The purpose of this session is to help participants understand how to build in the appropriate processes and development initiatives to ensure that their organisations’ most talented people make the biggest positive impact in the organisation that they can. Participants will walk away from the session having been introduced to cutting edge ways to accurately identify potential and with the full understanding of what talented people need to be exposed to in order to reach their potential. They will also leave with a clear view of what kills potential in people and a kick-start of how to change the talent landscape in their organisation. Bill Lawry, Managing Consultant, Nurturing Winners International

1. Bill Lawry
Nurturing Winners International
Talent Pipeline Optimisation:
Ensuring Your Talented People Realize Their Potential

2. Organisation
Team
Executive

3. Agenda
• Strategic talent management
• Identifying potential
• Turning potential into reality
• How to kill potential

4. STRATEGIC TALENT MANAGEMENT

5. Organisations in which talent
management was perceived to be
strongly embedded outperformed
other organisations (TSR) by 67%’

6. Demand
Supply

7. Know & nurture those with
exceptional potential
Accelerate their development
Maximise their contribution … right
people for most challenging work
Secure their commitment & loyalty

8. Mismanagement of HIPOs is costly!!!
Organisations that fail to properly identify and develop their high-potential
employees pay a short-term and a long-term cost.
First, and most obviously, performance and productivity will suffer
immediately.
Second and more damaging, the expected value of future performance
and productivity will decline, as employees take on positions and
responsibilities for which they are not suited or prepared.
Indeed, a strategic focus on employee potential is the single thing an
organisation can do to maximise current and future employee
performance.

9. IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL

10. The Corporate Leadership Council’s model of employee potential
Aspiration
Ability Engagement
The High-Potential Employee
A high-potential employee is someone with the
ability, engagement, and aspiration to rise to
and succeed in more senior, critical positions.
ABILITY
A combination of the innate
characteristics and learned
skills that an employee uses
to carry out his/her day-to-
day work.
Innate characteristics
• Mental/cognitive agility
• Emotional intelligence
Learned skills
• Technical/functional skills
• Interpersonal skills
ASPIRATION
The extent to which an employee wants
or desires:
• Prestige and recognition in the
organisation
• Advancement and influence
• Financial rewards
• Work-life balance
• Overall job enjoyment
ENGAGEMENT
Engagement consists of four elements:
•Emotional Commitment – The extent to
which employees value, enjoy, and
believe in their organisations
•Rational Commitment – The extent to
which employees believe that staying
with their organisations is in their self-
interest
•Discretionary Effort – Employee
willingness to go ‘above and beyond’
the call of duty
•Intent to Stay – Employee desire to stay
with the organisation
Source: Corporate Leadership Council High-Potential Management Survey, 2005.

11. YSC Influence Drive Judgement
BP Relationships Achievement Learning Agility Judgement
PwC Self/other awareness Business Impact Learning/Change Agility
Centrica Relationships Drive Learning Agility
Egon Zender Energising others Drive / Impact Learning Agility
How others measure potential

12. Create space …
Coach Talent Scout

13. Potential – key behaviours
Drive
• Effectively regulate their emotions when under
pressure to deliver exceptional performance
• When faced with setbacks they quickly return to
optimum performance
• Are unwilling to take on new challenges outside their
comfort zone
• Experience anxiety under pressure which affects
their performance and delivery
Relationships
• Effectively listens to understand others’ needs
motives and agendas
• They consistently build effective and relevant
relationships with a range of stakeholders all levels
• Focus on advocating their own point of view without
seeking to understand others’ needs or views
• They see relationship building as a low priority or,
when they do so, they do it in a superficial or
inauthentic manner
High
Low
confidential

14. Potential for what?
Mastery Broaden Stretch

16. TURNING POTENTIAL INTO REALITY

17. Start early, start at the ‘coal face’
potential
experience
Early career Mid career ‘Harvest’

18. Give people the tools to manage their careers

19. Inflecting Potential
Aspiration
Ability Engagement
The High-Potential Employee
A high-potential employee is someone with the
ability, engagement, and aspiration to rise to
and succeed in more senior, critical positions.
Source: Corporate Leadership Council High-Potential Management Survey, 2005.
1 2
3

20. Inflecting Potential – 3 pillars
employee
relationships
convince
employees of
organisational
commitment
‘experiences
within the
experience’

21. Your role as a manager
Advocate:
Actively champions / promotes the
individual or their interests.
Backs the individual to succeed
Mentor:
A more experienced individual willing to share
knowledge with someone less experienced in a
relationship of mutual trust
Coach:
Someone who facilitates and supports another
person to develop greater competence
Talent Scout:
Someone who looks for talent … implies a wide angle
lens. Evaluates, tests and where appropriate acts as an
agent on behalf of the individual
Backs someone
else’s success
Guides someone
to greater success
Finds talent &
brings it to the
attention of others
Supports others to
develop

22. Stretching on-the-job experiences
Personal challenges
• Modify work to adapt to
changing circumstances
• Creatively solve problems
• Persuade senior managers to
take difficult actions
• Use special skills to handle
work crisis
• Identify new ways to work
• Make decisions that could
damage organisation
reputation
• Acquire new skills to complete
unfamiliar projects
• Make decisions outside
expertise
• Make decisions that may
dissatisfy customers
• Handle work crisis
Traditional experiences
• Number of businesses launched
• Number of countries worked in
• Number of functions worked in
Core job experiences
• Use specialised skills for daily
tasks
• Work with other departments
• Engage in business forecasting
or planning
• Understand markets,
competitors, or customers
• Consider global customer needs
• Work with third parties
• Design new products
• Acquire new customers
• Interact with existing customers

23. Tailoring your treatment of high potentials
Brand Enthusiasts
The Nurtured
Planners
Opportunity Seekers
Connectors
Career Ladderists

24. HOW TO KILL POTENTIAL

25. Things that kill potential
• The effect of bad managers lasts.
• Manager churn kills potential.
• Too many rotations can be dangerous. Potential grows best under a limited
number of personal challenges supported by long-term relationships.

26. • High Potentials aren’t good at everything
• they have 24 hours in their day too
• they aren’t High Potential for ever
• It’s a ‘balanced deal’ …. avoid elitism

27. Talent strategy
• Aligning people strategy to
business strategy
• Analysing the supply and
demand of talent
• Pipeline planning
• High potential identification
• Performance management
High Impact sessions
Short, focussed, impactful and
interactive workshops for all aimed
at:- building capability , enhancing
confidence , breaking down silos
and having fun!
• Motivating self and others
• Building trust and rapport
• Improving personal
effectiveness (getting more
done)
• Building high performing teams
• Effective goal setting for
improved performance
• Building a higher performing
environment
• High performance feedback
Developing leaders
• Leadership strategy/
philosophy
• Coaching and mentoring
• Programme Design &
Delivery
• High potential development
• Transition support
High performing Teams
• Rapid integration of new
members
• Identification of purpose and
goals
• Developing road maps to elite
performance
• Large group interventions and
facilitation
Nurturing Winners
International
NWI was founded by Bill Lawry in
2005. Bill is an experienced leader,
consultant and coach, who has
worked in the field of organisation,
team and individual performance
for 20 years. Bill’s varied career
has seen him run his own business
and work alongside Olympic
athletes and sports psychologists.
He has also held a number of high
profile roles with global
organisations. He was Talent and
People Development Director for
PricewaterhouseCoopers in the
Middle East and Group Head of
Executive Talent and Development
for Centrica, the FTSE 30 Energy
company.
Valued Clients
+44 7769 546590 bill.lawry@nurturingwinners.com
‘Organisations in which
talent management was
perceived to be strongly
embedded outperformed
other organisations (TSR)
by 67%’