Talent Focused Management (TFM) is our foundation management workshop. Managers are charged with taking a team of people and getting everything to work together in a way that delivers performance. But outstanding corporate performance is simply the sum total of outstanding individual performances. In Talent Focused Management, managers learn what it takes to have outstanding individual performances. Talent Focused Management starts with Talent—literally! Without talent, no sales department can produce spectacular results. And without a talent-focused approach to management, even the most talented salespeople will fail to achieve to their full potential. It is this management philosophy that is at the heart of CSS’ Talent Focused Management (TFM) system and is brought to life in the Management Sphere of Influence.

Are great salespeople—or musicians or athletes or cabinetmakers—born or made? Too much time has been invested in this age-old debate. The answer is both. First, they are born (naturally endowed with talent and potential for the particular career), and then they are made (by a manager, mentor, teacher, or coach). Rare is the outstanding performer who was not both born and made.

“Born and made” explains why the CSS Management Sphere of Influence has a Nature side and a Nurture side. On the Nature side is the one big “given” a manager must deal with: human talent. No manager can change people, but great managers make smart decisions about talent: They “fit the talent to the task” by matching the right person with the right job assignment. So the four key functions on the Nature side of the Sphere are Recruitment, Selection, Retention, and Promotion—determining who comes, who stays, who goes, who moves up, who moves over. Few managers invest enough time at this, “the front end” of performance management.

On the Nurture side of the Sphere are the areas in which the manager has the opportunity—indeed, has the responsibility—to influence the development and the productivity of the talent he or she has chosen to have on staff, by investing in the individual. The four key “investment” functions on this side are Relationship, Expectation, Feedback, and Compensation. It is here that the manager’s actions determine whether each individual will make a meager contribution or the maximum contribution to corporate productivity. The foundation for these four Nurture functions is the first one—Relationship—and since relationships are, of necessity, highly individualized, every activity on the Nurture side is most effective when individualized.

The best managers play chess—understanding how each piece moves and performs—not checkers—expecting every piece to move and achieve in exactly the same fashion. They don’t manage their “staff.” They manage one person at a time, maximizing each. Our Individualized Management Questionnaire (IMQ) and Individualized Management Plan (IMP) are fundamental tools to help managers do this.

Talent Focused Management Topics

• Defining Talent
• Finding Talent
• Job Analysis & Spec Sheet
• Nominator System
• Screening & Interviewing
• Investing in Talent
• Relationship
• Expectation
• Individualized Management Questionnaire (IMQ) and Individualized Management Plan (IMP)
• Feedback & Recognition
• Compensation
• Developing & Retaining Talent
• Effective Performance Feedback
• The Field Visit Plan
• Individual Focus Meetings
• 3R Selling: The Culture

For more information or to register for an upcoming Talent-Focused Management workshop, contact Dolly Heims at 813-679-1520 or dollyheims@csscenter.com. 

2011 Schedule