Members' Diary of Development Network: November 2013

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Predicting Success-by Marc Effron | Talent Management

-By Development Network-

Predicting who will move furthest, fastest is the key to a successful talent review process. Unless you do this, it's impossible to differentiate how to invest in strategies to grow talent or to do succession planning. By definition, succession planning predicts who will be able to move into a role or level at a certain point in time. An inaccurate process is not only a significant waste of resources but can jeopardize the company's future.

You can make your talent review process more predictive and effective by improving its simplicity, transparency and level of accountability.

Simplify how you identify high potentials. Elaborate competency models don't often predict which managers succeed. Sometimes they fail because the models are lists of good managerial and leadership behaviors, not the few vital behaviors that differentiate success. Often, they quickly become outdated as the organization's strategy changes. By the time you've developed and implemented a certain type of model, it's only likely to be accurate for a few years at best.

Solve this problem by creating your high potential model during the executive team talent review. After you've completed your calibration discussion, ask the meeting participants which factors differentiate those in the highest potential category from those in the next highest potential category. The two or three factors they identify will be the operation's definition of high potential. Their answers may not align with your desired model and you may not even agree, but they're what your executives consider when they evaluate who has high potential.

Simplify the process by following these steps:

1. Use a performance and potential (PxP) matrix:

Most companies already use this to differentiate their talent. When used properly, it's the most straightforward and accurate way to understand the quality of talent.

2. Keep the PxP simple:

Use nine boxes at the most. For most managerial roles, you can't accurately differentiate people into any greater number of categories.

3. Assess potential to advance:

Predicting success is the purpose of talent reviews. If you're defining potential as alignment to your company values, an individual's ambition or anything else, you've eliminated the process' usefulness to succession planning. Include in your PxP definition of potential a statement defining it as progress through levels over time - for example, one level in three years, two levels in six years - so it feeds into succession planning.

4. Assign clear accountability for follow-up.

Too many organizations destroy the value of talent reviews by failing to execute on the agreed development decisions. This is most often due to a lack of process and accountability. The solution is as simple as this:

a) HR should record every talent action agreed to:

That might include the action, due date and the person accountable for executing each development decision.

b) HR should follow up on every action:

It is HR's responsibility to ensure the successful execution of every talent action identified during reviews. Once a month, the responsible HR leader should call or visit the manager accountable for the action to ensure it's moving forward. If it's not, they need to push for progress and elevate the issue if they meet resistance.

c) The list of agreed-upon actions should be the first agenda item at the next talent review:

It will be obvious who didn't do their job as the status of each item is read.

Turn up the transparency dial. You may not need to be 100 percent transparent about every talent review decision, but more transparency is typically better than less. You should:

a) Increase process transparency:

Let everyone reviewed in the process know that the process occurs and about the tools used, the topics discussed and the types of decisions that are made. The most transparent organizations post this on their intranet.

b) Increase outcome transparency:

At a minimum, anyone reviewed in the process should have a yearly conversation with their manager to discuss their performance and their potential to move forward. This step empowers employees to make the right career decisions.

If you can implement these few enhancements you'll find your talent review process accurately differentiates talent and allows you to make smart talent investments.

[About the Author: Marc Effron is president of The Talent Strategy Group and author of One Page Talent Management.]

-For More articles & Information: http://www.developmentnetwork.co.nr/

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Fw: UN Trust Fund Call for Proposals 2014: Large and Small NGOs can apply

On , sasikumar kanakalingam <saksi76@yahoo.com> wrote:

On Wednesday, 27 November 2013, 7:36, fundsforngos.org <newsletter@fundsforngos.org> wrote:

fundsforngos.org Newsletter Services

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Here are the fundsforngos.org email updates for saksi76@yahoo.com

UN Trust Fund Call for Proposals 2014: Large and Small NGOs can apply

Calling all Fundraising Professionals! We are inviting you to be the first to try FundsforNGOs Premium Website which promises to revolutionize how you and your NGO can set about your fundraising. Never before have so many funding opportunities been collected in one place meaning that you can forget about endless hours researching donors…[more]

UN Trust Fund Call for Proposals 2014: Large and Small NGOs can apply
Deadline: 22 January 2014
Developing Countries
A new call for proposals under the United Nations Trust Fund has been announced. NGOs are invited to submit proposals. For large civil society organizations, governments and UN Country Teams, budget requests should be within the range of a minimum of US$ 300,000 to a maximum of US$ 1 million total for duration of two to three years. For small civil society organizations, especially grassroots women's organizations and youth‐led organizations, budget requests for a minimum of US$ 50,000 will also be considered…[more]
http://www.fundsforngos.org/?p=56037

Fundraising Essentials: How to nurture Individual Donors
After nearly a decade working in fundraising in several countries and in organisation's big and small, it has become apparent that the majority of NGOs continue to see grant funding as the panacea to their fundraising challenges. Time and again when new projects are proposed or when financial difficulties arise NGOs will point their fundraisers in typically one direction, large grant project funding…[more]
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HIV & Drug Use Research Fellowships Program
Deadline: 10 February 2014
All Countries
Applications are accepted for HIV & Drug Use Research Fellowships Program offered by International AIDS Society (IAS). This program is being supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (ANRS)…[more]
http://www.fundsforngos.org/?p=55933

Social Venture Challenge Asia – Competition
Deadline: 28 January 2014
All Countries
Participants from around the world are invited to take part in Social Venture Challenge Asia Competition. This program is being supported by DBS and NUS Enterprise…[more]
http://www.fundsforngos.org/?p=55915

Featured:

The Global Fund for Women Grants: How to Write Your Proposal
A guide for small NGOs on how to develop and submit a proposal to apply for grant from the Global Fund for Women which offers $5,000 to $30,000 per year for projects that promote women's rights around the world. This guide takes you through the application form, providing tips and live examples on how to draft various components of the proposal…[more]
http://www.fundsforngos.org/?p=55975

United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) 2013: Learn How to Apply
Deadline: 31 December 2013
All Countries
The United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) 2013 Call for Project Proposals is now open for NGOs to apply. The Fund provides financial support to projects around the world for strengthening the voice of civil society, promoting human rights and encouraging the participation of all groups in the democratic processes. The main areas of funding are Community Development, Media, Rule of Law and Human Rights, Tools for Democratization, Women and Youth…[more]
http://www.fundsforngos.org/?p=55806