The BusinessWeek article You Can Lead. But Can You Inspire? offers 10 attributes of successful leaders. This is an important distinction. There are fundamental differences between a manager and a leader. While leaders influence, inspire, and drive people, the role of a manager is keeping day-to-day operations running smoothly.

Peter Drucker made the distinction this way, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." and he acknowledged that “Leaders are not born, they are grown.” Employee development must reflect these differences and manage both sets of skills.

To identify, attract, fill, and retain your leadership talent, you need leadership development programs focused on hiring strategies, employee development, and career and succession planning.

Learn how developing effective leadership using a consistent talent management program at all levels across the organization can return significant business value in the Taleo Research paper, Seven Steps for Effective Leadership Development.

DiversityInc has published The 2010 DiversityInc Top 50 List and we can see that talent management is making a difference for these companies. This tenth annual competition is objective and based on a survey of more than 200 questions that paint by numbers what can be considered a picture of a company’s culture.

How do we know they are transforming corporate culture through talent practices and systems? Six of the top ten and more than half of the top 50 practice talent management because they are Taleo customers.

Now that diversity has been quantified a winning talent strategy, it’s gone from nice to have to need to have. Diversity proof points show that programs deliver business returns in leadership and on a global scale.

The key finding in CareerXroads 9th Annual Source of Hire Study: Meltdown in 2009 and What It Means for a 2010 Recovery isn’t about new hires at all. In a significant increase over 2008, Internal Transfers and Promotions were the source of 51% of ALL the F/T positions companies filled on average.

INTERNAL MOVEMENT

As the economy improves and hiring increases, this will likely be seen as an anomaly, not as a trend. Study findings on external hire sources list referrals as the number one source (26.7%). The corporate career site is in second position and accounts for nearly one-quarter (22.3%) of new hires.

2009 EXTERNAL SOURCES OF HIRE

We know there’s no lack of candidates using those career sites: 200 million candidates have applied to jobs via corporate career sites powered by Taleo's online recruitment solutions. Nearly 30% of those applicants—tracked since Taleo pioneered the online recruiting market in 1999—have applied through Taleo in the past 12 months.

Get the inside track on how career sites can be more than just a hiring portal in a webcast: Ready, Set, Go: Utilizing Technology Strategy to Increase New Hire Productivity on Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 12:00 p.m. ET / 9:00 a.m. PT.

A number of studies indicate job growth as organizations around the world emerge from recession mode in 2010.

But these optimistic trends are tempered by expectations of a rocky road. PricewaterhouseCooper’s 13th Annual Global CEO Survey further concludes:
Highly skilled still globally in demand
Specialists remain in demand, and many parts of the world are still struggling to attract and keep talent. Over the long term, businesses may live to regret the drastic headcount reduction they have made during the downturn.

The Conference Board CEO Challenge 2010 Survey found CEOs appear to be emerging from recession mode and priming for a return to growth…but The Conference Board cautions: U.S. Labor Market Faces Bumpy Road from Recession to Recovery.

It seems that One Ambivalent Economy + Many Cautious Employers = One Difficult Job Market in which “…job seekers will have to be more flexible, willing to take short-term assignments or relocate to places where jobs are plentiful.”

This all points to the need for agility for both jobseekers and corporations as we move Toward a Flexible Staffing Model. Consolidating recruiting and performance processes will provide more intelligent workforce insights for a clear view of the outlook ahead.

CIPD Next Generation HR research finds potential of a bright future, but challenges the HR profession to raise its sights to deliver on true potential. Among its recommendations:
Put true, game-changing insight at the heart of its work. Introducing the concept of ‘organisational insight’ – the combination of real business ‘savvy’ and a deep appreciation of the people, political and cultural factors that determine ‘what really goes on around here’ – the report unpicks the capacity of HR to offer unique solutions to the challenges of building organisations that last.

More tactical is step four in 5 Steps for Agility in a Volatile Economy which prescribes: Implement an integrated performance management system that supports a culture of coaching accountability and development.

I am pleased to be listed among the Top 25 Influencers in Online Recruiting and hope that the research cited on this Taleo blog helps you improve the recruiting and talent management practices in your organization.

Obviously, learning from data-driven sources about best practices and processes for recruiting is valuable. However, one of the overarching key messages here is the place recruiting and talent management deserves in the more general context of business management.

Much can be learned from business gurus, academia, and strategic improvisation that can be actionable for talent management, as well as more broadly instructive about the global economic marketplace and business landscape where we all compete. The greater the knowledge and insight we have, the better we can do the work that powers our companies to succeed and pull up a seat at the executive table.

Here’s a great resource: The Thinkers 50, a biennial list of the most influential living management thinkers. You can leverage their wisdom to enhance your development as a talent management professional and expand your influence in your own organization.