Unorthodox concepts in HR : Part 12 – Magical Transformation of Talent

In this post, let's continue our exploration of Unorthodox concepts in Human Resources/People Management. We have been exploring concepts that are unlikely to be found in ‘respectable’ text books (and also not taught in ‘premier’ business schools) but are very much real in the paradoxical world of people management (See ‘The attrition principle’,  'In the valley of attrition' , 'Sublimation of vision statements' , 'Computer-controlled Manager Empowerment', ‘Training the Victim’ ,‘Two plus Two personality profiling’, 'Herophobia', 'Type N and Type O organizations', ‘The plus one problem’ , ‘Exporting your problems’ and ‘The IR mindset’ for the previous posts in this series).

“If there are times when you feel that you are not being valued by the organization, don’t leave. Quietly do your work. You will come back into fashion!”, said the experienced business leader to the new joiner during an informal conversation. 

Comments like this are quite common. They also true to a large extent. Yes, there are some employees in any organization whose fortunes are relatively steady (remains the same, steadily improve, steadily worsen etc.) But, most of the employees with long tenures have faced some degree of waxing and waning of their fortunes in the organization.

So, let's look a bit more deeply at the question “What are the factors that make the fortunes of an employee wax and wane in an organization?”

Now, 'fortunes of an employee in an organization' can mean different things (like promotions, salary increases, bonuses, being chosen for important roles/projects etc.). To simplify our discussion, let's take the 'talent classification' of the employee (placement of the employee on the 'performance-potential matrix') as the indicator of an employee's fortune in the organization, as this talent classification acts as a key driver for the decisions on promotions/increments/bonuses/roles etc. So, a drastic change in the fortunes of the employee ('magical transformation of talent') can be indicated by more than one step change in the performance and/or potential ratings (say on a 4 point rating scale) of the employee.

Let's look at seven factors that can lead to this kind of a drastic change in employee fortunes. If you were to ask me why exactly seven factors, I can only say that this list of factors is only illustrative (and not exhaustive) and that the number 7 is considered to be a 'perfect number' in many cultures (and some even attach mystical qualities to it)!

1. Role change : If an employee is moved to a role that doesn't play to his/her strengths the performance can reduce significantly, especially in the short-term. One especially unfortunate case (that is more likely in the case of top talent) is to be given a 'stretch role' with an impossible degree of stretch. This, if not managed promptly, can lead not only to a drop in performance but also to loss of confidence in the employee (and to the employee losing self-confidence). See 'Of stretch roles and designed to fail roles' for details. There could also be a more subtle variation of 'role change'  where the role (that the employee has been handling so far) itself changes - in terms of expectations from the role and the skill-set requirements - and if the employee is unable to respond well to these changes, his/her performance can be adversely affected.   
2. Promotion : It is possible that the last promotion moved the employee to 'his level of incompetence'. This is especially true for the 'sublimated' employees who haven't invested enough in building their skills while climbing the organization ladder. See 'Career development and sublimation' for details. 
3. Manager-related changes: This is essentially because of the 'manager discretion'  involved in performance and potential assessments. A well-designed performance management system that also includes calibration involving the other stakeholders in addition to the manager, can help in reducing this subjectivity in manager judgement. As we have seen in 'Paradox of potential assessment' , potential assessments are inherently more subjective and hence more prone to the variations introduced by manager changes. Also, in spite of all the systems, processes and tools that we have implemented to make people management more 'objective' , the 'Chemistry' between two human beings  (the manager and the employee in this case) continues to be a factor in all these decisions (and it is something that will be impacted when there is a manager change). Of course, one's 'equation' with the current manager can also change  and that can add another layer of variability. Another important 'manager-driven' phenomenon is that of 'great by rotation'. This typically happens in those organizations that insist on a fixed distribution of performance and/or potential ratings and a positively differentiated rating is required for promotions. In such cases, managers might be tempted to inflate the performance/potential of different employees each year so as to make them eligible for promotions. So, employees become great by rotation! Using a well-run calibration process for talent decisions (instead of taking a purely Mathematical Approach of relying on rigid distributions and rules) can avoid these kind of situations. 
4. Leadership changes at CEO/CXO levels: Leaders hired with a transformation agenda might look at tenured employees as part of the problem that they need to solve, and, this can lead to a dramatic change in the way the tenured employees are looked at. This is more common in 'Type N Organizations'. See 'Type N and Type O Organizations' for details. 
5. Employee-specific factors : Employees are human beings and their level of effort/involvement/engagement and hence their level of contribution to the organization can vary based on the factors in their personal life. Yes, a supportive talent management system that focuses on 'managing the whole person' can definitely help. See 'Mass career customization' for a related discussion. 
6. Larger organizational factors: Employees' fortunes depends on the fortune of the organization. While the fortune of the organization affects all the employees, the impact on employees might not be uniform. Some roles and skill-sets might become more critical. If there is a restructuring, some roles might get eliminated. This also brings us to another important aspect. These days. it is very much possible that an employee might not necessarily recover/bounce back from a phase of waning fortunes! Yes, change resilience and change agility definitely helps!
7. Luck!: Being ,at the right place at the right time' has always been a key contributor to employee's fortunes. Though sometimes scenario planning and change agility can help us to be 'at the right place at the right time', it is often a matter of pure chance! Depending on one's belief system/'sense-making process', supernatural explanations are also possible. This brings to mind a famous poem in Malayalam that (while referring to the divine) says something like "It is you who makes someone rich and famous in a matter of days; and it is you who makes a king who is living in a place, a rag-picker"!  

So where do these leave us? Waxing an waning of fortunes of employees (including large fluctuations in fortunes that can qualify as 'Magical Transformation of Talent') are very much possible. It can be because of organization and/or individual related factors; and sometimes, even because of plain luck. An awareness of these factors can help the employees to increase their readiness and to manage their careers better, even if many of the career moves they make turn out to be based on emergent opportunities and risks (and not planned in advance). This is even more important these days keeping in mind the disruptive nature of the changes that many organizations are going through! 

I do wonder whether 'top talent  becomes successful in organizations' or 'we are just calling successful employees top talent'! If it is the latter, then the waxing and waning of employee fortunes can definitely impact the talent classification!

Any comments/ideas?