Helen Handfield-Jones, M.B.A.
Helen Handfield-Jones is a leading expert in leadership talent strategy and succession planning. Her mission to leverage her research and experience for the benefit of clients determined to build a stronger pool of leadership talent. Her focus is teaching senior leaders how to assess and develop their top 50-200 managers, create strategies to recruit and retain key talent, and develop the organization's next generation of leaders. She is Co-author of the book The War For Talent published by Harvard Business School Press, 2001. Articles on her research and thinking have been published in the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and The McKinsey Quarterly.
Topic Categories
- Leadership, Management
- H.R., Talent Management
- Business - Strategy
Accomplishments
- Co-leader of McKinsey & Company's groundbreaking talent research in 1997, and Senior Practice Expert with McKinsey's Organization Practice from 1994 to 2002.
- Advisor to more than forty companies around the world on talent strategies.
- Speaker on Leadership Talent Strategy at over fifty forums including Wharton's Leadership Conference and Harvard Business School Press' Burning Questions 2001 Conference.
- Recipient of the PRO Award from the International Association of Professional and Corporate Recruiters for a major contribution to the field of talent management.
- Gold medallist, MBA graduate from the Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario.
In Her Words
"It's what we've come to call a talent mindset—the passionate belief that to achieve aggressive aspirations for the business, companies must have strong talent. And to have great talent, every leader in the company must be committed to that goal. Everyone from the CEO down to the line manager must believe that talent is a top priority and hold him or herself accountable for the strength of the talent pool. This is a very different way of thinking. In most companies, talent is not a top priority. Rather, people are HR's responsibility and managers live with the talent pool they inherit. They consider talent to be only one of many levers, at best. These companies need to fundamentally shift their perspective on every leader's job."
Key Notes
Fee Range: 10,000 to 10,000 CDN Lives In: Oakville, Ontario, CanadaPresentation Titles
- Building a Strong Talent Pool --
The relentless performance pressures on companies today have given many leaders the uncomfortable sense that their leadership talent pool may not be as strong as it needs to be. But what should they do about it? Helen Handfield-Jones will provide an overview of the strategies and practical actions an organization can take to substantially strengthen its talent pool and will demonstrate the business performance improvements that can accrue as a result.
- Creative Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Talent --
Is there a particular type of talent – such as plant managers, electrical engineers, or nurses - that your organization is having trouble recruiting or retaining? Helen can help your organization think of creative new ideas for solving this kind of persistent challenge. She will help you think of ways to strengthen the employee value proposition, find people who would be attracted to the current value proposition, expand the sources of talent you recruit from, and build a more effective recruiting process. This topic can be presented as a speech or as an interactive workshop.
- Growing the Next Generation of Leaders --
As you look at the pipeline of leadership talent in your organization, do you wonder where the next generation of senior leaders will come from? Helen Handfield-Jones will present compelling research about how leaders grow, and will describe the elements of a robust leadership development strategy. She will describe the very practical things companies can do to provide richer developmental job experiences, more frequent and helpful coaching, and an effective training curriculum that builds a solid foundation.
- The Discipline of Great Talent Management --
Most leaders spend a lot of time and energy on strategic planning, operating reviews, and the budget process, but most spend very little time working on the their organization's talent pool. Leaders who realize that talent is a constraint to achieving their business aspirations do otherwise - they make talent management an important part of their own job and a core process for their company. Helen will describe how best practice leaders discuss, assess and create action plans for their top 50-200 managers, and how they differentiate between the A, B, and C performers. She will show how fundamental the talent review process is for developing people and for building the talent pool the organization needs now and in the future.