Abstract
Intrusion of COVID-19 has marked the beginning of a new Era. It certainly challenged the status quo and long-term vision of the organisations in the entire world together. It exerted a heavy thrust upon organizational virtues like digitalization, preparedness for unforeseen situations, protection of physical and mental health of employees, flexibility in organizational infrastructure & facilities etc. In such a situation, it would not be incorrect to say that employees are the central hub of an organisation. Giant organisations including Indian Oil Corporation Limited could survive the blow because of proactive decision making in various areas and more importantly Human Resources. With COVID-19 receding, life is getting back to normal but revamping modus operandi of human assets is the need of hour. Consequently, development of human assets to take leadership roles in their own periphery is inevitable.

Talent Management Essentials
Management is a wide term and has been defined by many experts over centuries. Some of the notable definitions of management are as follows:

“Management is a multi-purpose organ that manages business and manages managers and manages workers and work.” – Peter Ferdinand Drucker

“Management is a distinct process consisting of activities planning, organising, actuating and controlling performance to determine and accomplish objectives by use of people and other resources.” – George R. Terry

“Management is an art of knowing what you want to do and seeing that it is done in the best possible manner.” – F. W. Taylor

The basic essence of all the definitions of management is to get the work done in a pre-determined way using the tools of management to achieve pre-determined objectives.

Once organisational goals and anticipated business value have been defined, next task for an organization is to put in place an effective and strategic human resource planning to achieve those goals. This is what less precisely known as “Talent Management”. Talent Management is a vague term and experts have varying point of views regarding the functions involved in talent management. Collectively and broadly speaking, Talent Management may include functions such as talent attraction; talent acquisition; performance management; talent retention and talent development. No matter what the definition of talent management is, it must include attributes which are imperative in achievement of organisational goals and anticipated business value. Talent management functions must work to manoeuvre functions of human capital to achieve organisational goals.

Forward Leadership Planning – A desired mandate
Peter F. Drucker, also known as father of modern management, mentioned in his notable contribution – “Management by Objectives” – that employees must be involved in determining objectives. This exerts inclination towards development of leadership qualities and decision making abilities in employees.

As per the study conducted by global consulting firm DDI, organizations having strong leadership talent outperform their competitors by:

• Acting more decisively
• Navigating through complexity with greater efficiency
• Anticipating and reacting to business challenges with ease

It is said that we don’t nurture plants, rather plants nurture us. Also nurturing a plant is not a business of a day or two. It takes years to reap the fruits. In today’s volatile world where happenings of even next moment are unpredictable, the organisational vision must not just include creating the manpower to pluck the fruits but to incite a sense within the human resource to consider planting the trees. Such sense of belonging, willingness to promote sustainable development and motivation to assume the lead role is synonymously know as leadership.

Research shows that 80 percent of organizations consider leadership a high priority, but just 41 percent are ready to meet the demands of finding and developing leadership talent.

Hence, the organisations must work in the direction of leading the human assets and not just managing them. A leadership in true sense will develop future leaders and inculcate a feeling of belongingness within Human Assets which in turn will prepare them for future. In other words, creating a pool of Human resources who not only manage the existing functions but also strive to become leaders in true sense is what a future-proof organisation will contemplate.

Management vs. Leadership

Before moving on the path of creating leaders, understanding the difference between Management and Leadership is vital.

It has been rightly said that “Managers have subordinates — leaders have followers.” – Murray.

Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. —Peter Drucker

There is some overlap in the functions of Managers and Leaders but essentially both are remarkably different wherein Leadership assimilates a vision towards change. The key differences between both can be understood with following: