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Talent leadership to boost UAE’s base for long-term sustainability

Dubai is set to host a power-packed one-day conference, “Talent leadership: A proven method for developing leaders and future leaders” on November 20.

The event, organised by Innoverto, will be led by John Mattone, widely regarded as one of the most influential leadership and talent management authorities in the world. “It is an honour and privilege for me to be coming to the UAE to present Talent leadership. I will be sharing the results of my recent talent management and leadership global study in which we interviewed and surveyed over 150 CEOs from a variety of global companies,” Mattone said in an interview with Khaleej Times.

“The operating issue faced by CEOs is not competition, technology and innovation challenges, branding and economics. It is the lack of current and future leadership depth. Our most recent findings are no different than the findings we have had with this study since 2004,” he said.

“I will provide the people of the UAE with detailed ‘how-to’s’ for strengthening how they select and promote leaders and future leaders, strengthening how they engage, motivate and inspire leaders and future leaders, and share ideas on how they should reward the best of the best in terms of performance, potential and readiness to assume higher-level roles.”

He said the global research is clear, and there is compelling UAE research as well that organisations that excel in talent management practices outperform their competition, drive higher operating success, and can provide a nation — the UAE with a strong foundation for long-term sustainability.

“As I will discuss in our programme, it has always been about talent; it will always be about talent.” Mattone, who has over 30 years of experience in the fields of executive development and human capital management, and as an entrepreneur who has built two successful human capital consulting firms, said: “To bring out the best talent in the UAE, there must be a mindset shared by everyone that talent is the differentiator in any organisation. The talent management systems and processes must be aligned with the strategic goals and direction of the business. In the UAE, it appears that many organisations offer financial rewards to attract and reward talent; yet, it is clear from local studies that this is a mistake.”

“The workforce in the UAE is diverse and young. Organisations that outperform their competition are much better at offering development opportunities as opposed to money to attract and reward talent and also they are much better at accurately measuring and rewarding performance.”

Asked in a talent pool like the UAE, what are the parameters to encourage human resources to boost morale in a working environment, he said: “The younger talent in the UAE — future leaders of UAE businesses — want to be grown and developed as leaders. Offering exciting positions with compelling on-the-job development combined with executive coaching and mentoring will be pivotal if organisations expect to retain and develop their future leaders. If leaders and future leaders of the UAE can go forward every day committed to strengthening their own inner-core and learning the skills of great leadership, their own success as well of the success of their own organisations will be guaranteed.”

— sandhya@khaleejtimes.com