Leadership and management has been under considerable stress lately – both in the business community and in the public arena. Massive payouts to executives with less than stellar track records. Directors asleep at the wheel presiding over large scale losses and company closures. And, elected political leaders talking war with the justification of doing what's right not popular.

So, maybe it's timely against this backdrop to canvas the talents, skills and attributes that Australian firms should be fostering in their workforce, their managers and business leaders.

Firstly, let's look at some of the forces of change impacting on Australian business' quest for talent.

• In Australia and across the OECD, the workforce is aging, requiring strategy and planning for the loss of skills as this older population leaves the workforce.
• Individuals are facing dilemmas about staying employable when professional and technical competencies learnt early in a career quickly become obsolete, replaced by jobs and expertise not yet invented.
• Increasing workforce casualisation and flexible working arrangements serve to de-couple an employee's skills and learning from any single employer. Employment relationships are more likely to be temporary, fluid and dominated by short-term contracts with numerous employers and only a sporadic long term commitment to a few businesses.
• Skills and knowledge will increasingly rest with the individual, not the enterprise, and be easily transferable between different employers and job functions.
• At the same time, intangible assets like knowledge and capability, are becoming more critical to business competitiveness. To succeed, businesses must compete on the basis of their distinctive know-how, which is mostly locked into their skilled people.
• There is growing evidence that successful business leadership and management capabilities are shaped by factors other than technical job skills, namely experience, emotional intelligence, culture and the like.
• The demand for more highly skilled people will continue to increase as firms and industries grow and reinvent themselves, and as new technology-based industries emerge, e.g. in the convergence between ICT and life sciences.
• In response to the increase of knowledge in industry and the professions, generalists are likely to be replaced by specialists. This trend opens up the prospects not only of more career choices, but of new niche markets to be served by small businesses and willing entrepreneurs.
• The post-baby boom generations (the under 30's and the under 20's) are demonstrating different expectations and attitudes towards work, which will have profound implications for organising workplaces and for the performance of business enterprises. Well-equipped for high-tech work and lifelong learning, these younger workers however have little interest in their employers' needs and a strong belief that work is a means to an end to money, fun and leisure, according to a recent "The Futurist" magazine article on future trends by Cetron & Davies.

What should Australian businesses concentrate on to make the most of talent in their enterprises?

The short answer is not merely recruiting and training skilled staff, but making the enterprise a learning organisation.

It's easy to dismiss the concept of a 'learning organisation' as just the latest HR fad. But take a closer look. In an age of globalisation where continuous innovation and distinctive know-how are survival strategies, it is vital to shape enterprises that continually question and learn, and that build fresh capabilities by being adept at picking up market signals and acting on unanticipated customer needs.

An enterprise that is a learning organisation is likely to display:

• an unusual mix of technical, managerial and collaboration skills;
• the minimum amount of hierarchy needed to get results from a diverse workforce of both young entry level workers and post-retirement experienced consultants, who all thrive on challenge, opportunity and training;
• unconventional relationships with formal educational institutions, both in vocational and higher education, to constantly renew the skills available to the enterprise;
• as a result, we will see multiple and flexible workplace training offerings including mentoring and coaching on the job, university and TAFE courses that blend traditional trade skills with IT or business management competencies, and workplace-specific training that formally credits prior learning and experience; and
• effective ways of recognising and mobilising knowledge in and around the enterprise and rewarding knowledge-sharing behaviour.

The centre of attention in the quest for talent must be the organisation, not the individual.

As detailed by Bill Ford elsewhere in BOSS' mentor insights, ultimately the competitive advantage of enterprises will be their ability to learn faster than their competitors.