While the problem of attracting the best professionals is becoming more acute all over the world, in large organizations with very hierarchical structures there is talent hidden in all corners, people who have spent many years working behind the scenes without their moment to shine or shine. advance to positions of greater responsibility. Like when Karim Benzema joined the ranks of Real Madrid after being named player of the year (it was the record transfer in 2009) and for 10 years he served Cristiano Ronaldo goals on a plate, but without realizing his full potential until the Portuguese left the club. He then became the only striker and the awards began to pour in: he has won 22 trophies with the team and today he is one of the best soccer players in the world.
Other workers do not have the same luck and do not have the same visibility. They are shadow profiles, covered by their companies or by themselves. “Underused talent, among other things because it is not identified and because companies often look outside instead of looking inside,” according to Santiago Álvarez de Mon, professor at IESE Business School. Employees who in many cases are directors and who have run into the wall of their superior, which continues to be the first trigger for people to leave organizations, either due to retaliation or simply because they are not given the opportunity to develop and promote.
There is also hidden talent by choice. Workers who do not deploy all their capabilities due to shyness, insecurity or mere comfort. Do not forget that in large corporations you can live very well without giving 100%. And also not everyone has to climb positions quickly. “Sometimes they are promoted to truly useless”, warns Professor Álvarez de Mon.
A recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute, which has delved into the professional lives of four million people, indicates that on average you change jobs every two or four years, and that new functions and expanding skills are the keys to promotion. Transfers can increase wages between 30% and 45%, she collects.
Carlos Recarte, a partner at the executive selection firm Recarte & Fontenla, appreciates that hidden talent in the world of management can be considered one who has spent at least five years in the same position without being promoted.
This is the case of Luis Valares, the figurative name of a 50-year-old human resources director, who has spent seven years in a Spanish company that invoices more than 3,500 million euros per year. For five years, the company’s CEO has given him more powers, such as taking charge of general services or group purchases. “Instead of making me deputy general manager or deputy general manager, what he does is use me as a boy for everything, he takes credit for me and promises me promotions that never come.” Valares can’t take it anymore and has decided to change companies. “There can be nothing worse than generating expectations that are not fulfilled; it’s what drives people to leave the organization disappointed,” he says. He is looking for a general manager, a sub-manager or a corporate human resources manager. “I would change even earning less,” he says.
It is the first time that Valares, with 20 years of managerial experience, has suffered such a situation, although he has often seen talent blocked by his bosses in large organizations where there are not positions of responsibility for everyone. “People end up leaving. Companies don’t always promote the best,” he says.
María Ordóñez knows this well, another fictitious name behind which appears a 51-year-old executive with 19 years of experience in a group in the field of health with a turnover that exceeds 3,000 million euros. She exercised a functional direction in one of the work centers of this company. With the arrival of a new boss, who incorporated her into the management committee and asked her to get involved in other areas outside her own, “I began to have a role far superior to my position, to replace him without changing my category” . “He said he was going to check my salary, but he hadn’t done it for seven years.” You can get out of a situation like this, says Ordóñez, who was about to accept an offer at another company when a former superior called her to offer her a position. Finally, she has not changed the company, but the place of work. She will now be attached to the director, the position that she held before without being recognized.
Women in the shadow
And it is that women are cannon fodder among the shadow staff. “In large organizations there is definitely a lot of hidden talent,” says Maite Ballester, partner at Nexxus Iberia Private Equity. “Above all, among women, we sell ourselves much worse than men and we wait for our merits to be recognized to be promoted,” supports Maite Aranzabal, director of Credicorp and Corporación Hijos de Rivera (Estrella de Galicia). “Furthermore, companies value men for their potential and women for their achievements. It is an unconscious bias,” she explains.
Both she and Ballester raised their voices to be recognized “because there are many bosses who wear medals and cover up talent, preventing it from going up,” according to Aranzabal. In the case of Ballester, it was chance that led him to take a step forward. An internal audit was being carried out in his company to analyze his risks. One of them was succession. A carelessness of papers in a printer let him see that the auditor raised three possible substitutes for the CEO, two men and her. But under her name she said that she would not want to accept the position because she had two small children. “And she hadn’t even asked me,” she says. After her initial anger, she decided to talk to the company’s CEO to tell him that she was interested in the position, and that’s how she became CEO. “We women tend not to say what we want and it’s a mistake,” she says.
There are also many women who exclude themselves. Like Rocío Puertas, the invented name of an executive who admits that she didn’t do enough to stand out in the organization where she had been working for 20 years. She is a director of a functional area of the company, she left after almost 10 years without promotion. “It was because I didn’t want to. Since sometimes you see more buts than advantages to promotion: envy arises, conflicts… In addition, she considered that she was not good enough for the position”, she says. Now Gates has been established on her own and is her own boss.
unnecessary leaks
Mayte Martínez, a partner at Talengo, maintains that covered professionals tend to generate unnecessary talent leaks. “These are company failures,” she says. Companies must bring out talent, appreciates Professor Álvarez de Mon, aware that it is not such a common subject. They have to identify it and then place it in the appropriate place in the organization. And neither slow down its rate of development nor rush it. Maite Aranzabal advises on succession plans so that the best candidates from the pool can be discovered, as well as development programs for high-potential talent, innovation and mentoring. Career development plans must be reviewed every year, something that does not always happen, according to Maite Ballester. She advises that before hiring externally, look inside the quarry.
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