Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #306

Scenario planning, optimizing talent and financial resource to drive performance, elevating manager and direct report 1:1 discussions, skills-based talent practices, and the costs of ineffective leadership.

Author

Brian Heger
July 13, 2025

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Welcome to this week’s issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

A shout-out to Annie Bergeron, Talent Management Operations Specialist at General Motors, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Annie, for your support of this newsletter!

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THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, you can read the full newsletter.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week.

Let’s dive in! ⬇️

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

SCENARIO PLANNING

Offers guidance to conduct more effective scenario planning—a critical capability for both business and workforce planning.

Last week, I shared my one-page cheat sheet on how scenario planning (SP) can help organizations strengthen strategic workforce planning (SWP) by preparing for multiple possible futures—not just a single expected one. My cheat sheet included questions to explore different business scenarios, their talent implications, and any shared or distinct talent themes. This week, I came across a new article that reinforces the value of SP and offers insights on constructing more expansive and plausible business scenarios. One point mentioned: beware of overindexing on short-term signals when developing and planning for possible futures. In uncertain times, leaders may overreact to headlines or social media posts, treating them as definitive indicators when they may be temporary or incomplete. Instead, leaders should view new developments as one data point in a broader pattern, revising assumptions based on emerging evidence, a method known as Bayesian updating. To support scenario planning, I’m also sharing a new report by the World Economic Forum, Four Scenarios for the Future of Travel and Tourism. While industry-specific, it provides useful insights and examples for constructing effective scenarios. Question: Can you explain—at least directionally—how your workforce planning and supporting tactics (e.g., buy, build, borrow, bot) would need to shift under different business scenarios? 

ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

My template to help identify opportunities to redeploy resources—talent and financial— to high-priority areas.

Now that we’re well into the second half of 2025, it’s a good time for managers, leaders, and individual contributors to revisit their goals and consider how to accelerate progress for the remainder of the year. A few weeks ago, I shared my one-page infographic outlining practical actions that each of these employee segments can take to realign and drive momentum on 2025 objectives. One key action for leaders, managers, and others responsible for managing resources—such as budget or talent—is ensuring those resources are effectively allocated to the most critical priorities. To help, my one-page worksheet enables leaders to evaluate key factors for resource deployment by: 1) listing ongoing projects or initiatives, 2) prioritizing them based on stakeholder value and strategic alignment, 3) tracking status (e.g., on track, behind, completed), 4) noting budget utilization (e.g., $25K used of a $100K budget = 25%), and 5) assessing talent deployment (e.g., 3 of 4 team members utilized = 75% utilization). This information supports better resource decisions and can help optimize performance in the months ahead. While the tool is simple, it can prompt valuable conversations that lead to more impactful outcomes.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

My one-page cheat sheet to unlock opportunities for getting more value from 1:1 performance check-in discussions.

One of the most overlooked components of effective performance management (PM) is the quality of regular 1:1 discussions between managers and their direct reports. While technology, processes, and tools are important enablers, they can’t compensate for the gaps caused by ineffective conversations. It’s these discussions that clarify priorities, remove roadblocks, and build momentum. Even small missed opportunities in 1:1s can quietly compound over time and undermine performance. To help, my one-page cheat sheet includes eight key areas, each with a reflection question for managers and their direct reports. For each area, there’s a brief note on why it matters and a practical tactic to improve it. A few questions include: Are your 1:1s consistently happening, or do they get skipped? Are you focusing on what matters most—performance, priorities, and development? Have you discussed whether your cadence and format still work? Do you leave with clear next steps? While the fundamentals of PM may not feel exciting, executing them consistently and effectively often makes the biggest difference. Even experienced leaders may have untapped opportunities to elevate their 1:1s. Use the cheat sheet to spark a candid discussion and drive stronger performance outcomes in the months ahead.

SKILLS-BASED TALENT PRACTICES

A 35-minute presentation by Ravin Jesuthasan at the 2025 Wharton People Analytics Conference explores how organizations can adopt skills-based talent practices.

As organizations implement skills-based talent practices, many are reimagining how work is structured—shifting from rigid job titles to more flexible, skills-powered approaches. In this 35-minute session from the 2025 Wharton People Analytics Conference, future of work expert and The Skills-Powered Organization: The Journey to the Next-Generation Enterprise co-author Ravin Jesuthasan shares research-based insights, actionable frameworks, and real-world case studies. While there are too many insights to fully capture here, around the 12-minute mark, he introduces four core principles of the new skills-based operating system: 1) start with the work—focusing on current and future tasks rather than predefined jobs; 2) achieve the optimal combination of humans and automation; 3) consider the full array of human work engagements—including employment, gig, freelance, alliances, and project-based work; and 4) allow talent to flow to work, rather than being limited to fixed, traditional roles. He shares practical ideas for how applying these principles can help organizations build more dynamic talent models, unlock workforce potential, and drive stronger performance in a rapidly evolving environment.

LEADERSHIP

New research (not yet peer-reviewed) explores the hidden organizational costs of ineffective leadership—ranging from direct financial losses to cultural impacts.

A new (yet-to-be peer-reviewed) study introduces the concept of the "Total Cost of Difficult Leaders" (TCDL) to estimate the full organizational burden of ineffective leadership behaviors. Using a mixed-methods approach and data gathered from 42 organizations over a 12-year span (2011–2023), the researchers quantified how problematic leaders affect company performance across three dimensions: 1) direct financial costs such as turnover, absenteeism, and legal risk; 2) operational costs including lower innovation, poor decision-making, and weakened collaboration; and 3) cultural costs related to toxic behavior modeling, loss of trust, and reputational harm. The longitudinal findings suggest that a single underperforming leader can cost an organization anywhere from 1.75 to over 10 times their salary annually, with an average impact of 8.7 times compensation (SD = 4.3) for mid-level leaders. While the authors offer practical suggestions for identifying and addressing these risks, they also caution that broader application may be limited by contextual differences, cultural variability, and the challenge of proving causality. The appendix includes several resources, such as the full leadership survey used in the study, interview questions for direct reports about their leaders, and exit interview prompts related to leadership experiences.

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

SUCCESSION PLANNING

My one-page cheat sheet helps practitioners explore succession planning (SP) from four angles to support a more deliberate approach to SP.

This cheat sheet includes four components: 1) SP Questions – A set of 10 questions to help organizations clarify their approach, such as determining the scope of succession planning (what roles they will focus on) and how they will assess successor readiness to assume a targeted role; 2) SP Metrics – A list of 12 metrics, including the percentage of non-ready-now successors with a development plan and the success rate of successors after assuming the role; 3) Trigger Events for Reassessment – Nine examples of events that may warrant a reassessment of succession plans, such as shifts in business strategy, organizational transformation, or successor turnover; and 4) High-Impact Development Role Audit – Four starter questions to help determine when it may be time to move someone out of a high-impact development role—particularly when their continued presence limits opportunities for others in the pipeline.

JOB CUTS AND LAYOFF TRACKER

Check out my tracker of announcements from a segment of organizations that have conducted job cuts and layoffs since the start of 2023.

A few job cuts announced this past week:

  • Indeed and Glassdoor. Recruit Holdings, the parent of Indeed and Glassdoor, will reduce headcount by around 1,300 across the two job sites amid a shift in focus toward AI. The cuts — representing about 6% of the HR tech segment workforce — are mostly in the U.S. and within the R&D, growth, and people and sustainability teams, but span all functions and several countries.

  • Intel Corp (NASDAQ: INTC). The struggling chipmaker disclosed it is cutting more than 500 jobs in Oregon—part of a broader layoff plan expected to impact roughly 20% of its workforce. 

  • Telstra Group (ASX: TLS). Australia’s largest telecom operator announced plans to cut 550 jobs—less than 2 % of its workforce—as part of a structural overhaul of its enterprise division and other organizational units.

Click here to access all listed announcements.

CHIEF HR OFFICER MOVE OF THE WEEK

This past week, 10 new Chief HR Officer announcements were posted on CHROs on the Go, my subscription-based platform tracking movement in and out of the CHRO role. This week’s CHRO move of the week is:

  • Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (FORT WAYNE, INDIANA) [NASDAQ: FELE]—a global manufacturer and distributor of systems and technologies for moving and protecting the world's most critical resources: water, fuel, and electricity—announced that Daniela Williams will join its executive leadership team as Chief Human Resources Officer. Williams joins Franklin Electric from the automotive technology firm Visteon Corporation, where she served as VP People and Culture for the last three and a half years of her almost seven-year tenure with the company. ​

🔓️ Never miss another Chief HR Officer announcement!

CHROs on the Go has over 4,000 archived announcements in its online platform, with new announcements added daily!

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FROM ME ON LINKEDIN

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THE BEST OF JUNE 2025

SPONSORED BY

Did you miss the “Best of June ” issue of Talent Edge Weekly? If so, check out issue #304, which includes 18 of the most popular resources from the month.

Thank you to our sponsor, TechWolf, who sponsored the Best of June.

Listen to this podcast to see how TechWolf is helping organizations to build a skills-based talent foundation powered by AI.

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Talent Edge Weekly is written by Brian Heger, a human resources practitioner. You can connect with Brian on Linkedin and brianheger.com