Stuck in the Middle | A Generation X View of Talent Management

ISBN: 978-1-937592-05-9 (hardcover with dust-jacket)
Page Count: 188

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Our latest business and career educational title 

Part of making things happen as an individual, in your career, or as a company is taking a hard look at things and saying, “These are my flaws. These are my shortcomings. These are the self-defeating actions where I’ve shot my success in the foot.” Any person or company who says they’ve never done those things is hindering their success, ruining their achievement, and unwittingly keeping themselves stuck in the middle. The unwillingness to do a hard current state assessment is a barrier between getting what you want and continuing to lack what you need. Finding that progress gap is the secret ingredient in the magic formula for understanding what it is that you need (not necessarily what you want) and then taking the steps to get that result (which leads to what you want). Talent management is indeed a business imperative to build and grow a successful organization … but more importantly it is also a personal imperative for professionals to build successful careers.

When people don’t employ personal talent management in the way of owning their own succession plan; when companies and organizations don’t build and sustain an integrated talent management strategy; they remain stuck in the middle; somewhere between who they are and who they want to be. How to get unstuck, how to break free from the middle is what individuals and organizations often don’t understand.  That critical understanding (and ability to take action on it to improve your situation) is what you’ll find in this book as told through the eyes of a member of Generation X.

From the author:

I think the best way to teach is to provide examples… preferably real and not hypothetical ones constructed purely for the sake of answering a question. Real experience. Real events. Real decisions… with real outcomes. ‘What I did, why I did it, and what happened next’ kind of examples. That is how I’ve approached this book you have in your hands. There will be some , what I feel are astute, Generation X observations on life and certainly on career at it relates to talent management but these are only part of what I want to share with you. I meet a lot of people who, like me, are Gen Xers who are trying to figure out “How do I make it in corporate America?” I have had career success and reached fairly senior positions for ‘someone of my age’ with more than one Fortune 100 company. So people come to me and ask, “What does it take to get to where you are?” How did I do it? Did I have to sell my soul, strike a deal with the devil, or some different compromising scenario that was traded in an effort for quick success?

And then I tell them my career story, which you will find in this book. It is a story steeped in my passion to help organizations solve the dilemma of how and when to buy, build, or borrow the talent they need, while not losing focus on running their business today. This story and the same passion will speak to individuals as well and give them insights and actionable advice on applying proven talent management principles to improve the trajectory of their own careers.