Manager's Guide to Maximizing Employee Potential »

WILLIAM J. ROTHWELL (State College, PA) is President of Rothwell and Associates, a full-service consulting firm focusing on talent management, and a Professor of Workforce Education and Development at Pennsylvania State University. His previous books include Effective Succession Planning, What CEOs Expect from Corporate Training, and Working Longer.

As a manager, your constant priority is delivering superior results, fast. You probably think you don't have a minute to spare for tasks like employee development. The welcome news is you don't have to sacrifice meeting today's demands to focus on preparing promising individuals for tomorrow's challenges. Making recruiting, training, cultivating, and retaining talented people an integral part of what you do, every day, will make you a better manager.

With The Manager's Guide to Maximizing Employee Potential, you'll learn how to master and continually practice tactical, day-to-day talent management. You'll begin by exploring how your beliefs about work and human nature, along with your routine workplace behavior, affect your workers' ability and motivation to perform. With a commitment to improving what you expect from and how you treat your people, you'll gain the skills to:

Assess individual potential through a variety of approaches, from assigning "stretch" projects to delegating a chunk of your responsibilities.

Attract and select the right person for each position, evaluating candidates on criteria that really matters.

Conduct ongoing task-focused training on the job.

Appraise how employees are working and provide constructive feedback on a daily basis.

Excel at everyday performance coaching and seize opportunities for development coaching.

Actively encourage career planning and advancement.

Identify and groom a replacement, whether for a short-term leave or your eventual departure, without alienating contenders.

Transfer informal knowledge through job shadowing, mentoring, and storytelling.

Serve as a model of continuous self-development...and muchmore.

Packed with proven tactics, real-world examples, and expert tips, The Manager's Guide to Maximizing Employee Potential will give you an edge on winning, cultivating, and keeping a highly motivated, high-achieving workforce. Day after day, you'll become not only a better manager, but also a true leader and inspiration to your people.

Preface vii

Acknowledgments ix

Advance Organizer: What Do You as a Manager Do on a Daily Basis to Support Talent Management? xi

1 The Importance of Talent Management 1

2 Identifying and Grooming a Replacement 15

3 Assessing Individual Potential 37

4 Recruiting and Selecting Talented People 49

5 Training and Developing Talented People 77

6 Encouraging Career Planning and Offering Career Counseling 93

7 Performance and Development Coaching 103

8 Appraising Workers and Providing Daily Feedback 111

9 Managing High Potentials, High Performers, and High Professionals 127

10 Transferring Knowledge and Professional Contacts 143

11 Retaining Talent 163

12 Working with Diverse People 171

13 Corrective Action and Decruiting 177

14 Self-Development 195

Appendix I Frequently Asked Questions about Talent Management 203

Appendix II A Daily Calendar for the Manager in Talent Management 217

Index 243

About the Author 253