Batter Up: Talent Management and Performance

Many companies talk about talent management but how many of us know of people who got promoted because they were friends of a boss. If you are truly competitive, you want to have the best athlete in the right position.

When I worked for Peter Harf, the then CEO of Benckiser, one night at dinner, Peter said to a bunch of us: "I may like you, I may not like you. I don't really care. All I do care about is that you know how to get the job done and you do get it done."

In baseball, team managers have known this fact for over 100 years. Why don't business managers know this? Despite all the lipservice about talent management and the efforts of HR departments, the best people don't get the best jobs.

This approach is an area where executive recruiters can be effective consultants for their clients. Get them the best people and tell them to forget the beauty pageant.

Here's what the magazine Fast Company learned from Jeff Angus, a baseball columnist:

FC: So baseball managers are people people?
Angus: Since the National League was organized in 1876, managers have known that they will succeed only on the drive, acuity, and sharpness of their players. In business, the thing that prevents you from being outsourced or downsized is keeping the talent you have from being commoditized. Tom Peters and others started talking about this in the mid-1980s. Baseball had a 90-year head start.

FC: Baseball hasn't changed much in more than a century. So how is any of this relevant to business, which changes all the time?
Angus: Baseball is a perfect example of making yourself over on a regular basis. Every off-season, they debrief, reassess, start a new cycle, bring up young players, try people in new positions. Look at the Atlanta Braves' Bobby Cox. Over the past 15 years, depending on the talent, he's made power teams, hitters' teams, pitchers' teams--and they've all been competitive.