaders. Loyalty and liking get in the way of tough decisions, and potentially get confused with performance. We also ignore issues when they are small, making them really difficult to deal with once they become a problem.

In this podcast, Paul and Ricky explore a model used by a lot of organisations to help them think about talent, and the different ways that people need to be managed to get the best out of them. The model, affectionately known as the nine-box talent grid, explores two distinct factors: current performance and future potential. Performance is all about what they are doing today, whereas Potential considers what the organisation needs from them tomorrow. How can we use this model to get the right people in the right place, and manage our people effectively?

Posted On April 5, 2023 By Paul Hutchinson In Leadership, Podcasts, The question is /

What is the leader’s role in talent management?

Developing the skills and growing the people around us is, all too often, perceived as something that HR or L&D own. The perception is that this has very little to do with day-to-day activities, maybe even getting in the way of doing the work. Yet, without building the skills to do what is needed now and what will be needed next, it is impossible to achieve our goals.

In this episode, Ricky and Paul propose that talent management is a leadership issue. From setting the expectation of what skills are going to be needed to encouraging people as they grow, only leaders can create the environment and define a culture of growth. If you can attract the right people and remove the wrong ones, you have a much better chance of achieving your vision.

Posted On March 23, 2023 By Paul Hutchinson In Leadership, The question is /

Who owns your career?

Who is responsible for developing you so that your career progresses?

It used to be something that employers took responsible for; however, that may not be the case anymore.

In this podcast, Paul and Ricky explore the way that career development changes over your career and how modern careers may have to have quite different expectations around learning and development.

So, ask yourself, who owns developing your career? Is it you, or is it your boss?

Posted On March 8, 2023 By Paul Hutchinson In Leadership, Podcasts, The question is /

What five things should leaders be focused on in 2023?

So what are the important things that leaders need to focus on to ensure that they are leading for success? Does that change in a year like 2023, when, yet again, everything is up in the air?

In this podcast Paul and Ricky consider what would be the five most important areas that a leader should focus on when leading in such uncertain in times. They consider how this might be different from other years (hint, it isn’t, it is just that this level of uncertainty is much less forgiving than normal), and offer some practical tips on where you can start.

Posted On February 22, 2023 By Paul Hutchinson In Leadership, Podcasts, The question is /

What is the best piece of advice you would give?

In this special edition, one-hundredth episode of the podcast we explore the four key topics, Productivity, Change, Culture and Leadership to see if we can get each of them down to one piece of wisdom, well one piece each from Ricky, Rob, Rich and Paul.

Without creating any spoilers, you may have guessed that we did not get it down to one, or one per topic! However, we did come up with some real nuggets for each of the areas, so listen in for a quick grounding in how to get things done in your organisation, department or team.

Posted On December 1, 2022 By Paul Hutchinson In Change, Culture, Leadership, Podcasts, Productivity, The question is /

What makes the questions we ask so important?

As part of a mini-series on the power of questions, Ricky and Rob look at the role of questions, why they are an important tool for leaders and managers and discuss why they work.

From the way we ask questions, to using questions to helping others think, this podcast asks questions about questions.

Posted On September 21, 2022 By Paul Hutchinson In Coaching, Leadership, Podcasts, The question is /

What should I do when I realise that my workshop plan might not be working?

So, you have spent hours working out how best to run your meeting or workshop, you have a plan, you have the timing perfect… then the workshop starts, and you watch as your plan gets up and leaves the building!

In this podcast, Paul gets experienced facilitators Richard and Rob to share some of their secrets so that you look like everything is running to plan; you end up exactly where you said you would end up, even if you don’t quite know how you got there.

Posted On September 7, 2022 By Paul Hutchinson In Leadership, Podcasts, Productivity, The question is /

How do I create psychological safety in our meetings?

Continuing our series on facilitation, Paul asks Rob and Richard how they create the trust and ‘safety’ required to get honesty and openness from workshop participants.

Creating a safe space is one of the primary responsibilities of a facilitator.

If you get the environment and dynamic wrong, it may cause people to close down, limiting the ideas, challenge and acceptance of the group. Getting it wrong makes the facilitator’s role harder.

A series of simple interventions, from the room layout to the first few minutes, can make all the difference, even though the group may not even notice you are doing it.

Posted On July 13, 2022 By Paul Hutchinson In Leadership, Podcasts, Productivity, The question is /

What do you need to think about when planning a team workshop?

The Thinking Focus team have facilitated workshops all over the world. We facilitate thinking for companies large and small, as well as charities, and government bodies; if you have something that you need the team to think about, then the team can help.

In this short series, Paul talks to Richard and Rob to understand how master facilitators work, giving you some inside tips on how to be a better facilitator, so you can get better outcomes in the meeting you are running.

This first podcast explores the thinking of the facilitator when they are planning the workshop, from the goal to the group; what do you need to know?

Posted On June 30, 2022 By Paul Hutchinson In Leadership, Podcasts, Productivity, The question is /