Managing the most Talented Talent Presented at Silicon India Leadership Summit August 05, 2010 By Vikram Shah President , NetApp India

Agenda Challenges Needs of Talented People Suggestions on Managing Talented People

NetApp Confidential - Limited Use Challenges More is expected of them and they expect more in return Are high impact but high maintenance too Are highly motivated but what motivates them can sometimes be at odds with managerial/organizational priorities and requirements Think differently and faster Bored easily Need different kinds of challenges Can deal with complexity but are complex themselves Get frustrated more readily and express themselves readily Like to put ideas into actions – right away! Troubling events at work that would merely serve as irritations to other employees can prompt stars to jump ship NetApp Confidential - Limited Use

Needs of Talented People Talented people want to be in environments that both appreciate and cultivate their talents Need to shine – visibility in the organization Sense of Accomplishment Freedom Respect

Managing Talented People Pay close attention Be generous. Call talent to others’ attention. Don’t take talented people for granted. They don’t stand still. Keep paying them close attention.  To keep your best people, then, you need to make sure they are personally committed to the goals of the organization, and that they feel those goals are worth achieving. And you need to make certain they feel they are playing a suitably significant role in reaching those goals. It is challenging to keep a high performer challenged and motivated, but come on, that’s the fun part of leadership. When you have an employee that handles every challenge you throw at them, is thirsty for development, and consistently exceeds your expectations, that’s leadership nirvana. I once heard these employees described as “self licking lollypops”. Your first task is to figure out what talents each of the people working for you have. This is not easy. It requires more than looking at their resume. Most of the important talents that people have live underneath the over processed job descriptions and functional roles most organizations have created for talented people to live in. Good managers must step back from the hierarchy, bureaucracy, and formalization, and actually see people not just for what they do, but for what they can do, that they currently are not. This includes things that they may never have had the chance to do, as well as talents that they may not have recognized themselves. Keep them committed to the goals of the organization, and that they feel those goals are worth achieving. Keep them challenged & motivated Identifying the talents in them & help them develop it

Managing Talented People Give them more flexibility Trust them Expect and help your talented people to outgrow you. Their role in the team’s success. Respected Manager to lead them Manage peer and senior level politics, Give them more flexibility in their schedules, more latitude in how they get the job done, more say in policy and strategy development, and the freedom to stay from rigid processes and rules that were probably designed to prevent poor performance Trust them… Where does trust come into all this? Trust is an essential ingredient in the greater give and take required to manage – and get the best out of – talented people Expect and help your talented people to outgrow you. The manager of talent needs to be able to cope with the fact that certain members of the team may be in some respects brighter and more able than they are - and they need to be comfortable about that. The manager of a talented team member needs to completely understand what role they play in the team's success and communicate that subtly but effectively. The manager must be respected and be the person that the talented individual is happy to be led by. While managers need to establish themselves, and manage peer and senior level politics, they also need to help establish the people on their team along with them. It’s a great thing for a manager to be seen helping new stars rise. People will say “who’s that smart woman over there?” And the answer will be “Oh, that’s Sally. She’s on John’s team”. When people see that somehow you’re able to cultivate and grow smart people, you win more acclaim than if you presented the ideas yourself.

Managing Talented People Because talent will push the boundaries, the manager often experiences a lack of role clarity, a more confused relationship than with other staff. Therefore managers have to work harder and more continuously at the relationship with their talented people Co-operation Control Autonomy Proposition: it’s not all down to the manager... Talented people have a responsibility, if they want to realize their talents fully, to recognize and engage with (though certainly not just give in to) the demands of the context they are working in. These demands include some requirement for control and co-operation. You can’t have pure autonomy. It’s only on offer if you go and work for yourself (and actually not even then!) But the manager does have a particular responsibility, which is to make sure that is understood and not to shirk the difficult discussions (too often done as managers accommodate difficult talents to placate and keep them on-side) Paying stars well keeps their turnover likelihood low, while failing to reward them for their high value inevitably, and understandably, leads stars to capitalize on their mobility. Talented people often express themselves differently. You need to talk their language Managers have to work harder and more continuously at the relationship with their talented people Co-operation Control Autonomy Proposition Paying stars well keeps their turnover likelihood low

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