Effective leaders do more than simply produce profits, Bill Conaty and Ram Charan explain in their new book The Talent Masters (Crown Business, 2010), which provides an in-depth examination of the techniques of great talent managers. Successful managers recognize the potential for talent and encourage individual growth by providing resources to flourish. The best leaders get to know their employees on a personal level, evaluating their personalities and specialties.
Charan, a prolific C-suite consultant, teamed up for his newest book with a former senior vice president of General Electric. Conaty’s experience provides readers a unique glimpse into the extensive process GE uses to detect senior leadership capability, including sending promising employees to the John F. Welch Learning Center, referred to simply as “Crotonville,” to take classes and participate in intense leadership-development exercises.
In addition to broad principles leaders should learn, the authors detail GE’s “Session C” process, where the CEO and human resources director meet to discuss leaders at all levels of the business. Former CEO Jack Welch expanded the process, bringing the evaluations to division locations where they were more extensive and personal. Session C is held before strategy sessions. “Most companies do it the other way around, on the theory that strategy must comes first, since it determines structure. GE knows otherwise. Strategy comes from the minds and cognitive makeup of people,” Conaty and Charan explain.
When a situation necessitates hiring an outsider for a high-ranking position, the authors advocate educating the new leader on the intricacies of the company. GE needed an outsider to lead the Ultrasound division, and hired Diasonics’ Omar Ishrak. To bring him up to speed, “the whole system swung into action to ‘GE-ize’ Omar,” the book recounts, “coaching and educating him on GE practices and culture—in short, doing everything necessary to replicate a GE career experience, including building intimacy and trust as fast as possible.” After just three years, the division’s revenues more than doubled.
Quick-action items fill the last quarter of the book, so readers can immediately begin implementing the techniques and principles that Conaty and Charan promote. Brief takeaways are summarized, including the need to hire managers for their leadership skills, values and behavior, rather than solely focusing on their work or educational experiences, and supporting an environment where leaders can grow to their maximum potential. “The Talent Mastery Tool Kit” includes self- and company-evaluation questionnaires to assess where improvement is needed. The tool kit provides executive succession timelines to advise boards on the process of evaluating contenders long before an executive’s exit is imminent, while examining how they can promote the company’s long-term strategy.