First, a confession: I’m tired of the pundits and media piling on about the economy.  Yeah, things are messy and there are people having a tough time.  But there are other things happening too.

Layoffs mean that some good workers are getting indiscriminately released into the pool of the unemployed.   In other businesses, the top talent is biding its time, ready to move on when better times and better opportunities appear.  Smart leaders are making investments in discovering, measuring and developing their top talent. 

One problem is that most leaders don’t see the full extent of the talent they have.  Top performers are not the only talent in a company.   Leaders MUST get better at discovering the talent they have and learning what talent really looks like.

Being able to measure talent is possible, but the vast majority of companies are truly stumbling in the dark  when it comes to objectively assessing or measuring talent.  Bias is rampant, even when a company is fully compliant with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines about sex, gender, race, age or national origin.  Bias is seen when managers hire people with personalities similar to their own.  Without following a well-designed process  for talent management, managers are going to naturally default to their own biases.

With tough times in the economy, companies can’t afford to let top talent slip through the cracks or slip out the back door.  They also can’t keep unproductive people on the payroll.  The talent is out there-do you know how to find it?