If you follow my blog you know that one thing that truly excites me is how management in Asia differs from the rest of the world. I believe that the cultural elements of the region that affect how management works makes it the ideal example for other frontier markets. From family ties, to respect for elders and of course pride in the past all play a part in management style. So, without further ado, here are 3 major talent management trends that are successfully working in Asia.

1. Skillpreneurs

A recent research article from PWC on the Future of Work indicated that 50% of young professionals interviewed in China believed that people in the future will have their own ‘brands’ and sell their skills to those who need them. And I’m convinced that the same applies to other parts in Asia where the European ‘cradle-to-grave’ philosophy has never taken hold and people are not looking at overarching institutes to take charge of their lives.

All around me professionals are letting go off the ‘traditional career model’ because they

1. Can’t fit in the archaic authority structures,
2. Want to have a more direct relation between effort and income,
3. Are disillusioned about the lack of meaning in their organisation, and
4. Are looking for flexibility and autonomy.

They are setting up their own companies, often with a strong ‘I-want-to-make-an-impact-on-the-world’ component, non-traditional structures and new business models.

Obviously talent that has the confidence to go their own way are often the most talented people in an organisation. And as such this poses a significant challenge to existing organisations and leaders, for which they have to answer the following two questions:

• If the skills and expertise that you require is only available with people that are looking for flexible, autonomous, challenging and short term engagements, how will you find, attract, engage and get the best value from them that will benefit your organisation?
• Is your organisation ready for the revolution where individual skilled entrepreneurs – skillpreneurs – will dominate the talent market?

2. Executive Coaching

Athletes and artist alike believe that in order to stay on top of their game they need a great coach who can stimulate them to be the best they can be. Over time, throughout the western business world Executive Coaching has created a similar standing where the best and most talented executives are employing the best coaches to help them stretch, learn, adapt and improve.

In Asia however Executive Coaching, until recently was seen more as a ‘last resort’ attempt to turn around an executives performance. Executives were afraid of being offered an Executive Coach because that mostly always meant that the person was not delivering and most likely a subtle hint to start looking for another position.

This view on executive coaching in Asia has started to shift as more and more top quality coaches are having a significant impact on the performance of talent. In my own practice the number of people that I am coaching has risen dramatically over the past 12 months with the coaches raving about the impact. More and more executives are actively looking for support and an outside executive coach is seen as a ‘safe way’ to get feedback and suggestions on how to move themselves and their company to the next level.

3. Structured Leadership Development Programs

Development programs in which executives were offered the opportunity to attend a workshop, conference or learning event have always been part and parcel of the HR toolkit of Asian companies. With tighter budgets and higher expectations on the return on investment of these learning interventions more and more organisations are stepping away from the traditional learning interventions and are looking for a different approach.

This has led to the embrace of the research findings of the Center of Creative Leadership that indicated that about 70% of organizational learning takes place on the job, through problem solving and through challenging assignments and other day-to-day activities. Another 20% occurs through drawing on the knowledge of others in the workplace; from informal learning to coaching and mentoring, and from support and direction from managers and colleagues. Only 10% occurs through formal learning, such as the classroom, a workshop or, more recently, e-learning. This insight has become the 70-20-10 rule for organizational learning.

Building on these insights traditional learning programs are making way for integrated, holistic and structured development programs build around specific organisational capabilities that companies need to develop to deliver on their growth strategy. A structured leadership development program integrates structured learning workshops, with 360 multi-rater assessments, individual development plans, executive coaching and action learning projects, where participants are required to immediately apply the tools, models and insights taught in a business challenge that they are facing in their current position.

Obviously the investment in time and money required for these structured development programs is significant, however I have observed that companies find materially more value and ROI from this investment than from their traditional learning interventions. As a result companies are scaling back on their ‘long list’ of training programs and putting more and more resources into these focused and structured development programs that are completely aligned with the organisational capabilities the company need to develop to succeed in the future.

Though I have summarized these three talent management trends in just under a thousand words, the importance that they have on an organization is completely invaluable. Thinking about the powerful potential of these strategies keeps me up at night. If you have any business trends which completely amaze you share them in the comments below. And if you’re not part of the Engage community, sign up to my blog and you’ll get a download which will help you empower your business teams.

Photo Credit: Andy Atzert via Compfight cc