Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #331

The project-driven organization, not waiting for formal talent practices to make talent decisions, fueling performance through employee wellbeing, internal mobility, and how Chief HR Officers can support Boards with CEO succession.

Author

Brian Heger
January 18, 2026

PRESENTED BY

Welcome to this issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Jayson Komp, VP, Human Resources at Waupaca Foundry, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Jayson, for your support of this newsletter!

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My private community for internal HR practitioners

If you’re part of my private community for internal HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, we have two upcoming discussions you won’t want to miss.

On Wed, Jan. 21, we’ll host a hot seat discussion on workforce planning. Then, on Jan. 28, Marc Effron from the Talent Strategy Group will join us for a 90-min discussion on performance management. I’m looking forward to both of these practitioner-based discussions to help you advance your talent priorities!

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, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform (subscription-based), where I track hires, promotions, and exits in the Chief HR Officer role.

 ⬇️ Now let’s dive in!

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

TALENT MANAGEMENT

A companion resource to my cheat sheet with seven talent questions, adding indicators leaders can use to identify and act on talent decisions in real time.

Talent reviews and performance management are important talent practices that enable organizational performance. However, a common pitfall is treating these practices as scheduled process events, often confined to a specific time of year, rather than ongoing opportunities for proactive reflection and action. To promote this shift, I recently shared one of my cheat sheets with seven high-impact questions leaders can use to accelerate talent decisions at any moment, focused on areas such as upgrading talent in a critical role, identifying top retention risk, surfacing hidden talent, addressing ongoing subpar performance, creating stretch development, and unlocking workforce capacity. That resource helps leaders move from insight to action, where many talent efforts stall. To build on that cheat sheet, I’m sharing a complementary view to help identify which of those seven question areas present the greatest opportunity to act now. This view introduces sample indicators that signal where focus is most needed. For example, for Talent Upgrade in a Critical Role, the original question asks whether a critical role is filled by the best possible person, and what the next step should be taken. The added indicators include: A) There are known internal candidates who would likely outperform the incumbent, and B) If the role were vacant tomorrow, we would likely select a different and stronger candidate. These indicators help pinpoint where opportunities exist, and even one signal can highlight a talent decision that needs to be made.

ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Covers how organizations can unlock the full potential of project work by moving beyond an operational mindset; plus one of my cheat sheets to support execution.

Many organizations are increasingly moving toward becoming project-driven, where project-based work sits at the center of how companies are structured and how value is created. Yet, as Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez notes in his article, too many organizations approach projects with an operational mindset that prioritizes hierarchy, control, stability, and efficiency. To unlock the value of complex project work at scale, we need to go beyond an operational mindset, which requires a shift in three main areas: 1) Organizational Design (shifting culture, structure, and governance), 2) Leadership (rethinking how priorities are set, talent is deployed, and performance is measured), and 3) Value Creation (changing how operations and execution enable fast, high-impact project delivery). While insights and examples are provided for each of the three areas, one I want to reinforce deals with lever 2 - Leadership, specifically related to how projects are prioritized and talent and resources are deployed against those areas. This is why I’m resharing one of my templates and posts that helps leaders make explicit project and resource trade-offs, so fewer, higher-value projects get prioritized and talent and decision-making are aligned to what matters most. This becomes even more critical as many organizations invest in internal talent marketplace tech, where projects are a primary source of work demand, and leadership prioritization determines whether that demand translates into real value.

EMPLOYEE WELLBEING & PERFORMANCE

Synthesizes evidence from 115 workplace wellbeing approaches to identify high-impact, feasible practices that improve employee well-being and performance.

Employee health and wellbeing are recognized as important for many reasons, including their role in enabling organizational performance. Yet many organizations have far less clarity on which practices most improve employee wellbeing while also strengthening performance outcomes. A new analysis from the McKinsey Health Institute helps close that gap by systematically reviewing 115 evidence-based workplace approaches. These approaches are organized across four dimensions of health, physical, mental, social, and spiritual, and evaluated using published academic evidence to assess their impact on health and work outcomes such as productivity, presenteeism, engagement, and innovation, along with feasibility based on ease of adoption, scalability, and ability to embed into daily work. The research is paired with an interactive tool (see post image) that allows practitioners to filter and compare wellbeing practices by health dimension, workforce objective, organizational level, and impact versus feasibility. One point I continue to emphasize for improving both employee wellbeing and organizational performance is ways of working. Ineffective ways of working, such as slow decision-making or unclear ownership, often compound and undermine both employee wellbeing and organizational performance. Against this backdrop, I’m resharing my recent post and one-page template to help leaders pinpoint which ways of working could detract from their 2026 objectives. Acting early helps unlock a combined wellbeing and performance advantage.

INTERNAL MOBILITY

My one-page PDF highlights internal mobility considerations, from manager behaviors that get in the way of talent movement to metrics for measuring progress.

According to LinkedIn’s Workforce Learning Report 2025, more than 48% of organizations are making internal mobility a higher priority this year, reflecting a renewed push to develop and move talent from within. As HR practitioners help their organizations actually mobilize internal mobility, I’ve created a one-page PDF that highlights four areas that can be used to identify opportunities for unlocking mobility: 1) Manager behaviors that get in the way of talent movement, 2) Policies that unintentionally minimize talent sharing, 3) Organizational barriers that limit access and visibility to opportunities, and 4) Internal mobility metrics that help track progress. Regarding internal mobility metrics, one example included is Net Exporter of Talent, defined as the extent to which a leader or department develops more high-performing employees who move on to roles elsewhere in the organization. This metric is important because it highlights where a philosophy of talent sharing is truly practiced versus where talent hoarding may be occurring, helping organizations better target subsequent actions and strategies. The goal of this cheat sheet is to help you identify where internal movement is getting stuck and where targeted changes can unlock faster, more effective talent mobility across the organization.

CHIEF HR OFFICER & BOARD

A new article that clarifies what boards value most in CEO candidates, offering practical insight for Chief HR Officers supporting the process.

I previously shared an article from Russell Reynolds Associates on why CHROs are playing a more active role in CEO succession. For CHROs already supporting boards with CEO assessment and selection, a new article from Boston Consulting Group adds a practical lens on what boards actually value—and how early candidates need to prepare. The article highlights three areas boards consistently assess: 1) how candidates run the business (a repeatable performance record, sound strategic judgment, and increasingly, evidence of AI-driven value creation), 2) how they lead people (building teams, developing talent, and retaining key leaders through change), and 3) how they show up with the right balance of humility and gravitas in high-stakes settings. It also shows how expectations shift across three time horizons (five years out, three years out, and during the selection process), reinforcing a critical implication for CHROs: CEO succession is not a last-mile evaluation exercise, but a multi-year capability-building effort that requires intentional role design, exposure, feedback, and development well before the board is making a decision. And in case you missed it, I’m resharing a 25-page report from the CHRO Association (formerly HR Policy Association) and the Center for Executive Succession, CEO Succession: 10 Pitfalls Boards Must Avoid—and the CHRO Practices That Help, which complements this perspective by highlighting where boards most often stumble and how CHROs can proactively reduce risk.

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