Workshop 14 (half day)
Talent Management: The Promise and Paradox of Potential
Presenters: Paul R. Yost, Microsoft Corporation
Morgan W. McCall, Jr., USC
Coordinator: Kate Zimberg, Microsoft Corporation
Organizations have become ever more dynamic in recent decades with the future promising to be even more so. In these conditions, assessing leader and employee potential becomes more critical than ever and, rather ironically, harder to do. In this workshop, we will discuss the underlying assumptions, issues, and paradoxes in the assessment and development of potential; review research on the prediction and development of potential; and discuss practical strategies that organizations can use to systematically integrate potential into their talent management processes. Microsoft’s talent management processes to assess and develop talent in a dynamic environment will be reviewed. Workshop participants will have opportunities to share best practices, their experiences, and lessons they have learned along the way. The workshop is designed for practitioners and researchers interested in emerging practices in talent management.
This workshop is designed to help participants:
• Discuss the theoretical and practical issues and challenges in the assessment and development of potential
• Identify the conditions that facilitate and inhibit building potential into organizational talent management processes
• Review strategies that organizations can use to build potential into their talent management systems
• Identify metrics to assess how well an organization is developing talent and potential
Paul R. Yost is senior research specialist at Microsoft where his work includes leadership talent management, executive assessment, leadership performance metrics, and other ongoing research. He also teaches part time in the Organizational Behavior graduate program at Seattle Pacific University. Before Microsoft, Paul was with The Boeing Company where his work focused on leadership development, learning from experience, leadership program design and evaluation, and administration of the corporate employee survey. Previous experience includes work in managerial training, assessment centers, team effectiveness, and selection systems in positions held at GEICO and Battelle Research. Paul received his PhD in I-O psychology from the University of Maryland.
Morgan W. McCall, Jr., is professor of Management and Organization, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. A Cornell PhD, he was director of research and a senior behavioral scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership prior to joining USC. His research focuses on developing executive talent, and he is author or coauthor of Developing Global Executives, High Flyers, The Lessons of Experience, and Whatever it Takes. Morgan has worked with a variety of organizations including American Express, Amgen, Boeing, Cisco Systems, Genentech, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Motorola, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, and Sun Microsystems. He is on the faculties of SunU, the University of Toyota, Disney’s Global Leadership and Emerging Leaders Institutes, and the Weyerhaeuser Leadership Institute. He received his PhD from the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell.
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