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The Leadership Podcast

The Leadership Podcast

We Study Leaders

May 5, 2021

TLP253: New Thinking on Cultivating Talent

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Stephen Bailey is the Founder and CEO of ExecOnline, a leading provider of B2B leadership development solutions through partnerships with the world’s top business schools. He brings a passion for helping leaders and their organizations solve their most pressing strategic challenges. Join us as we dive into the topics of diversity and inclusion, and cultivating talent in smarter ways.

Key Takeaways

[4:00] Leaders need to be thinking about conscious ways to include a wide range of ethnicities in the conversation so that it’s embedded in the DNA of the organization.

[5:45] The good news is, companies are stepping up to the challenge and taking on this new level of commitment to ending systemic racism.

[8:15] Before, we were living in a world that had a limited number of seats or “opportunities,” but because the world has opened up and we are now embracing more online options, the candidate has more power to choose an option that fits them.

[11:00] Have a talent gap? The traditional approach is to invest more in talent acquisition. However, that’s not the best approach when it comes to cultivating diverse talent.

[13:35] Stephen shares the three components of development equity in an organization.

[17:05] Corporate America only has a limited amount of seats to fill. Stephen shares some of the best ways to structure incentive programs so that they are inclusive of everyone.

[21:55] We all have an unconscious bias. An exercise that leaders can do is to map your decision-making network and see what gaps and perspectives are being left out.

[25:45] Stephen defines what he means by “equality” in the context of corporate America.

[28:15] Our current way of onboarding talent is a bit backward. We should have a strong emphasis on cultivating internal talent to fill in new roles.

[32:45] Women leaders have a different set of challenges in the workforce that they have to overcome.

[35:45] Stephen shares how you can use empathy in a virtual setting to still check in with your employees’ wellbeing.

[39:45] Efficiency is the enemy when it comes to wanting to take on a more collaborative approach.

[42:10]  In order for organizations to leverage their talent, you need to put the right systems in place. The current model is broken.

[44:25] Listener Challenge: Map your decision-making network and see where it leads you.


The Leadership Podcast is sponsored by W.S. Darley & Company.  

Founded in 1908, Darley remains a family owned and operated business, providing the highest quality equipment solutions to our country’s warfighters and firefighters.  

Learn more at darley.com and darleydefense.com


Quotable Quotes

“How do we leverage new opportunities to create meaningful change as opposed to making a big splash and then reverting back to the status quo.” Share on X “Business is changing so rapidly that the best organizations have to constantly update their standards for success.” Share on X “If a female leader completes a really high-quality project in one of our programs. It is harder for her to get her manager to listen to that project than a male counterpart.” Share on X “It has to be a systems-level approach. The traditional approach has been purely toward the individual. You identify your unconscious biases. You do something about them.” Share on X

Resources Mentioned

  • Sponsored by: Pass-life.com. Coupon Code: Duty.
  • Connect with Stephen: Execonline.com & Stephen on LinkedIn

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: hiring, leadership, talent

TLP252: Don’t Play The Game - Change It
TLP254: Something is Going to Happen - Insigh...

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