Talent Management Semantics July 26th, 2010

Sean Conrad

A few recent blog posts have got me thinking lately about the language around talent management. This started a couple weeks ago with a post from Paul Hebert. He looked at the use of the word management versus the term supervision, with the point being that what we really want our managers to do, as the front line on talent management programs, is supervise.

The interesting thing? The root of supervise is all about “vision” – overseeing, watching. The root of manage is about controlling, training.

Hebert astutely points out that while we say manage, what we really expect is supervision, and how somewhere along the way, manage became higher up on the “food chain” than supervise, and that we need to encourage supervision because that will drive performance.

The same day I read Paul’s post, Kris Dunn had one on “command” and how important it is to performance:

Command is what makes you believe someone is in control, is great at what they do and has the ability to influence people, environments and events around them. It’s like style; you know it when you see it.

Command is the secret sauce that gives you confidence that someone is going to get it done. Period.

Kris notes that command is critical to strong performance, but that it is highly subjective. Both Paul and Kris provide some great insight in their posts, but both serve to point out that within the talent management game we are stuck within a certain lexicon, and that as employees, managers and HR pros we need to take the time to better define the skills and qualities that drive performance success.

Am I advocating for terms that don’t make sense, or try to make things something they are not? No. Talent management, succession planning, pay for performance are all apt and accepted terms, so throwing them out doesn’t make sense. But supervision and command are both powerful and denote the importance of what we truly need to have a high performance workforce. Maybe it is time to reassess the subtle language of talent management and pull in those terms that empower managers and employees, and take the time to help everyone understand what they really mean.