You must cultivate the 'Superkeeper'.

• Author: Kristie, James
• Position: LEADERSHIP

From The Talent Management Handbook (Second Edition), Edited by Lance A. Berger and Dorothy R. Berger. Copyright 2011 by McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Published by McGraw-Hill (www.mhprofessional.com).

A TALENT STRATEGY makes explicit the type of investments an organization makes today in the people whom it believes will best help it achieve competitive excellence in the future. A talent management strategy views a workforce as a portfolio of human resource assets that are differentiated based on an assessment of each person's current and potential contribution to organization success. The talent strategies of most high-performing organizations contain the following three directives: 1) Cultivate the Superkeeper[TM], 2) Retain key position backups, and 3) Appropriately allocate training, rewards, education, assignments, and development.

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The "Cultivate the Superkeeper" directive involves the identification, selection, development, and retention of Superkeepers. Superkeepers are a very small group of...