Dr John Sullivan Talent Management Thought Leadership

The Olympics produce the world’s greatest talent performances, so corp. leaders should learn why. 

In a world where the very future of a corporation may now be determined by its talent density in strategic areas like AI, Quantum Computing, data security, and technology development. Benchmarking against all industries and organizations that excel at building talent density (i.e., a high concentration of top-performing employees in a strategic area) makes sense.

The Olympics is a talent magnet that arguably attracts the greatest concentration of exceptional talent at one time in one place. So, in my view, if your goal is to attract and retain a high volume of exceptional talent. It’s essential that you learn from the Olympics/Professional sports talent model. 

Yes, Corporations And The Olympics Have A Lot In Common

To the corporate cynic wondering whether they can learn much from the Olympics, I argue that ignoring their best talent practices is a huge mistake. The Olympics have a lot in common with large corporations.

To start with, like many large corporations, the International Olympic Committee is a multi-billion-dollar global business with a bottom line. Both the IOC and large corporations must produce a product that consumers want. Other similarities include talent management being the highest-impact business success factor for both.

And that’s the strategic area where the two differ the most. For example, in the Olympics, the talent management approach that they have designed is very scientific and data-driven. In direct contrast, in the corporate world, most talent management practices are still based on historical practices, intuition, hunches, and sometimes even gut reactions.

Another talent area that the IOC excels at is its employer branding. Its brand is so strong that it routinely attracts superstar athletes like Lebron, Curry, and Biles without promising any direct economic reward. Note: You can learn more about the similarities between sports and corporate talent management here and the advantages of the sports model here.

You Should Be Borrowing These Olympic Talent Management Practices

If you expect record-breaking results because of your talent density. You will have to utilize the most advanced talent management approaches from everywhere around the world. Below is my list of the key Olympic talent management practices you should consider adopting at your corporation.

• The Olympics produce record-breaking results using a scientific/data-driven talent management model – among the Olympic coaches, attracting exceptional talent and achieving top performance is seen as a science, not an art. So, the talent management practices of the Olympic talent management model are built and updated using data and metrics. And data is the basis for all important talent decision-making. For example, precise numbers clearly define winning and losing, and you can’t continue to be a champion without performance metrics to guide you. Also, everything that impacts performance is measured with numbers. For example, the performance differential numbers between competitors are the primary driver of performance improvement. Continuous improvement is also maintained by pre-testing new solutions to every factor that might impact performance. The recommended corporate action – realize that it’s finally time to end corporate talent management’s long history of treating talent management like an art. And to instead begin treating talent management as a science (the Olympics demonstrates that it is). Begin making all important talent decisions based on facts, data, and metrics. Finally, every new hire in HR should be required to demonstrate that they are data-driven. Note: you can learn more about how to adopt a data-driven HR model here.

• The Olympic model makes winning the only goal and the only thing that’s rewarded – in the Olympics, the only goal for an individual, coach, and team is winning (i.e., finishing in the top three). Subgoals like steady improvement, qualifying, and performing above expectations are only important if they directly lead to winning a medal. So, among players and coaches, winning must be the only thing that is rewarded, recognized, and celebrated. Ms. Congeniality gets no medal at the Olympics. The recommended corporate actions – first, realize that too many goals can be confusing and take away from a singular focus on winning, for example, at Apple, rather than diluting everyone’s focus by rewarding specific performance results. Employees and managers are only rewarded when their stock price goes up. So it’s essential that you produce exceptional business results that are everyone’s dominant goal. What you measure and reward gets done. It’s important that you measure, report, and heavily reward individual managers when they reach their talent management goals. Note: You can learn more about rewarding managers for great talent management results here.

• A competitive edge allows Olympic teams to continue winning – you can’t consistently come out on top during fierce competitions. If you prepare and compete the same way as your competitors. Instead, a superior alternative is to build a competitive advantage by executing all the important things in a superior way. It’s called a competitive edge, achieved by continually developing superior methods and tools that will allow your athletes and coaches to perform consistently better than their competitors. This competitive edge must be developed in athlete development and performance. However, it must also occur in the area of talent management. And, of course, each developed competitive advantage will have to be continually updated. Because most competitive secrets eventually get out. The recommended corporate action – although it’s rare in the corporate world. It is common for Olympic coaches to conduct an external competitive analysis benchmarking study to determine and eventually copy each of the tools, processes, and factors causing your chief competitors to perform so well because learning what I call “next practices” when they are just being developed will dramatically improve your chances of winning. Note: you can learn more about how to gain a competitive advantage in talent management here.

• Everyone is expected to be self-motivated – because winning takes up so much time and effort. Coaches don’t have any spare time to motivate or re-motivate their athletes. As a result, coaches only recruit and keep self-motivated, purpose-driven athletes who are laser-focused on winning. The recommended corporate action – in the corporate world, hiring managers typically spend no time scientifically identifying what motivates a candidate. So, the corporate hiring process must be modified, and being self-motivated needs to be added to the hiring criteria. Note: you can learn more about hiring self-motivated candidates here.

• No one is allowed to be a team distraction– even though some athletes for each country perform in individual events. Under the Olympic talent model, everyone on the team must be collaborative and an excellent team player. So it’s critical that no one who significantly disrupts the team or activities is allowed to remain on the team. The recommended corporate action – everyone must continuously collaborate and share with teammates in the corporate world. But also that there will be zero tolerance for toxic employees or anything that distracts or disrupts the team. You can learn about how to avoid hiring toxic employees here.

• Internal competition increases performance – many businesses purposely avoid direct internal competition between employees and teams. They fear that this practice could result in great internal strife and conflict. The Olympic’s talent management model has proven that this does not have to be true. To qualify as a team’s designated participant, you have to win multiple head-to-head internal competitions (The USA gold-winning gymnastics team is an excellent example of that competition with cooperation). The recommended corporate action – set guardrails and closely monitor internal competitions. Realize that you can minimize conflicts by rewarding competing employees who openly share best practices and collaborate with teammates.

• Olympic recruiting only targets exceptional performers (Top Grading) – the goal of each Olympic team’s coach is to recruit only exceptional performers (the top 1%) into every open position (athletes, coaches, and support staff). This practice is called top grading. Not only does restricting your recruiting to exceptional performers help build the team’s capabilities. However, the practice also helps attract other top performers because they know they will have the opportunity to learn preparation and competition tricks from an entire team of other exceptional performers. Another reason for top grading is that coaches simply don’t have time to fix and upgrade any slacking team members. The recommended corporate actions – for the corporate world, if you decide to adopt the top grading recruiting model. You must begin by prioritizing each of your high-impact jobs so that the best recruiters and most recruiting resources are focused on them. And learn from the Olympics, and give each candidate a thorough tryout (and rely less on interviews). Note: You can learn more about hiring exceptional talent and innovators here.

• In team sports, positions and players are prioritized – In Olympic talent management, each individual position on a team is prioritized so that the best-performing players are placed in positions with the most impact on winning. The recommended corporate action – in the corporate world, the talent management function needs to develop a plan for identifying and prioritizing the positions that produce exceptional business impacts when they are filled with top performers. Internal movement processes will also have to be updated to facilitate top talent placement. Note: you can learn more about position prioritization here.

• When selecting finalists and coaches, performance results are the sole selection criteria for selecting a team’s final group of Olympic competitors. Recent performance results are often the only election criterion that is used. That means that no one can be selected to compete because of their seniority, historical performance, loyalty, relationships, academic credentials, and effort. New coaches are seldom selected unless they have a proven, recent track record. The recommended corporate actions – in the corporate world, or positions where individual employee performance is already effectively quantified and measured (i.e., sales, coding, customer service). So, in these already measured positions. No one should be promoted unless they have an excellent recent track record. When promoting managers to another level, You must make it a standard practice to consider only current managers who have produced exceptional business and talent management results. That means you must also set aside other commonly used inaccurate promotional criteria like seniority, credentials, relationships, and people with whom you would like to have a beer.

Final Thoughts

A dozen years ago, I was asked to outline “The Future Of Talent Management” in a talk at Google headquarters. Then, as now, I predicted the future of talent management would follow the “sports model” because of its almost maniacal focus on winning with top talent. I continue to find that this model is to benchmark one that the corporate world should be building towards. Finally, I will acknowledge that each Olympic talent management practice adopted by the corporate world must be tweaked before it can be successfully implemented. However, those tweaks are minor when you consider the fact that these practices will likely provide you with a long-term competitive advantage in corporate talent management.

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